Part One: Getting Your Dossier To Ethiopia

Identifying Your Child

The wait for referral is perhaps the biggest variable in the whole adoption process. If you are adopting a waiting child, you may accept a referral before your dossier even gets complete. If you are requesting an infant, you may wait 4-8 months for a referral, with an infant girl being at the longer end of that spectrum. Wait times do vary between agencies. A brand new agency may be able to give referrals quickly at first before they gain much of a client list.

Children’s Commission

In Ethiopia your dossier will be translated in preparation for submission to MOWA, the Ethiopian government ministry in charge of women and children’s affairs. They will look over everything and write up their ruling to be submitted to court.


Court

Once your dossier has returned from the MOWA, your agency will submit it to court. You probably won’t find out your court date assignment right away-- it takes a few days (or sometimes weeks) for the court clerk to assign you a date. Usually families pass court their first time, but sometimes a piece of paperwork is missing, or a necessary person (like a living relative) does not show up, which makes it necessary to schedule another court date. Once you pass court, your children are legally yours by Ethiopian law, and at that point you will probably be assigned a travel date, if you do not have one already. It’s a great time to celebrate!

Passport and Visa

Once the court releases your documents, including your child’s new birth certificate, there are only a few more things to do. Your agency will apply for your child’s passport, and have a visa physical done. Your child is then ready for the embassy appointment. If you are traveling, you will bring your child to that appointment and your child’s visa will be issued. If you are having your child escorted, your court documents will be faxed to your agency in the U.S. Your I-600 will then be submitted to the USCIS office in your area. Once the USCIS issues that I-600 approval, it will be faxed to the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia. At that point the visa will be issued and your child will be free to travel home with the next available escort.