Our formal application was submitted to our new agency (along with their fees) so we're getting excited about the prospects of a referral. They explained that the wait time would be approximately 2-4 months for 2 children under 4 - after the dossier is sent in. (We know this can change at any time). The good thing about this agency (
AAI) is that the children do not have to be biological siblings but they must be 9 months apart or twins. Either way is great with us. Since they do not have to be bio siblings, the referral will not take as long. (I like this!).
Next step, get the home study updated. According to
AAI, most agencies are cooperative and send their entire package (home study and dossier) to the new agency - because even though the customer is switching agencies, they have already paid for these docs. Not so with CHI. They would not even send our own home study to us! We knew we'd lose the fees we paid but didn't know we'd lose the docs as well. Anyway, our new home study agency is in the process of updating our home study for a
very reasonable fee and it should be quick since the original was just completed in April. I did keep a copy of the home study - good thing.
I requested that CHI send our dossier (at our expense) directly from Kemerovo to St.
Petersburg since it's already complete, notarized,
apostilled and translated -
nada. No explanation. Just NO. Again, no cooperation whatsoever. Again,
AAI said most agencies will cooperate even at this stage but
apparently not CHI. I guess when you're done with them, they're done with you!
You would think that the orphan's best interest would be kept in mind to get them in a home asap.
Oh well. We will begin again...that's part of the unforeseen process. On the bright side, at least we know what we're doing and know where to go for the
apostilles!