We applied for Raleigh’s passport and paid to expedite it just to be safe. We were told it would take 2-3 weeks. We received it in the mail exactly one week after applying!
Now that we all have our passports we can apply for our visas. We’ve been told that we need official travel approval to apply. But through my wonderful online adoption groups I’ve discovered a way to do it early. From what I understand, after TA we’ll travel roughly a couple weeks later. The visas can be done through a courier in about a week if you overnight both ways. But why not get it done early to save a little moola and avoid some stress? So I’ll be contacting the lady that runs There’s Always Hope (www.theres-always-hope.com) today to see about getting it done. She runs a business doing this for adoptive families, as we’ll as others, by walking in the Chinese Consulate in Chicago with documents and applications to help us get through this crazy process. For those of you going through this after us, she has applicants put an estimated travel date and it seems to work fine without TA and without booked flights.
On another very exciting note…our I800 got approved on 9/26!! We are now waiting for a letter from the NVC (National Visa Center) basically stating they received our I800 approval and have forwarded our petition for Aili’s visa to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. Looks something like this…
The State Department’s National Visa Center has recently received your approval Form I-800, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative. This letter is to inform you that your petition has been forwarded to the appropriate visa-issuing post where the adoption interview will take place.
Our records indicate that you filed the I-800 petition for:
Name of Beneficiary/Child:
Case Number: GUZXXXXXXXXX
This case has been forwarded to:
CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, VISA UNIT
1 SHAMIAN STREET SOUTH
GUANGZHOU 510133
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Please forward any inquiries regarding your I-800 to the assigned US Embassy/Consulate General mentioned above.
Sincerely,
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Another trick I’ve learned from others is that I can start emailing the NVC to request a PDF of the letter. That can possible save 1-2 weeks of waiting for the letter to arrive. I emailed yesterday 🙂 As soon as I get the PDF, I will forward to my agency to be able to move on to the next step. Only a few steps left! Woohoo!
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