[mrsmatt051102]

So, how long did it take you to complete your paperchase? I'm *just* starting mine, and I'm SO overwhelmed. Is it realistic to have a goal of the end of July to have it completed??

[lifessence]

congrats on the referral of your daughter!

you can absolutely have it all done by july!

i was able to do two dossiers for our sons in a little over a month. that includes notary, state certification and guatemalan consulate certification.

hopefully you got a list from your agency and you can put them into groups to do together.

call your doctors office and find out if they have a notary and if not locate one that will meet you there to sign your medical letters and/or health history forms.

the paperchase seems like a huge job - it will be wonderful when it is all behind you. just try to remember along the way as you get things notarized - that the notary signs exact to their stamp and that their license does NOT expire within the next 15 months.

good luck on your process - wishing you a smooth adoption journey! get ready for the ride of your life! wow!

[mrsmatt051102]

Oh, that is so encouraging to hear!! Glad to know that end of July is realistic!!! You must've been a mad woman to do it in a month! So, you did your home study in a month, too? Wow!

[lifessence]

no homestudy was done previously and needed to be updated.

realistically that should not take longer than 6 weeks from the time they meet with you to the time they get it to you for your dossier. during that time you should be able to get all of your other documents back ready for certification. depending on where you live and how quickly I171H are being done - could be the only hold up in your case. criminal clearances seem to run 2 weeks from the time you mail them in and get them back. i'm sure your agency can help you with this as well. if you have more questions on how i did it - PM me! i'll be happy to help you out.

interview and write up of note - two to three weeks
your agency review of it for approval - one to three days
two originals sent to you
one original sent to agency
either you or your HS agency will send original to INS with your I600A to receive your I171H

somewhere in there you should have your fingerprints done.

i did run around like crazy because we had been down this path nine months ago (failed adoption) and after seeing our sons faces we knew we had to get this process moving along quickly. my DH asked me to get it all done as quick as possible. i made it like a full time job some days - other days i was waiting for things to come back to me. i found an incredible courier service in Harrisburg, PA to take all of our paperwork to the Secretary of State for authentification of our notarized documents. that saved time - we fedex'd back and forth.

i wish you the best of luck!

[Larue]

Originally Posted by lifessence

congrats on the referral of your daughter!

you can absolutely have it all done by july!

i was able to do two dossiers for our sons in a little over a month. that includes notary, state certification and guatemalan consulate certification.

hopefully you got a list from your agency and you can put them into groups to do together.

call your doctors office and find out if they have a notary and if not locate one that will meet you there to sign your medical letters and/or health history forms.

the paperchase seems like a huge job - it will be wonderful when it is all behind you. just try to remember along the way as you get things notarized - that the notary signs exact to their stamp and that their license does NOT expire within the next 15 months.

good luck on your process - wishing you a smooth adoption journey! get ready for the ride of your life! wow!

Wow -- two dossiers in one month. Very impressive! It took us about two months to do one dossier. Sort of the reverse Either way...by the end of July is definately doable. In fact even the end of June is pretty reasonable. Hang in there...and good luck!

[HopeB1]

I really focused all my energy into getting my dossier complete and you can see by my timeline how long it took. I know it is overwhelming, but make a list and check things off. It really makes it seems like you are accomplishing something everyday. Good Luck!

[Mindybeth6]

I think that goal is COMPLETELY realistic. I will tell you that our dossier paperchase took exactly one month to the day to complete. Would have been sooner but we had to wait one week for DS's physical letter. So all the other stuff took three weeks. For some reason it seemed like it took longer though. Our homestudy prep wasn't bad either. We had it done in about a week and half. THe things for us that ended up taking the longest were the physical letters and the passports. Good luck!



Hugs

[jpeel99]

I took about 3 months

[lionbird]

I started my paperchase the day after my homestudy visit...see my signature line. The most time consuming part for me was my agency said I needed four letters of reference for my dossier. Two of mine came from out of state..they happened to be states where you have to have them certified at the county, THEN the state... one of my references had their document notarized from someone who was rejected at county certification because they hadn't been sworn in..cost me about two weeks.

Good luck... I couldn't have gotten it done in the time I did if I had a regular job...my hubby and I own our own business so I did alot of the work during business hours.