[tbogardus]

I need some guidance on how your referral process has worked with your respective agencies. We have one child already from Russia that we adopted through EAC. The process was smooth and once we got a referral we registered in the region and that was that.

However we are using a different agency for our second child (we got hung up in the whole re-accreditation thing) and we got a referral from one region, which for many reasons didn't work out. We were told to register in that region which we did. But now our agency is saying that because we are already registered in that particular region we aren't really eligible to receive referrals from other regions, which to me seems to be dramatically lengthoning our referral process. We are requesting a girl, which I know takes longer, but does this sound right to you guys? This second adoption has been a nightmare. We completed our dossier this past Feb and we are still struggling. Can somebody give me some feedback. We need all the help we can get right now.

[Bcelli]

With neither of our adoptions did we file any paperwork in a region until after we had accepted a referral, at least verbally. We signed our letter of intent at the regional adoption center when we made the official acceptance. While your situation sounds a bit odd to me, nothing about the Russian adoption process really surprises me anymore. I don't know why you would have any offical paperwork ties to the government in any specific region unless you had already committed to an adoption. I would ask your agency to clarify the situation for you and tell you EXACTLY what their procedures are and how and why you are registered in a region when you are still sitting in the U.S. waiting for a referral. Good luck. Regardless of what happens, you know you will find the child who is meant to be yours.

[MominPA]

We were the same. We submitted an intent to adopt. We received our referral prior to our dossier being completed.

[Jessi_76]

I don't believe that's correct in all cases, but perhaps it's an agency-specific thing because our dossier was actually registered in two different regions to increase our likelihood of getting the children we were looking for, and in a quick amount of time.

Best of luck to you~!

[Shark01]

I agree with Jessi (as usual)

We were registered in 3 regions concurrently, and theoretically could visit a child in a 2nd region if we weren't happy with the first referral. The only caviat is that you couldn't accept a referral (sign the in-country paperwork) then visit another child (if you are adopting 1).

Its an agency issue.....probably a case of too many families and too few regions to work in.

[tbogardus]

I think you're correct. BEcause we actually did accept a referral in one region that wound up not working out. But I don't understand why they are not seeking other regions. I don't know what the rammifications are of changing agencies, but I think we are going to look into it.

Shark01 - which agency did you use?