Article 5 today! Next step Travel Approval!

Just wanted to update everyone that we are only a few weeks away from getting our Travel Approval from China.  Just received the e-mail below from the US Consulate in Guangzhou.  About  a week after we have officially adopted Anna in Zhengzhou we will travel to Guangzhou to receive her US Visa.  She will travel to the US with a Chinese passport and once we land in the US she will officially be a US citizen!  The consulate appointment is the thing we need in order to know our travel dates and buy our plane tickets.  Please pray that the October 1-6 Chinese National Holiday will not affect our adoption trip adversely.  During Chinese holidays government offices close and EVERYONE in China takes a vacation. This makes travelling in China difficult (we know this from experience.)

Dear Adoptive Parent,

The Adopted Children's Immigrant Visa Unit (ACIVU) at U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou has finished processing your child's Article 5, and your file is ready to be returned to your adoption agency's facilitator today. 

Next, your agency will deliver the Article 5 and Letter of Seeking Confirmation to the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA), which will issue the Travel Approval (TA).  The TA allows you to come to China to finalize the adoption, so once the CCCWA issues the TA, your agency can email us to request an immigrant visa appointment at the Consulate.  When your agency requests an appointment, they are required to submit your five choices in rank order.  The ACIVU strives to schedule every family for their top appointment choice on which we still have available visa appointments.  We do not reserve certain days for children of certain ages.  All appointments are open to adopted children of any age and medical condition, and they are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.  We then notify your agency of the scheduled date and time. 

We understand that plans change and occasionally an agency must request to change an appointment, but we ask them to minimize such requests and only make them in the case of true emergencies because frequent appointment changes impede our ability to give other families their top choices.   In order to avoid the need to reschedule, please coordinate closely with your agency in formulating your list of five preferred appointment dates. Regarding booking flights to return to the United States: Please be aware that difficulties that are completely beyond our control often arise in the approval and printing of visas.

When you book flights for your return travel, please be aware that while we make every effort to issue visas the afternoon following the immigrant visa interview, from time to time issues beyond our control prevent us from keeping to this schedule.  Guangzhou’s  Consular Section issues thousands of visas each business day, and problems, while rare, do occur.  In order to avoid the costly need to change your travel plans, we strongly recommend that you allow at least 48 hours after the time of your visa interview to depart Guangzhou.

Please visit our website at http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/adoption.html and the Department of State's official resource for adoptions http://adoption.state.gov to learn more.

We look forward to meeting you and your new family member when you come to the Consulate for your visa appointment!

Best regards,

Adopted Children's Immigrant Visa Unit (ACIVU)
U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou
Phone: (86)(20) 8518 7653
Fax: (86)(20) 3884 4420
Email: GuangzhouA@state.gov
http://adoption.state.gov