On a Wednesday in September, just weeks ago, we received our Referral Acceptance, the official document from China that essentially says, “Will you accept this child as a part of your family?” With shaky hands, we carefully filled out the form, checking the box that says, “Yes,” making certain everything was right, and mailed it back along with a lot of other documents. Now, a coordinated series of events happens over the next eight to twelve weeks, where both United States (US) and Chinese governments work together to issue visas and travel authorizations for the two of us and our new son, Elijah.
What still needs to happen? Here’s an abbreviated list:
1. We submit an I-800 application, requesting Elijah’s US visa, to the National Benefits Center (NBC), a division of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the US Department of Homeland Security.
2. The NBC approves the I-800 three to five weeks later and mails an approval letter to the National Visa Center (NVC), which handles visa pre-processing.
3. The NVC sends approval to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. Five to ten days later, approval is sent to us. We forward it to our agency.
4. We submit an online DS260 application, Immigrant Visa Application, to the US State Department. Supplemental information we submitted earlier is added.
5. The US Consulate receives and approves our DS260 and sends an “Article 5” approval notice to the Chinese government two to three weeks later.
6. The Chinese government sends our Travel Approval (TA) two to four weeks later.
7. Janet and I travel to China two to four weeks after receiving our TA. We spend approximately two weeks in country, learning about the culture, getting to know Elijah, and finalizing adoption requirements at the US Consulate.
8. We fly home and start life as a new family of five.
In the meantime, we’re racing to finish all the stuff that needs to be done to make our home perfect for Elijah. We have to paint bedrooms, put together a crib, and sort out all the bins with those little boy clothes we saved. We hope to learn a little bit of Chinese, so we’re able to speak to our son, even though he’s young enough that he’ll probably pick up English quickly. I’m hoping the little bit of Chinese I learned in college will come back. I’m also hoping the body weight I was in college will come back… but that’s not likely. And we need to raise the funds to travel and complete the adoption. It’ll be a busy fall but exhilarating because each day brings us closer to Elijah and we can’t wait.