Assemble Initial Dossier: While we wait for our home-study and our BCIS forms to be prepared and approved, we start yet another pile of forms to fill out in duplicate, get notarized, and send to the State of Washington to be apostilled (adoption-speak for authenticated).

      Application to Russian Department of Education for referral of children

       Questionnaire form

       Home Study with Photo-essay

      Copy of license of Home-Study Agency

       Post-placement report verification letter from Home-Study Agency

       2 copies of identifying page of each applicant's passport

       2 copies Marriage certificates

      Agreement to register child with Russian Embassy

      Agreement to provide post-adoption reports   

 

Get Initial Dossier notarized: make sure notary license will not expire prior to court finalization

Send Dossier to Washington State for Apostilles: make sure documents are bound on the upper left .  Documents bound on the upper right will not be accepted in Russian court.

Dossier to AIA: Our assembled apostilled dossier then travels to Alaska for further processing.

Paperwork to Russia: Our assembled apostilled dossier then travels to Russia for translation and for filing with the Russian Ministry of Education.  If they deem us worthy, they send us a referral, usually within four months of receipt.

Receive Referral: The Russia ministry in charge of orphans, which is in transition right now, will refer to us children that match our requested age, sex, etc. that are available for adoption in an area in which our agency is accredited.  We are requesting a boy and a girl under 5 years old.

This process takes from one  to four months.  When we receive our referral, we also receive an invitation to travel to Russia, which is required for gaining a visa.

AIA works in several areas of Russia and, based on the current caseload in different areas, availability of children, etc., has recommended that we pursue adoption in the area of Khabarovsk which is on the Amur River in Siberia.  The city of Khabarovski is approximately at the same latitude as Bellingham, though it is inland, so it has winters similar to Eastern Washington, Montana, North Dakota etc.  If you research Khabarovsk you will find a fine variety of spellings.  Khabarovsk City is sister city to Victoria B.C. and to Portland Oregon (more info).  It is pronounced Hah-BAR-osk.

 

Khaborovski flag

 

What time is it there?  Add 17 hours to Pacific time. 

If you are looking at this at noon Pacific time, it is 5 a.m. tomorrow morning in Khabarovsk time.

 

Khabarovsk Links:

Lots of Khabarovsk Pictures, New Khabarvosk pictures 

Amur River Pictures, People Pictures, Food and Trinkets

Misc Info: Flights, etc., Webcam of Khabarovsk

New Khabarovsk information links

maps courtesy of Encarta

Review Referral: We will receive photos, videos, and medical reports (translated into English) on our referred children.  We will send this info to the The Center for Adoption Medicine at the University of Washington Pediatric Care Center for review.  We expect that our future children will have grief and loss issues, but if there are additional major medical concerns, we would prefer to know about them in advance.  The doctors at the Center are international adoption specialists and can more easily recognize problematic conditions such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.  We have the option of declining the referral and getting back in the queue for a second referral.

Immunizations: Hepatitis, Tetanus booster, Polio booster, prescriptions we may need while we are in Russia.

Procure Visas: If the referrals look promising we apply for visas for Russia and arrange for our trip.

Agency Reaccredidation:  Every business in Russia gets re-licensed (aka reaccredited) annually.  Back in December, the powers-that-be reassigned to a new authority the responsibility for reaccrediting adoption agencies.  During the time period of the transfer of responsibility, many agencies' annual reaccrediting date came and went.  Because the agencies were without accreditation through no fault of their own, they were issued Letters of Good-Standing and regional courts could choose to accept these letters, nor not, as they saw fit.  Our region has been accepting the Letter of Good-Standing and adoption have been proceeding normally.  However, the Prosecutor General of all of Russia has declared the Letters of Good-Standing as insufficient, so we must now await formal reaccredidation before we can go on our first trip.

Trip One: about one week: We meet the children at the orphanage.  Some orphanages only allow 2-3 half-hour visits over a five day span.  Others allow much more.  We won't know until we get there.  While we are there we sign our intent-to-adopt paperwork and then come home.  If the Russian powers that be still deem us worthy, we are sent notice of this.  This is reported to be a 3 month wait.

Assemble More Dossier Papers:

  Letter from Tax Assessor

  State Patrol Clearances

  FBI Clearances

  New Employment Letter for Jamie

  New I-171-H from BCIS

  Application to Regional Court

  Acknowledgment of Medical Conditions

  Power of attorney for representative in Russia

  I-171H from BCIS

  Letters from employer(s) stating position and salary

  Financial form

  Police Certificates showing no criminal record

  Proof of home ownership

  Two complete sets (schedules, etc.) of last 3 years US tax returns

  Passports and copies of information pages

  Another copy of the Home-study

Receive court date from Khabarovsk: When the Khabarovsk judge says "Fly", we'll fly.  They decree the day.  We appear.  Three weeks notice seems to be the norm, though we know of folks who were told on Tuesday that they were flying out on Thursday.  Yikes.

Procure Visas Again

Trip Two: up to three weeks: Once we receive the go ahead, we go back to fetch up our children, formally petition the court for permission to adopt, hang out with our new family in a hotel for ten days, are approved, procure new birth certificates that have our names on them and a Russian passport for them and then go to Moscow. 

 

There the kids have quick medical examinations and we apply at the US Consulate  with our I-600 forms which allow us to get visas for Russian passports of the newest Chandlers.  In Moscow, we also register the children with the Russian consulate, so that the Russian government can keep track on the children they allow to be adopted abroad.   Then we head home, home at last.