[WaitingMom22]

from when you found an agency until when you get a referral? I am trying to guess how long the whole process takes?

[linda512]

It depends if you are paper ready, and if you are asking for a specific gender. Once I was paper ready, I waited 5 weeks for a referral of a baby boy. It took about 3 months to be paper ready, despite my attempt to do it faster than anyone in the history of adoption.
Good luck.

[havensd]

We had our homestudy at the end of July. Our completed homestudy was sent to immigration mid-August. We completed our dossier in August. We were fingerprinted by USCIS in September and received our I-171H approval October 25th (our agency will not give a referral without immigration approval). We received our referral for our baby girl the day after we received our I-171H approval on October 26, 2005!!!

[Yelena]

Originally Posted by linda512

It took about 3 months to be paper ready, despite my attempt to do it faster than anyone in the history of adoption.

Ha -- me too! We were fast in gathering up the endless papers, and it still took almost 3 months to get it all together -- plus another 7 weeks waiting for the 171-H!

Here's our modified timeline for the sake of answering this question:

5/8/05: Decided officially to adopt
6/9/05: signed with agency
8/30/05: submitted our last piece of paperwork
10/13/05: rec'd 171-H, making us 100% paper ready
11/7/05: accepted referral*

*Edited to add: I believe this was an unusually fast time to receive a referral for a girl. I was expecting to wait at least a few months!

[mildredjohn]

After they received our 171H we just waited for 2 days for our first referral that unfortunately we decided to decline for health issues. Then, we waited exactly 4 days more.

many blessings,

[earthmama17]

I completed a dossier for Russia, and switched to Guatemala several months later after a Russian slowdown. I was able to get the Guate dossier done in one month, but I already had INS clearance (just a country switch--took about 1 week)

I received a referral the day after I turned in the dossier to my agency. I don't know if this is typical as I do see many people waiting longer on referrals. My agency currently has more waiting babies than adoptive parents. If interested, PM me and I'll put you in touch w/them.

[drport]

We completed our paperchase pretty fast according to our agency. I also behaved like a lunatic getting papers ready etc.! LOL

We started the whole process in Sept. had homestudy done by the end of Oct. recvd. I171H Thanksgiving weekend and received our referral on 12/07 which was crazy fast for a girl. Had expected to wait much longer for a girl referral. The timeline differs with agency by size and # of people req. specific sex etc. Typically girls take longer. We only specified because we already have a boy.

Usually I think they say homestudy paper process takes 2-6 months and then an average referral wait is a few months but again it depends on your agency. I would go with the agency you have the best references for, feel most comfterable with have the most faith in rather than how long the referral process is. You will benefit more from doing your research. We were told that a lot!

D

[gravesl]

We had a referral the same day we switched agencies and signed with agency #2.

[kacmom1]

The day our 171 arrived we received our referral. Everything else in the dossier was done and we were waiting for the 171. It arrived, I emailed our agency (who was in Guatemala at the time). Within a few hours, Luca's sweet little face was on our computer!

[Lively1]

After we recieved I171H we recieved a referral the next day but declined. Our little girl was referred a couple of weeks later. Take a look at my signature for timeframes. We started the paper chase and agency was picked Jan 05

[bekalynn]

as much as we WANT to compare timelines and have the best of the best of the best timeline out there, it is so impossible.

Just some background on us.
We signed our contract for our agency, homestudy agency, filed I-600a, etc on December 28th, 2004.

We brought our son home on December 29th, 2005 at 5 months old (and some change )

I have a GOOOD friend who used the same agency, signed all of her stuff after we did, got her referral about 6 weeks before we did (was paper ready before us) and is just now bringing her baby home at 8 months old.

We had a personal slow down b/c my husband got laid off from work right before we were ready to complete our homestudy, and then it took FOREVER and a DAY until his new employer gave us that SO IMPORTANT employment letter. We personally chose to 'halt' our adoption process until he found another job, even though we could have had a 171-H approved on my salary alone - it just didn't feel right until things were as they should be with our son coming home. That was a lemon that life unexpectedly threw us. I'm grateful for it. Had we been paper-ready sooner, who knows what kind of process I'd have had - different attorney, different referral, different everything.

Sorry, 3 am and I think I felt 'wordy'

Good luck on choosing an agency!

[csw]

Hi
It depends..once you are paperready and BCIS approved, your referral could be immediate (esp if you wanted a boy) or weeks or months..it depends on the agency..we waited 4 months for a girl referral..we were caught up in the Hague in 03, so you can't judge our timeline as in the norm..but..
most agencies will tell you after referral expect 4-8 months till home..with the average being around 6 months..of course we all hope for the 4 month timeline!

[becky]

3 months to get paper ready
3 month wait for a girl referral...couldn't handle the wait any longer (ends up it would have been probably an 8 month wait)
Switched Agencies and got a referral immediately
Daughter home 4.5 months later.

9.5 months start to finish.

[Lisa1234]

Hi,


My homestudy agency took almost six months to complete the homestuday.

I was paper ready in November, 2004. I waited for a referral from November 2004 until August 2005. I finally gave up and changed agencies in August 2005 and received the referral of my son the same day.

Lisa
Mommy to Benjamin