Now What?

Now that we are no longer stuck with immigration I've had several people ask "now what!?!?"  

It's a complicated and quite confusing process from here on out so I thought it deserved its own blog post.  

I will do my best to break it down for you!  

When Immigration issued us an approval they mailed a copy to us and a copy to the National Visa Center.  The National Visa Center will put the approval in their system and forward our paperwork to the US Consulate in China.  Once this is done the NVC will issue us a confirmation number.  

Once we have that number we can then fill out an electronic form called the DS-260.  This will complete our paperwork until we are in China!!! (HIP-HIP-HORRAY!!!) I am hoping to be able to complete this form within the next week.  Once the DS-260 is complete our agency will send all of our paper work to the US Consulate in China.  

At the Consulate they will review ALL the paper work and ensure it meets the proper standards.  Hopefully they will then issue us our approval.   It is called Article 5 and is #11 on the chart.  It typically takes about two weeks.  The Article 5 is then forwarded to the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption….step #12). 

After a few more weeks the CCCWA will issue a Travel Invitation (step 13)!!!!!  Once we have the Travel Invitation our agency will schedule an appointment for us to have our visa interviews at the Consulate….then they will book our flights!!!  

If everything runs smoothly it is very possible for us to be traveling in October.  However there are several factors that could affect our travel time.  China will be celebrating national holidays in a few weeks and this could slow things down.  Also, our agency typically books one travel group per month depending on how many families across the US are ready to travel.  We are hoping and praying that we can travel in October but also aware that it could be November before we leave.  Thank you so much for following our crazy journey and for all your love and support!!! We cannot wait to go get our boy!!!!!!!!