Light At The End Of The Adoption Process Tunnel
It’s official, we have submitted Little MPB’s Canadian Immigration Part 2 paperwork!
This means that in approximately 8 months, Little MPB should be a Canadian citizen. (But I’m not holding my breath that it will actually be done in 8 months, I’m thinking it’ll be closer to 1 year).
This also happens to mean, as far as I know, we will have no further paperwork related to international adoption to complete! As in, we will be done! We are so close now. This may not sound like a big deal to most people, but considering by the time this is done it will be over 3 years since we started adoption paperwork, I’m excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So far we have managed to successful do:
- Canadian adoption application including medicals, accounting records, police checks, RCMP criminal record checks, children intervention checks, etc.
- Canadian home study paperwork and process.
- USA adoption application
- USA adoption profile book
- Canadian Immigration paperwork Part 1
- Relinquishment paperwork
- Interpol fingerprinting
- Canadian post placement adoption home study paperwork and process
- USA Social Security paperwork
- USA passport (x2 as his first one expired in 1 year)
- USA adoption finalization paperwork including medical, accounting records, etc.
I wont lie, it’s been a grueling process to get through – in addition to all the paperwork and homes studies we’ve also read multiple books and sat through multiple adoption parenting seminars and courses (some of which were absolutely horrible). Heck, even our local notary who we’ve had to visit multiple times over the course of the last 3 years to notarize various documents suggested I write a book to help others out there because he’s been shocked at the process we’ve been through.
Needless to say, I’m excited to be done with paperwork! And I’m also really excited that Part 2 of the paperwork was free!! With the exception of paying to notarize multiple documents, his Canadian Immigration paperwork cost a total of $100.00 when we submitted Part 1. In the world of international adoption costs, $100 is nothing short of amazing!
And, I wont lie, I’m also excited to have dual citizenship for Little MPB. He already has access to full Canadian medical (because I fought with everything I had when they threatened to take it away when he was 6 months old. I even went so as far giving the government department 1 week to sort it out before I went to the media, and let me tell you, I would have put the MPB family on the 6pm news if I had to in order to ensure Little MPB had medical coverage). But once this is done, he will also be able to get a Canadian Social Insurance Numbers (similar to Social Security in the USA), get a Canadian Passport and be eligible for Registered Education Savings Plan. And, I’m sure he’ll be eligible for a few more things that I’ve just taken for granted throughout my life that I just haven’t realize yet.
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Ops, scratch that whole thought about only having this 1 thing left to do. We are also still working on his amended Birth Certificatewith the state he was born in. It was submitted by the state his adoption was finalized in, right after his adoption was finalized. But of course the state he was born in rejected it in March 2017. So, I’ve been working on that since then, and it seems to be moving at a ridiculously slow rate and it feels like every week I have to submit more information to them. But based on my last phone call with them, I’m cautiously optimistic that we are close to being done and I’m hoping his amended birth certificate will arrive in the mail within the next few weeks.
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Congratulations on being (almost) done with paperwork! Hopefully the official papers come through sooner rather than later and the amended birth certificate is about finished as well.
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Thank you!! I would love if all the remaining paperwork comes back sooner then expected. 🙂
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So close… My how far you’ve come. It is really too bad that there’s so much bureaucracy involved in adoptions. If only it could be streamlined somehow so one agency could represent a family through the whole process and make it a lot more attainable to adopt internationally. Adoption is such an important thing for the welfare of so many children, but it’s just such a screwed up process…. You’ve done amazingly well figuring all of this out your own! So excited for you to get these last two things DONE!
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So much bureaucracy!!! And crossing an international border just makes the bureaucracy that much more insane! It sure would be nice to have a streamlined process, but given the number of adoption agencies, adoption lawyers, provincial/state laws, federal laws, international laws, etc, I’m not sure that it will ever be streamlined.
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This is so awesome! And, ugh, government (state, local and federal) is just so weird about rejecting stuff. Hoping the rest is smooth sailing! You deserve smooth sailing!
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Thank you Katy!! I was amazed that the state Little MPB was born in rejected the paperwork sent from the state the adoption was finalized in – I naively thought that the state-to-state process would have been the “easy” paperwork.
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You are going to have to have a party to celebrate! Or plan some kind of celebration at least!!! For all of you! So beautiful. I can’t believe it takes this long and is so complicated, you guys are amazing. You have opened up our eyes to the seemingly scary, long and expensive journey and turned it into a beautiful reality (not without sweat and tears of course).
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I desperately hope Little MPB’s Canadian immigration is approved before next Canada Day (July 1) because I would love to have a massive First Canada Day as a Canadian / All Things Adoption Are Done party for Little MPB. 🙂
Also, thank you, I’m glad that others have been able to see the complexities and realities of the adoption process through our experience. I cannot lie, I am thankful every single day for our beautiful reality!!
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Woohoo!!! Adoption paperwork is insane and even more so on your end with international! So happy you finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!
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This makes me laugh. When you get a bit more caught up you’ll see that I was completely wrong with this!!!
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Oh no!!!
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