Adoption Process - Vietnam

Many people are curious why we just can't go over to Vietnam to get baby Avery. The process is outlined below. Remember, this is a new program and the timeframe and process could change at any time.

Once our homestudy and dossier is completed and submitted to the Vietnamese government for approval we can expect a referral in approximately 6-9 months (We went on the waiting list 9/8/06). As of today, we are currently #2 on the waiting list.

Dossier: A collection of required documents presented in support of a petition to adopt a child overseas. It becomes the foreign countries paper representation of whom the adopting family is. It is used to "approve" the family adopting a child from their country. The specific paperwork may vary from country to country. Many of these documents are duplicates from the homestudy process.

Upon acceptance of our referral (when all paperwork is completed) our documents will be sent to Vietnam. The follwing is an outline of what will occur once our papers arrive in Vietnam.

(1) Our dossier and acceptance papers are sent to Ho Chi Minh City to the Dillon staff and attorney. When their attorney receives our dossier, he will forward it to a translator. The translation process can take 1-3 weeks. After our dossier has completed the translation process, the attorney will send it to the International Adoption Department (IAD) in Ha Noi. The IAD will review our dossier, and, if they are satisfied with all the documents, they will give our dossier a log-in-date. We can estimate travel within 3-6 months of the log-in-date.

(2) After the IAD has given our dossier a log-in date, they will send a letter to our child’s province requesting that the Local Justice Department begin compiling our child’s legal documents, which is also called the child’s dossier. This process can take up to 30 business days.

(3) Once the IAD in Ha Noi receives our child's dossier, they will review her dossier as well as ours. After they are satisfied with all of the documents they will forward our families dossier (and Avery's) back to her Local Justice Department in the province where she resides.

(4) When the Local Justice Department in Avery's province receives our dossier and her dossier, they will forward the documents to the People's Committee. The People's Committee will then set a date and time for the Giving and Receiving Ceremony. Once that date and time is set we will be "VIETNAM OR BUST".

*We hope and pray that this process will be completed in record time!