Good golly, GUZ#!

Happy Friday!  I hope you have had a great week!  I’ve been thinking a lot about this blogging-thing and realize that this is NOT one of my talents.  I worked really hard at finding a “catchy” title for this one……hope you like it!  Don’t get too used to it though; I’m probably one-and-done in the “catchy” department.

I work for a company that has a million acronyms, but I will say that adoption has its fair share!  Between DTC’s, LID’s, LOA’s, LSC’s, SIM’s, NVC’s, TA’s, and now GUZ’s, the adoption lingo is pretty crazy.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we have been waiting on a letter from the NVC (here we go again with the acronyms) before we could move on to the next step.  Well, we have our letter and a GUZ #!!  Thanks to the wonderful internet, adoptive families who have been through this before blogging about it (Thank you!), and email, I was able to speed up the process of getting this letter just slightly.  Instead of waiting for this letter in the mail, I was able to get an email copy and not have to wait for the mail before filling out the next paperwork.  Score one for us!

There is a GUZ number (I have no idea what this stands for.) and an invoice number on this paperwork that you have to have before you can even open the webpage to apply for the DS-260.  The DS-260 is Olivia’s visa application, which she has to have to enter the U.S.  (For those wondering, the application was pretty intense and asked some pretty tough questions.)  This milestone is also significant because more importantly, it means that our paperwork has been cabled/emailed to the U.S. Consulate in China.  We are one step closer! 

Early next week, a representative from our adoption agency will take our paperwork to the US Consulate as well.  The Consular Officer will review our paperwork and advise if anything is out of line (Please pray that all is well.).  If the officer determines the child appears eligible to immigrate to the U.S. and that the information provided indicates that we have complied with all rules/regulations, he/she will notify the Chinese government by issuing an Article 5/17 letter (Art 5 in adoption lingo).  This will tell the Chinese government that “U.S. competent authorities have determined us to be eligible and suited to adopt, and that the child may enter and reside permanently in the U.S.; the U.S. Central Authority agrees that the adoption may proceed.”  This process should take 2 weeks.  The consulate only accepts this type of paperwork on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, so hopefully they can get there on Monday.  Then we move on to the next step!   

Once our rep picks up the Article 5 and delivers it to the Chinese Government's Adoption Authority (CCCWA), it will take approximately 2 weeks for them to review the paperwork and issue our TA (Travel Approval).  Once we have the TA, we can schedule our appointment with the US Consulate and will know our travel dates!  (and apply for our visas to enter China) From my estimation, we are about 6-8 weeks from travel.  Yikes – that means that I better get moving on some things!!  We still have a lot to do!

Well, thanks for reading!  I'll try to come up with another "catchy" title for my next post.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Jill