Adoption Timeline

So you're thinking about adopting a baby and are wondering about the timelines.
Here is our particular timeline, we did our adoption through ICBF (Colombian Social Services) instead of a Casa (private orphanage) we were assigned to the 0 to 36 months-old range, and our family got a little bit of preference since I'm Colombian, there are some families with Colombian heritage that have gotten their referral way faster and a few that have taken longer but after following different adoption proceses for two years I can tell you ours was a pretty average case for a Colombian Heritage family.
If neither you or your spouse is Colombian, then the referral will be longer.  You can go to this blog thread http://raisingcolombiankids.blogspot.com/search/label/ICBF%20Wait%20List to have an idea of how the waiting list is moving along.

I've done it in stages because that's how it goes. I didn't take into account the "information gathering" time in the first stage because that will vary a lot according to your family.


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	Elapsed Time
Information gathering - Agency Selection
Sent Application to local & international agencies	5 months, 2 days
1st Social Worker Visit	3 weeks, 4 days
2nd SW visit	5 days
Finished Homestudy	2 months, 2 days
STAGE 1 -HOMESTUDY	3 months, 2 days
Filed I-800A	3 weeks, 6 days
Fingerprints	2 weeks, 1 days
I-800A Approval	3 weeks, 1 days
Dossier Submitted before ICBF	1 months, 11 days
STAGE 2 - DOSSIER PREPARATION	3 months, 15 days
Officially Approved by ICBF	2 weeks, 2 days
Sent to Regional Santander	3 weeks, 6 days
Referred to Katie by Commitee	1 months, 24 days
STAGE 3.1 - REFERRAL	3 months, 7 days
Fingerprints Sent to FBI	2 weeks, 0 days
Received official Referral by LSSMN	1 weeks, 1 days
STAGE 3.2 - YOU GET THE NEWS	3 months, 29 days
Filed I-800	1 weeks, 2 days
Received I-800 receipt and faxed DS-230 to Embassy	1 weeks, 0 days
I-800 received at Hague division (8wd)	5 days
I-800 Approved by adjudicator (3wd)	3 days
I-800 Sent to NVC so they scan and send it to Embassy in Bogota (1wd)	4 days
NVC finally scanned the file and sent it to Bogota	6 days
Bogota Embassy Issued Article 5 Letter	1 days
Paul got his Colombian Visa	3 days
Received FBI background check (ETA=10 weeks after filed - got them in 8w because I begged)	1 weeks, 6 days
Presentation/ Entrega Day	4 days
STAGE 4 - ENTREGA	1 months, 25 days
Integration Visit	1 weeks, 1 days
Presented the Demanda	3 days
Sentencia  -  Final Adoption Decree	1 months, 4 days
Colombian Passport & Medical Eval	5 days
ICBF Conformity & US Embassy	1 days
Received US Immigrant Visa	1 days
STAGE 5 - YOU CAN GO HOME WITH YOUR BABY!	1 months, 22 days
TIME FROM FIRST PAPERWORK TO BABY IN ARMS	12 months, 11 days
TOTAL TIME	14 months, 3 days