[sak9645]

This is probably not going to be easy.

As I understand it, the three month fostering period cannot begin until you have an approved I-600A, which makes sense because Zambia is not going to want to put a child in your home unless it can be sure that you are safe and decent people and that you are likely to be able to bring the child to the U.S. You cannot get an approved I-600A until you have an approved homestudy.

Remember that your permanent or long-term residence is not in Zambia; you are just there for a short period of time (only 8 more months). Therefore, your homestudy will almost certainly have to be done in your U.S. state of residence, rather than in Zambia. You will have to be living there for it to occur, since you will have to meet with a social worker licensed by your state at least two or three times, with at least one of the visits at your home. You will also need a lot of U.S. documents that will be hard to obtain while overseas, such as a clearance from the police in your state or locality.

The combination of the homestudy process and the I-600A process could easily take you six months, depending on your state of residence. Some states have a lot of requirements for the homestudy, such as preadoption classes, fire marshal inspections, and so on. And some USCIS offices take 4 months or more to process I-600As.

At that point, the Central Adoption Authority in Zambia will first begin to identify a child for you, and then the Ministry of Social Welfare will consider allowing you to foster. In many countries, such authorities move very slowly. I am not familiar with Zambia; you will have to talk to people in the country about the length of the process.

Even assuming that all goes smoothly, you can't begin actual adoption proceedings until you complete the three months of fostering. And from what I can see on the State Department website, processing the adoption could take a few months.

All in all, I'm not sure how you can deal with the situation. On one hand, you may have to go back to the U.S. before you can have your homestudy and such, since you don't actually reside in Zambia. Even if you don't, it could take you several months to complete I-600A requirements.

Then you would need to remain in Zambia not only for the three months of fostering, but also through the adoption process, which could take a few more months.

All in all, the process could play havoc with your job and everything else going on in your life.

I would actually recommend going home to the U.S. and not starting an international adoption till then. At that point, if you are drawn to Africa, you might want to choose a country like Ethiopia, which does not have a long in-country stay. In fact, with Ethiopia, you can probably travel for a week, and some agencies may permit escort. It's a clean, fairly straightforward process, and if you work with a reputable agency, you should have a positive experience and fees that are in line with those for a Zambian adoption.

Sharon