[magict]

I am just starting the adoption process, however the agency I am using has advised due to the changes in Guatemala the process takes aprox 6-8 mos for a referral once accepted another 8-12 mos for travel. That is almost two years. Can anyone tell me if this info is correct?

[MissPeach]

For a Girl, I would say this is right with a slow Agency!

There are faster Agencies out there though!

Do a lot of homework and research!

[slaikta]

We started the process in December and, although not paper ready as we wait for approval from BCIS, we received our referral for a boy last week. It seems the agency's home office kept calling our caseworker trying to keep tabs on where everyone was due to the fact that they have fewer families in the Guatemalan program now than normal. Of course, this may not be the case everywhere and at every agency.
The timeframe given to us for the rest of the process is 10 months with an understanding that uncontrollable factors within Guatemala may delay that timeframe.
Hope that helps.

[tricecm]

Have you already signed with that agency? Because if you haven't, you should post their name on this board and ask for feedback on them first.

This sounds like an exceedingly long wait for a referral to me, but there may be others out there who say otherwise.

Good luck!

[holliam]

I'd research agencies a bit more. I am paper ready, and my agency estimates 3-4 weeks for a referral for a girl.

Holli

[mustangsal]

Holly, would you pm me your agency name? Just getting started. Thanks!

[cgcva]

Hi everyone. We are in Northern Virginia and have just started our Guatemalan adoption process. We are using an agency called World Child International. Has anyone used them? We were told that the process is very fast for Guatemala right now--5 to 9 months after dossier is complete, and that's for a girl. Does this sound right? Does the timeframe really depend on the agency?

Best of luck to all of you!

Cathy

[Kimberj71]

Our agency's website estimates 3 to 8 month wait for a referral of a girl after your dossier is complete. In our case, we waited 6 months for our first referral but didn't receive our current referral until 8 months after our completed dossier was in Guatemala. I think the wait for referral depends greatly on the size of your agency and the number of attorneys they work with as well as if they work with any hogars or just with individual birthmoms. In our case, our agency is smallish, works with a single attorney (who we love), and our attorney works only with individual birthmoms. So it makes sense that our referral wait time was much longer. BUT we knew that going into this. Which I think is the key indicator.

As for length of time of the process once you've accepted a referral, I think that is anybody's guess. I think an agency can tell you how long it has taken "in general" in the past. They can tell you how long folks in the Guatemalan program are taking right now. But I do not believe with the situation in Guatemala as it is, that an agency can reliably give you a definite timeframe. I also believe this is something you really need to search your heart about. It may be a matter of months or it could be over a year or more before your little one comes home.

Good luck in this amazing process!!!

Kim

[JeannineW]

I would keep looking at agencies. The first agency I picked I still think is very good but I ended up switching when I realized that other agencies had a much shorter wait. I'm glad I did. If we had stayed with our old agency, we would probably still be waiting for a referral. Maybe for several more months. Instead, we are going to pick up our daughter in two weeks! There are good agencies with shorter waits just make very sure it's a good agency.