[teachamy]

Hi again--
OK another question. I know documents need to be assembled and approved in order for Nolan to travel home, but I'm wondering if a fast approval of the 1600 petition speeds things up at all, or is the time lag between referral and travel mostly due to things in Korea? Also, once your 1600 petition was approved, how long did it take for your children to come home?
Thanks,
Amy

[Max'smom]

My understandng is that right now, the length of your wait between referral and travel depends mainly on how fast paperwork is done on the Korean side. Papers pass through ministries that may only meet to issue travel documents once/twice/a handful of times per month. In some cases at the end of the year, there is a quota on how many adoptions they can process per month/year and you bump up against that. The US paper work speeding through cannot accelerate the Korean process. For instance, in my case, the I1600 came through around 5 weeks after my referral, but seemed to have no bearing on the speed of the Korean side of the process. However, if my I1600 failed to get processed in a timely manner, it would have slowed things down after the Korean paperwork was completed and an "emigration permit" was issued to my son, which happened in my case around 3 weeks ago. Once this EP is issued, his papers were taken to another Korean agency and to the US embassy. At that point, a speedy issuance of his US visa required that the I1600 be ready at hand. If it had not been ready (the I1600) that would have slowed things down. The whole process from referral to travel in my case took just over 3 months -- and this mainly depended on the speed of processing the Korean paperwork but it would have taken longer if the I1600 hadn't been in place already.

Hope this helps!
MM

[teachamy]

Thanks, Max's Mom! That helps a lot. Between you and my adoption counselor, I've decided to chill out and try not to be such a control freak about the whole process. There's nothing we can do but wait and prepare.
Amy

[Zachary'sMommy]

I think it really depends on your agency.

In our case, a fast I-600 approval (12 days from application) definitely has not sped up our son's arrival. Our referral was 10/5/05, I-600 application filed 10/12/05, approved 10/24/05. Our agency has gotten themselves into a mess with the quota and they have no idea when my son will be home. I was thrilled when I got my I-600 approval so quickly, but it has ended up being no big deal. I've had approval almost 4 months, but with no passport/ visa on the Korean side, my son is still not home with me.

So, while the I-600 approval is nice to have, in my opinion it doesn't speed things up much.

Hope this helps.

Zachary's Mommy

[dcookie]

Originally Posted by Zachary'sMommy

I think it really depends on your agency.

In our case, a fast I-600 approval (12 days from application) definitely has not sped up our son's arrival. So, while the I-600 approval is nice to have, in my opinion it doesn't speed things up much.

When I talked with our SW today, that's exactly what she said. If you go through Albany, they issue it within a week or so of your dropping of the paperwork. But it still takes 3-4 months for baby to come home.