Guatemala Adoption Process

For those of you who have been following our China adoption journey you probably are realizing how different the process in Guatemala is. This is a brief summary of how the process works in Guatemala and where we are in the process:

1/ Complete a homestudy and dossier. A homestudy is a report, prepared by a social worker, about your family. This report is basically your life story. A dossier is a group of documents that you have to complete that get into medical history, financial history, etc..

2/ I71H approval - This is approval from U.S. immigration for you to bring a child into the U.S. This approval can take several months. However, we already had approval for China. We just had to switch the country to Guatemala.

3/ Accept a referal of a child

4/ Embassy Pre-Approval and DNA test - The U.S. embassy authorizes a DNA test. The baby and the birthmother have to have DNA tests to confirm the birth mother is indeed the actual mother of the child. After the embassy receives the results from the DNA test and reviews your dossier they send you an email confirming you have pre-approval.

5/ Family Court - a social worker in Guatemala reviews the case, interviews the birthmother and the foster mother, and then writes a long report on why the birthmother can not care for the child and approves the adoption.

6/ PGN (Procuraduria General De La Nacion) - After family court approves the adoption the case is sent to PGN. In PGN, all the families and the child's documents are reviewed and they issue there approval. This is where they really scrutinize all the documents and often kick back forms for minor spelling errors and notary issues.

7/ Pink Slip - After PGN approves the case it goes back to the U.S. embassy for them to authorize the child's visa. This is called your pink slip. This pink slip will outline the time and date you will pick up your child.

As of now we have completed steps 1-4. We are currently in Family Court and the birthmother and foster mother are being interviewed on Thursday, 10-11-07. We will keep you posted!!