[nolaadopt]

I'm sure there's a thread that talks about this, but I can't find one.

Our dossier is done and was just Fed Exed Friday to the agency. How long have you waited to get your refferal after this last step was completed?

Thanks

[TweetyMom04]

We rcvd our first referral 4 days later. We later turned the referral down, for various reasons.
Our next and accepted referral was approximately 2 mo later.

[britfish]

we waited 8 months and 6 days (but who was counting?!)

[ddahl]

we waited 146 days and roughly 12.5 hours... like britfish...who was counting! After 146 days and 12.5 hours it only took one IA Physician consultation (lasted 1.25 hours) and another 2.2 seconds to fall hopelessly head over heels.... now we count again till trip one and then we count again for trip 2.... DH bought me the Celine Dion baby calendar t mark off the days. It is really cute.

[Ktates]

We waited about 5 1/2 months from the time our dossier was submitted to Russia til we got a referral. Hope you have a short wait!

[deere1]

Two months from the time our dossier was sent to Russia, we received the call with travel dates.

[Amysue1112]

We were told in March that it would be a 6-12 month wait....the region is popular and there was quite a back-up (in a lot of regions) while waiting for the process to speed up and re-accreditations to come through. We were told that the re-accreditations will now make everything speed up, but of course we don't know what that will mean. It is definitely region/agency specific, and it also makes big difference what kind of referral you are requesting. In most (if not all) infant girls are the most sought after, so they are the longest wait.

[nolaadopt]

Does it make a difference how many regions the agency deals with? Or are there just too many variables to try to get an idea of when to expect a refferal?

[Amysue1112]

Some agencies don't give you a region...I guess they sort of have your name is many regions. Some agencies work in a lot of regions, but choose one for you.
For us, our agency works in 10 regions, but we know as soon as our dossier is sent what region we are going to. We/they picked the region that works best for us (easy medical forms (since I have some med history etc, American/adoption friendly). We have been able to learn a lot about the culture/people of the region, and it has been great. We knew before our dossier went to Kemerovo that it was a longer wait, but it was worth it for us. I am not sure how fast referrals come when you are with an agency that does not give you a specific region. Really, as so many have said before, I am not sure there is any rhyme or reason to the way referrals are given out in some regions. We are in such a transitional time right now, as our agencies have been waiting for re-accreditations....so I think it would be hard to gauge how this will affect referrals. For example, I am pretty sure there are some regions that were not working at all during the problems/re-accreditations issues in Russia. So of course, regions that were working well (like ours) became very back logged. Now that there are more regions that will be back up to speed, hopefully our waiting list will go down. Most are pretty sure that everything in the adoption process will speed up now. YIPPEEE for ALL of us!!!
Amy

[Kasey]

Well ours was before all the changes that have happened, but with the first agency our dossier went in 10/03 and we were told 1-4 month wait (we were assigned a region), after 7 months of waiting and no true end in sight we switched agencies, dossier was complete the end of May 04 and we received a referral 2 1/2 weeks later (this agency does not assign regions).
Good luck and hope your wait is very quick!!!

[kimber413]

It really depends on your agency, how many regions they work in, and what your request is. If you want an infant girl as young as possible, then be prepared for a longer wait (up to a year). If you're willing to accept a boy or girl toddler (up to 2 or 3 years old), then you may be able to get a referral fairly quickly. It mostly depends on what you want.

[bratgirl]

It took 7 mos to get our referral after our dossier was turned in.

[pwnort64]

My dossier went to Russia Memorial Day weekend last year. I received my referral on August 9. My agency had told me 2-4 months...right on the money!

[angelkisses0102]

there really are too many variables to guage a one size fits all answer to this question. with our agency, we did not have to have a complete dossier to begin a child search. we were not assigned a region (our agency works in many regions) for our little girl and we had referral within two weeks of application. we declined that referral and had the referral for our little girl two weeks after that. she was six months at referral in 2002.

for our little boy in 2003, we had a referral about 2 weeks after we started to update our homestudy and applied for BICS approval. and we specified the region for him.

so you just never know. you will see some people with awful long waits and others with very quick surprise referrals. in the end, i believe everyone feels the wait (or lack of) was what was needed to find the perfect child for their family and situation.

[Military Momma]

Our dossier wasn't even done but we sent out registration packets and it was about a month and a half for a referral. hope this helps,
Lisa