[becky]

Pat,

What is the purpose of your meeting? Are you looking for ways to improve the adoption system in Guatemala?

If you are there are just a few parts of the process that the US government has actual control over...and those all involve the CIS and US embassy.

You could ask for some consistency in the approval process here in the US. Some CIS offices take weeks to issue the 171H, others take months.

You could also ask for additional staffing at the US Embassy in Guatemala. This would help in the issuance of DNA approval (currently attorneys must wait in line, and can only apply for 4 cases per day). You could also ask for additional staffing in the area that issues Visa Preapprovals...so that cases that are under investigation can be handled much more quickly. Also parents whose cases are under investigation need to be told what is happening with their cases, and why.

Finally, additional staffing in the area that issues Visas at the end of the process.

Basically...we need more staffing to handle all of the adoptions in Guatemala!

As for the US involvement in the 'politics' of new adoption laws in Guatemala...there is no place for it. The laws that are currently proposed are unconstitutional in Guatemala and the US has no place advocating for these laws to be passed.

Off my soap box now....