Vietnam Adoption News from CHI

Dear Vietnam Family

Here is the latest update from our Vietnam Director:

Chuc Mung Nam Moi – Happy New Year!!! The lunar New Year is not until February 7, 2008 this year but our staff in Vietnam joined us in celebrating our New Year as well!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and got some rest!!! Things in Vietnam are gradually beginning to slow down. Usually during this time of the year, we do see things slowing down as we approach the Lunar New Year holiday. It is a VERY big celebration in Vietnam and everyone begins preparing during this time of the year.

We are happy to announce that we did receive referrals this week. The first referral is of a 3 ½ month old little girl from Tam Binh 2 orphanage in HCMC. The other referrals we received this week were of sibling boys. The boys are 2 ½ and 4 ½ years old. If you are interested in these sibling boys please Email or contact your branch contact or Nicky for more information. I will wait until the end of the day on Friday to decide which family these boys will be offered to. I will go in order as the families are on the dossier list. Please remember that you must be approved for 2 children both in your home study AND on your I-171H approval form in order to adopt these siblings. They are just adorable and in need of a home.

We do hope to receive more referrals before the Tet holiday. There are not currently any families in Vietnam, but we are hoping some will travel soon. Several families already have G&R dates but are still waiting for their CIS approval from USCIS in Vietnam. The new procedure of filing the I-600 in country before the family travels seems to be taking longer than originally estimated by USCIS. The first families did receive their approvals in about 3-4 weeks but now we have some families that have waited 6 weeks and still doesn’t have their approval. We have been told by the USCIS that they have received so many I-600’s and they are understaffed and not able to process them as quickly as previously. So this is holding families up from traveling. We hope after the holidays they are able to catch up and once again process them in a timely manner.

We did release more families to begin on their dossier this week. The list was sent out to all branch directors and adoption consultants. So your local office will be contacting you if it is time to start on your dossier. Please remember that just because you are putting your dossier together, this doesn’t mean that a referral is coming in the near future. The wait times remain the same but our goal is to keep about 100 dossiers submitted in Hanoi at the DIA this year at all times. The next family in line for an infant girl has waited 19 months and for an infant boy 17 months. We do expect these wait times to continue to increase in 2008.

We are looking forward to a busy and productive new year!!! We are looking forward to continuing to find many homes for those children in need in Vietnam!!!