[ndkaff]

Ours from start to finish was 13 mos.
We sent in our dossier around the end of March or April 04.
Accepted the referral May of 04. Were told to expect travel mid to end of July......trip #1 Nov. 04
Our facilitor in Krasnodar said we would possibly return for court in about 2 mos.
Trip#2..court was April 11, 2005

[russia06]

Butabzig - thank you for posting your process it was very helpful and now we have a little better understanding of who is involved, what there roles are and why.

The agency we are going through here in PA is hooked up /umbrelled with The Lutherns of NC and our agency is not caught up in the reaccreditation as I understand it.

[RBSVARCHER]

I do know that the MOE (Ministry of Education) shuts down the whole month of August, so things do not begin to pick up again until the end of September.

Hang on - your little one is out there - it's all in God's timing - not ours!!

[russia06]

RBSVARCHER - thank you for claifying MOE - I kept asking myself what it stood for. And no I was unaware that MOE shuts down for the whole month of August.

[KimOH]

I don't think the MOE actually "shuts down" in August. In fact, our appointment at the Moscow Region MOE was in August 2005. However, I think August is the most popular month for vacations in Russia -- and Russians seem to take longer vacations than we do (several weeks at a time) -- and Russians don't seem to be very big on "cross training." If an important person in your adoption process goes on vacation (or is out sick, at any time of the year) it could stall things until they return.

[Drazil]

Our appointment with the MOE was in August (2004) as well. Things were slower in August because of smaller staff due to vacations but not shut down.

[RBSVARCHER]

Strange - we were told by our agency and by all of our faciliators in Moscow that was the reason for the paperwork backup and why so many parents were being processed while we were there was that the MOE was closed and would pick up after that month was over.