Saturday, August 12, 2006

What's Next?

We got an update today that the birthmom signed off on the adoption for the final time. She's legally ours!!! So, I thought I'd post what the steps are after exiting PGN:

1. Attorney picks up the file from PGN
2. Attorney arranges the birth mother to come and sign (same week usually)
3. The Final Escritura is drafted
4. The Final Escritura is dropped off to be registered in the general archives
5. The Final Escritura is ready and picked up (48 business hours later)
6. The New birth certificate is requested from the civil registry where your child was born
7. The new birth certificate is ready and picked up (varies greatly depending upon municipality – two days to three weeks, with Guatemala City being the longest)
8. Baby is taken for new passport (this can happen any time between birth certificate and picking up pink slip)
9. The new birth certificate and the entire adoption file of documents are sent for translation from Spanish to English
10. After translation, the file is submitted to the Embassy for pink slip (which takes 2 business days, not counting Fridays, weekends or holidays)
11. Pink slip is picked up at 3:30 - embassy appointment day and time will be printed on the slip.
12. Any time after we have pink slip but before appointment, baby can go to the Embassy panel physician for final checkup and for visa photos.
13. You come for Embassy interview appointment (M, T, W, or Fri, usually 7- 14 days after pink)
14. Next Day – Visa is ready (3:00 pm M-Th; 11:00 am Fri. – FTC will pick this up for you)
15. Next Day – you can fly home


Steps 1-4 were done as of Friday. Tuesday, August 15 is a holiday in Guatemala, so nothing will happen then.

So, here's hoping for the color pink!! The appointments are apparently actually issued on a pink slip of paper, thus the name.

6 comments:

Tricia said...

Thanks for the break-down of the next steps & events! I continue to learn something new about adoptions every day! :)

Hope you are PINK really soon!

Anonymous said...

PINK slip for a baby girl!

Type (little) a aka Michele said...

So how long until she actually home?

Samantha said...

Okay, reading all those steps made my head hurt. Here's hoping it doesn't make your head hurt to do them! :)

Alleen said...

Type (little) a - She should be home in 2-3 weeks - yeah!!!!

Sam -- Fortunately, the remaining steps are done for us and we just wait for the good news. Of course, with a control freak like me, that's not always a good thing :-)

Anonymous said...

Alleen & Ferdy: Your baby is beautiful and I know from my daughter "Ana's Mom" that waiting is terrible for you guys. My prayers are with you and "Ana's Mom" and praying patience for you and my daughter. Love and Blessings to you. "Ana's Mom's, MOM! Or Ana's Grandmother