Timeframe / Adoption environment in Guatemala

This is Jimmy again...

The most frequent question we get asked is around the timeframe....when can we bring Samuel home. Basically the answer is - we don't know and we won't know until a few weeks before we can bring him home. The hope is we will have him home by this summer - July...but that is really a total guess and is based on past averages.

The legal/paperwork/approval process of adoption is time consuming, bureaucratic and very paper intensive. There are also 2 sides to deal with - US and Guatemala. The US side of things usually takes families several months to complete - the average I have heard is around 4-6 months. It includes things like a home study and "dossier" - both of which have long lists of paperwork that has to be gathered, completed and approved by various agencies. Emily and I were able to get this done in approx 1.5 months.

Then once all of that is done, it has to go through the whole process in Guatemala. The best document to explain the process in Guatemala I have found is located here if you are interested: http://www.guatadopt.com/WebFileBrowser/frameset.html (under adoption process>>The process). It seems that the longest pole in the tent for Guatemala is PGN (the Guatemalan Attorney General's office). The frustrating part about Guatemala is there is not a lot of communication about where the case is in the process and how long it will take - it is basically a free-for-all crap shoot. To make it more complicated...a new law was passed in Dec 2007 that is basically going to change things and possibly make it more complicated.

So I just thought I would answer this question since a lot of people seem to want to know.

If you would like to see an example - check out the Mohr's blog (there is a link on our blog) in the months of May and June 2007...it has good insights.

I have also mentioned the environment in Guatemala and changes in adoptions there a few times and I thought I would expound on that. The most even handed article I have found was in the BBC...here it is if you are interested:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7125697.stm