Here is the Process

1. get the referral of your child

2. Prepare a Power of Attorney and forward it to agency with proper signatures and proper seals. Once attourner receives the POA. the process of you adiption can begin in Guatemala.

The I-171H, I600 and G-28 documents along with the documents of the Birth Mom and child are presented to the Embassy in Guatemala. The same day the documents are presented, attorney receives the Authorization for DNA testing. You will be contacted to let you know if it is a match.

4. The US lab where test was processed sends the results directly to Guatemala to the US embassy.

5. You will be notified via E-mail of you child's Visa Pre-Approval bu the USIS/home land Security office in Guatemala. At the same time your Guatemalan Attorney will be notified as well. If you have not received this notification after 4 weeks, Please contact you Case Manager for instructions on how to proceed.

6. Whil all of the above is taking place, your dossier is being translated into Spanish by PGN approved translators and set to Foreign Affairs for authentication.

7. Once the dossier is authenticated, itis submitted to Family Court and a Social Worker is assigned to the case. Various interviews take place, with the Birth Mother, the Child and the FOster Mom.

This can be in process while waithing for your child's Pre Approval notifations about 2 months

8. The Social worker issues a report on his/her findings. If the report is favorable the case can proceed to the PGN (Solicitor's General Office or "Procuraduria General de la Nacion")

Hopefully at this point you attorney has received and picked up you Pre-Approval and he/she is ready to submit your file for the first time to PGN. Once in PGN, your case will be assigned to an attorney who will review you case.

You will get "kicked out" of PGN at least once with "previos". most likely more than one time. These "previos" are irregularities with your case that could be found in either paperwork submitted by your attorney in Guatemala or your dossier. The PGN gets quite picky at this point. You can be rejected from PGN for expired notay commissions, or due to insignifacat things like smudges, cross-outs, white outs, illegibility of a document, and so on. This is quite "normal" in the process. When your reviewing attorney is finished reviewing, he gives you file to his supervisor (another attorney) who then signs the file. The case then moves to the Sub-Attorney General's office for signature.

The cas follows this sequence each time that is rejected and resubmitted to PGN. If they can't find anything else "wrong" with your case, the Sub-Attorney General signs the case for final approval and you are out of PGN. Please note that the Sub-Attorney General does not sign on a daily basis, sometimes not even on a weekly basis.

9. Birth MOther is called into the Guatemala Atorney's office to sign off on your case. At this point the child is YOURS, legally irrevocably and officially.

10. The attorney then needs to file a new birth certificate with your lst name at the Civil Registry in the local Municipality where child was born. This may take up to three weeks; depending on how far away from the city the child was born.

11. The attorney then procures a Guatemalan Passport for your child so the she can travel out of the country. 3----4 days.

12. At this time, documents will need to be translated to English to be presented to the US Embassy inorder to receive you Embassy Interview appointment slop, commonly referred to as the "Pink Slip" About 48 hours from submission. If submitted on Thursdays, it should come out on Tuesday of the next week. The US Embassy is closed for adoptions on Fridays.

13. The baby will need to be seen by an Embassy approved doctor who will do a final examination on the child making sure that all vaccinations are up to date and issuing a bill of good health for the baby to travel. THe Doctore issues a report to this effect. You will need to have you Pink Slip at this point. About 1 day.

14. With you "pink Slip" in hand, the Emabassy will schedule your appointment to ontain the visa for you child to travel. Please note that this is done Monday through Thursday, starting at 7 a.m. At this time you willl pay the proper fee. You need to retain the receipt to show the Counselor officer. Your child's visa will be ready to be picked up in the afternoon or the next day between 3 and 4. About 1-2 weeks.

18. You are now free to bring your child home!!!



There are two DNA's in this process. One at the beginning to make sure baby matches mom. Then one at the end to make sure first baby is the same as baby at the end.