Instead of a long bedtime story, Kirby asked to see videos from Nepal. I thought I would share two of our favorites from the evening -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI9gSsh0kgs&NR=1 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NGeenhjlUw
-- Laura
I first started my application to adopt from China on February 28, 2006. My dossier was accepted into China and my official log-in date (LID) was 3/23/07. As of that time, my agency (Gladney) was expecting the wait time to be about 19 months from LID to referral. Although math has never been my strong suit, that information would have my new daughter coming home this past October. If you have heard anything about international adoptions, you know that on May 1, 2007, China put incredible restrictions on international adoption and single women were no longer able to adopt. However, by the grace of less than 45 days I was grandfathered in and my application was allowed to stay at CCAA (the Chinese agency that processes all adoptions).
I had been actively tracking the news out of China and was quickly beginning to understand that adopting from China was looking more like a dream than a reality. During the course of several months this summer, I met with my social worker at Gladney and we calculated that the expected date of referral for my daughter would be close to September 8, 2014. Yep. 2014. In all honestly, the thought of waiting a total of eight years didn’t seem like an adventure I wanted to undertake. The problem: there were very few countries that allowed single women (or divorced/remarried women without waiting four years) to adopt and those that did were quickly closing their doors.
I launched into a fairly intensive search regarding the programs that were open to singles and came up fairly empty handed. I looked for special needs, biracial, domestic, Ethiopia, Armenia, Georgia… you name it, I looked. I had been researching into adopting from Nepal, but the Government of Nepal suspended all intercountry adoptions on May 8, 2007 and wasn’t giving any details on when it might resume. I had a particular interest in this region given my work as an advisory board member and a volunteer with the dZi Foundation (www.dzifoundation.org). As luck would have it, the same week my homestudy review was coming up in order for me to keep my China application open, Nepal announced they were resuming international adoptions and my agency was one of 58 international agencies approved to work in country. Gladney allowed me to dual track and keep my adoption application open in China while pursuing Nepal.
On October 31, I started the long process of dossier preparation paperwork including gathering every official ORIGINAL document known to man and getting them notarized (financial statements, police records, college transcripts, CPA letters, bank letters, single statements, tax records, birth and divorce records, health screenings, psychological evaluations, passport pictures, a scrapbook, etc). 
Fast forward nearly 60 days and the paperwork journey is almost complete. Right before Christmas, I got the news that my child abuse clearance came through CDHHS. I am waiting on a letter requesting fingerprint for the Department of Homeland Security. Once those are filed, I should be able to send our dossier into Nepal at the end of January.
Once the dossier is accepted in Nepal, it will go before a review board http://www.mowcsw.gov.np/ with the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. They will ‘match’ our family with a child and I will receive an email with a photo, health records and a very brief description of our new son or daughter. I will then have a few days to have the medical records reviewed by a specialist. Once I send the letter back to Kathmandu, I will receive travel instructions. The best guess is that I will have three weeks from that point to the time of travel. I anticipate I will be in Nepal for 2-3 weeks to complete the visa/adoption paperwork, etc. before bringing the baby home.
I am sure you may be asking what the wait time will be to receive news about my new son or daughter. The truth is that I honestly have no idea. They are guessing anywhere from 6 months to two years. I have requested an infant of either gender, but because I have asked for a younger child, my wait time may be longer.
There is so little information on the internet about adopting from Nepal. In fact, the largest number of children ever adopted in a single year from Nepal and brought to the US is around 76. So when I started down this path a few months ago, I decided to start a blog to help connect folks who are also considering adopting from Nepal.
Happy Holidays!
Since the agency I am working with (Gladney http://www.adoptionsbygladney.com) does not have an office in Colorado, I have been working closely with Marj Bluder, LCSW Executive Director of the Adoption Homestudy Agency of Colorado, for both my China and Nepal adoptions. Marj has handled the homestudy for both programs. 
Her new co-worker, Sara Nieder, called me on the 22nd to let me know that my child abuse clearance had come back from the state and everything was set to send in the final U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) paperwork to the Department of Homeland Security. I met them at Starbucks and gave Sara a check for $750 for the Department of Homeland Security and she left to mail it in. Apparently in about a week or so, I should receive a letter letting me know to go get fingerprints taken (for a cost of $80) in order for the USCIS to conduct FBI criminal background checks. When I did this for China about 18 months ago, it was a paper process. Now, the fingerprints are taken and submitted electronically to the FBI. The great news is this drastically reduces processing times for criminal background checks. Once these come back, I will have my final information necessary to complete the Form I-600A -- or the "Advance Processing; Immigrant Petition for Orphan (Adoption)". Seriously? The USCIS could save a lot of time if they would just come up with some simple names for these forms.
Again, this is a simple fingerprint check, and not an exhaustive investigation. If you think that something might turn up on it, disclose it in advance. Honesty is the best policy. It's no big deal if a single minor offense like littering shows up, and you have disclosed it.
People who are basically law-abiding often fret unnecessarily about the child abuse clearance, the police clearance, and the FBI fingerprint check. They are really very benign and are just part of the giant paperwork process.
For now, I will wait for the fingerprint letter to arrive. I hear that once that is complete, it will take about 4-6 weeks to get the I-600A returned. Once that is approved, I can finally submit my dossier to Nepal (assuming they actually open for international adoptions in January!)
I swear I could write a book about the intricacies of Nepalese adoption by the time this baby makes its way back across the pond. But since I realistically won't have time to do much more than post a few updates to this blog, I will share with you what I have learned about the infamous Adoption Guarantee Letter.
Basically, the Nepalese government requires that we ("adoptive parents") complete and sign a “Guarantee Letter.” This letter, which is part of the dossier assures the Nepalese Government that we have been approved by the U.S. Government to be adoptive parents and that your child will be eligible to immigrate to the United States. This letter is actually completed after your child is "assigned" by the government. The Letter is a requirement of the Nepalese government, not of the U.S.
Bottom line: The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu cannot issue this Guarantee Letter until they have confirmed that your I-600A petition is approved and your fingerprints are valid. This notification is called a Visa 37 cable. Trick here... our friends in Kathmandu want us to reach out via email to adoptionsnepal@state.gov to confirm that the official notice has been received. Although your agency will assist you in drafting this email, the actual email should come from you.
The Guarantee Letter must then be signed and notarized by a Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu or by a notary public in the U.S. The letter must have the original signatures and must be accompanied by notarized copies of your passports with original signatures. If only one parent is traveling to Nepal then the non-traveling parent must sign and have the document notarized in the U.S. along with a copy of their passport. In addition, the traveling parent must also bring a power of attorney to act on behalf of the non-traveling parent.
The processing of the Guarantee Letter also requires photographs of your child and of you and a letter from the Nepalese orphanage informing the U.S. Embassy of the details of the match, including your child's name and date of birth. Your child’s photo must be affixed to the letter from the Nepalese orphanage to the U.S. Embassy.
Confused yet?
The million dollar question... what is the true time from dossier to referral? I have requested an infant no more than 12 months at time of referral. My agency is telling me to expect a wait of 12 to 24 months. My homestudy agency is telling me it should be no more than six months. It really is one big guessing game. However, I did some research and, as we all know, Nepal will not assign a child to prospective adoptive parents until there is evidence that the I-600A and fingerprints (evidence of no criminal record) have been approved by DHS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS). Once the I-600A and fingerprints have been approved by DHS, the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu will receive a Visas 37 cable from DHS. The Embassy cannot issue the Guarantee Letter until the Visas 37 cable has been received. The process from the approval of the I-600A and the issuance of the Guarantee Letter to the approval of the adoption by the Nepalese government varies in length from six months to two years. Adoptive parents adopting children over the age of three years sometimes find their cases are completed in a shorter time period. The timing is often uneven and inconsistent; changes in the security situation or the government may lead to additional delays. So basically, it remains a giant guessing game.
Is anyone else hearing anything different?
One of the very first things you need to do is to get your I-600A ready to go. I say that with a slight grin because even when you get it ready to go, you still have to wait... and wait... and wait.... for a few other things to come together.
Ok, so take a deep breath. Go to www.uscis.gov. Click on the “immigration forms” tab at the top of the page and then scroll down to I-600A (the forms are in numerical order). The form and instructions are available there.
Here is a quick reference guide on how to fill it out.
I. BLOCK 1 - INFORMATION ABOUT PROSPECTIVE PETITIONER:
1. Your name: last, first, middle
2. Other names used: maiden name (or any other names used)
3. Residential Address
4. Address abroad, if applicable
5. Date of Birth, Place of Birth
6. Home phone number
7. Marital Status
8. Information about your spouse
9. Information about your citizenship
II. BLOCK 2 - GENERAL INFORMATION:
10. Agency Name & Address:
11. Yes
12. Yes
13. Uncertain (for each sub-question)
14. No
15. Yes
16. USCIS office: Leave blank
U.S. Embassy or Consulate: Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal
17. Yes or No; if Yes, give number (remember the number of children you ask for approval must not be more than the number of children approved for in the home study)
III. SIGN & DATE THE DOCUMENT
IV. YOU MUST ALSO SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING WITH YOUR I-600A:
Photocopies of either your birth certificate or your passport for both applicants
Photocopy of your marriage certificate
Photocopy of any divorce/death decrees (if previously married) for both applicants
Original notarized home study (must be current within six months)
Certified copy of any court dispositions if you have any arrest history (even if a case was dismissed, expunged or sealed). You will also need to include a notarized letter, explaining the circumstances around the arrest (a similar letter will also be needed for the dossier and for your agency)
A cover letter providing a daytime phone number where you can be reached if USCIS has questions about your application. Please also list all other household members 18 years of age and older, plus a copy of their birth certificate.
A Release of Information Form
Send Money Order for $750 which includes the cost for one adult set of fingerprints. Send a separate money order for $80 for each additional adult in the household over 18 years of age to pay for the fingerprinting. Checks must be made payable to Department of Homeland Security.
Send your cover letter, I-600A application, required documents and fees to the USCIS office by Fed-Ex or other express mail carrier.
I hope this helps you in the journey...
I have been trying to do my own research into the specifications for Nepal. While I was reviewing some of the old literature that is available online, I read the following, "any children in the household from a wife's previous marriage are not considered in the requirements. That is, if a wife has a son from a previous marriage living in the household, and the couple has a daughter, the couple is required to adopt a son as the wife's child from her first marriage is not tallied into the final total."
So, I have a daughter from a previous marriage. Does this mean I am eligible to adopt either gender?
After checking with Kaitlin, she agrees we should rewrite my homestudy. Although the information that they have received from the Nepalese government as well as from their in-country representative clearly states that if an adoptive parent(s) already has a child in the home, he/she may only adopt a child of the opposite gender (i.e. he/she may only adopt a daughter if he/she has a son and may only adopt a son if he/she already has a daughter).
It differs from the information that is posted online, but the info they have received as of now does not distinguish children in the household from a wife's previous marriage versus children in the household from a husband’s previous marriage, etc., and as such, they cannot promise that Kirby would not considered under Nepal’s requirements.
We did go ahead and change my home study and all dossier paperwork to reflect my desire to adopt a child (either sex) from Nepal as young and as healthy as possible.
The way I look at it is its sort of like being pregnant, except you have no idea if you are due in February 2009 or December 2009, you aren't sure how old the baby will be and you have no idea (nor no way of knowing) the sex. Ahhh... this is good for someone like me who tends to like everything buttoned up and presented in a nice package.
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