[teachermom]

OK another question:

I have been gathering info from all the agencies that are approved. Some are saying that travel after referral is 6-8 weeks and other agencies have a quicker referral, but travel after referral is listed at 4 months.

Why such the difference between agencies?

Thanks

[DreamingAzure]

I would guess that the agencies with the long wait have their clients travel in groups of 5-10 families. Depending on where you are on their list will determine how long you wait to travel. for example, if you are the first referral in their new grouping, you may have to wait 4 months before they get the referral in for families #9 & #10. but if you are family #6 you may only be waiting 6-8 weeks...

There may be lots of other factors in there that will determine the wait. I've heard it said that agencies which kept up their own orphanages and staff in VN during the Hold will be processing adoptions much faster then agencies who did not. Goodwill with the VN government goes a long way I suspect. A longer wait may also be a sign of a lack of personnel in VN, which creates a backlog of paperwork.

The best way to find out is to call the agency and ask "WHY?"

[duaneamyjo]

I think it all depends on how the agencies handle their referral wait lists. For instance some agencies may have people gather and send dossiers to VN when they are close to the top of the wait list and others may wait until they are at the very top. But once the dossier goes to VN the wait to travel is no more than 4 months. This is a VN "law". They cannot take longer than 4 months to process your dossier. It could be sooner but not longer. Or some may not give out referrals until the dossier is at a certain point in the process in VN. So then some of the 4 months wait would have already passed. Does this make sense? The only sure thing is that when your dossier is sent to VN you have a wait of no longer than 4 months.

[teachermom]

Thanks for your replies! Yes, it does make sense to me.
In fact, I really like the idea that the 4 month thing is a rule. It seems to lend itself to some consistency.

Thank you to everyone for putting up with all my questions! I'm trying to learn as much as possible.