Wooohooo!!! Here is the latest update on where we are with China:
CCAA Document Processing
The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before November 31, 2006.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before December 27, 2005.
Retrieved from China Centre of Adoption Affairs: February 14, 2007
What does this mean? Well, for us it means that our dossier has moved from "no-man's land" into the review room where they will be going over everything and making sure that we meet all the requirements. I know, it seems like an extra step that would have already been done before our dossier was sent. But we play by the rules and hope for the best. After all it is our priviledge to b able to adopt from China.
And to add to this positive update, our homestudy update is complete and we have been added to te domestic registry. And THIS means that we will have to be prepared for the possibility of getting a phone call at any moment. I guess we'll be looking for a crib and car seat sooner rather than later. HOLY CRAP!!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Friday, February 08, 2008
Monday, February 04, 2008
Parallel Journeys
If you know me well, you will know that I am constantly thinking steps ahead of things. So this might not come as a surprise to some of you. Why not one, when we could have two?
Now, there are no guarantees going this route. Essentially we are waiting for someone to pick us. To trust that we will do right by their child. We could be waiting for years for this to happen. But the flip side is that it could happen at any moment. Darren teases me that we will get the phone call on the same day as Ironman Canada. I say, bring it!
So we spent this weekend going through all our photos, trying to narrow down the selection to represent us, our lives, our families and friends. Not an easy task when you have to keep it to two pages. And we have been working on our "Dear Birthmother" letter. THAT, is the most important resume that I will ever write! There is so much that we want to say, but it can only be one page in length. And we want to make sure that it is received as honest and sincere. I guess if I had tears streaming down my face while trying to put thoughts into words makes it pretty sincere.
And here we are. Another journey. Another new adventure. How freakin' exciting is that? Our little Teia, our precious one waiting for us. She may come home to meet her sibling. Or she may be the older one, the one that will have the responsibility of picking on her brother or sister!
Our dream of having little Teia home gets closer every day, but it will be a long journey yet. And what little girl wouldn't love a sibling? (Actually, no one asked me that before my brother came on the scene, but I Iove him like crazy...now!) Yup, we are going to try to make that happen. How? Well...we are putting our hearts out there in the land of domestic adoption in the hopes that a birthmother might find it in her heart to share the most amazing gift anyone could ever give to us. A child.
Now, there are no guarantees going this route. Essentially we are waiting for someone to pick us. To trust that we will do right by their child. We could be waiting for years for this to happen. But the flip side is that it could happen at any moment. Darren teases me that we will get the phone call on the same day as Ironman Canada. I say, bring it!
So we spent this weekend going through all our photos, trying to narrow down the selection to represent us, our lives, our families and friends. Not an easy task when you have to keep it to two pages. And we have been working on our "Dear Birthmother" letter. THAT, is the most important resume that I will ever write! There is so much that we want to say, but it can only be one page in length. And we want to make sure that it is received as honest and sincere. I guess if I had tears streaming down my face while trying to put thoughts into words makes it pretty sincere.
And here we are. Another journey. Another new adventure. How freakin' exciting is that? Our little Teia, our precious one waiting for us. She may come home to meet her sibling. Or she may be the older one, the one that will have the responsibility of picking on her brother or sister!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Canada, eh...
Top court refuses bid to give adoptive moms maternity leave
Thursday, January 24, 2008 01:57 PM ET (CBC News)
The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to hear the case of a B.C. mom seeking to change Canada's employment laws so that they grant maternity leave to adoptive parents.
Under the federal Employment Insurance Act, birth parents receive a total of 50 weeks of leave when they combine parental and maternity leave.
When Patti Tomasson of Vancouver adopted children in 1999 and 2003, she applied for the benefits but received only a portion of the time — the 35 weeks of parental leave.
She fought the Canada Employment Insurance Commission, arguing that their refusal to grant her the extra 15 weeks of maternity leave given to birth parents went against the constitutional right of equality.
When she brought her case before the Federal Court of Appeal in August 2007, it ruled that Tomasson did not qualify for maternity benefits because she did not undergo the "physiological and psychological experience" of pregnancy and childbirth.
Adoption advocates have argued that the 15 weeks of maternity leave are more than enough time to recover from childbirth. They say most of that time is actually spent bonding with the child, something adoptive parents should also be able to do.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
WTF??
Rant on:
What the hell does this mean?? Is this a sign that the China program is bound for closure? I relied on this source of information. It was coming directly from the powers that be in China. No interpretations from anyone. The dates were given as to which LIDs were moving out of the review room and which LIDs were finally matched. Now we waiting parents have to be the persistent pain in the arse for our agencies?
Add to this the email we received from our agency telling us that the best case scenario for us is to receive our referral three, yes I said three, years from our LID. That would mean finally travelling in 2010! I can't wrap my head around this. All I want is to be a parent. What the hell am I doing wrong??
Rant off...as you were folks
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Yes..It's true...I suffer from bouts of PRS
PRS or Pre-Referral Syndrome
It's that time of month again...I don't mean PMS but PRS or Pre-Referral Syndrome. This is a much more dangerous time of month than PMS is for most women, even worse than PMDD.
Typical Symptoms: Women in the process of Chinese Adoption will sit in front of their computers, for days on end trying to find one tiny shred of fact regarding the latest LID cut-off or actual date of said referrals; either through forums, chat rooms or blogs. Most women WILL lose some sleep during this time by choosing to surf for clues until the wee house of the morning, get a few hours of sleep only to get up extra early to see if anything has surfaced in the 3 hours they were asleep. Most women feel anxious, go through bouts of excitement and depression and appear to be losing her mind to those around her. When she will allow herself to be torn away from her cyber hunt, she will be prone to bouts of sobbing, shopping spree?s for baby items (mostly in pink), and will tend to eat copious amounts of Edy's Slow Churned ice cream. In extreme cases some women will lose short term memory, they will forget to take care of their daily responsibilities such as letting the dog out, planning dinner, going to work, etc. Some women will even forgo hygienic rituals, skipping showers, putting hair in ponytail, or wearing sunglasses to the grocery store to hide the dark circles and pale complexion due to lack of sleep and make-up.
Cycle Duration: Women usually experience PRS symptoms from 2 days to 2 weeks before the onset of Adoption Referrals being received at adoption agencies and can show continued symptoms for 2 days to 2 weeks AFTER referral information has been officially announced. Warning: Those experiencing symptoms 2 weeks before AND 2 weeks after SHOULD SEEK
MEDICAL ATTENTION or at least have an extremely supportive network of family and friends who can make sure that she doesn't go to work in her underwear or fall asleep in unusual places.
Life-time Duration: This is a chronic disorder that will continue on a regular basis until the cure* is administered. Years ago experts in this area believed the duration of PRS to only last 6-8 months. Then 10-12 months, 22-24 months and now some believe it could go as long as four years. As you can see there is not a definite end to this syndrome and those considered experts actually have no idea either.
*Cure:One adopted daughter, home in her mother's arms.
taken from a forum that I belong to, that was taken from a blog out there somewhere :)
It's that time of month again...I don't mean PMS but PRS or Pre-Referral Syndrome. This is a much more dangerous time of month than PMS is for most women, even worse than PMDD.
Typical Symptoms: Women in the process of Chinese Adoption will sit in front of their computers, for days on end trying to find one tiny shred of fact regarding the latest LID cut-off or actual date of said referrals; either through forums, chat rooms or blogs. Most women WILL lose some sleep during this time by choosing to surf for clues until the wee house of the morning, get a few hours of sleep only to get up extra early to see if anything has surfaced in the 3 hours they were asleep. Most women feel anxious, go through bouts of excitement and depression and appear to be losing her mind to those around her. When she will allow herself to be torn away from her cyber hunt, she will be prone to bouts of sobbing, shopping spree?s for baby items (mostly in pink), and will tend to eat copious amounts of Edy's Slow Churned ice cream. In extreme cases some women will lose short term memory, they will forget to take care of their daily responsibilities such as letting the dog out, planning dinner, going to work, etc. Some women will even forgo hygienic rituals, skipping showers, putting hair in ponytail, or wearing sunglasses to the grocery store to hide the dark circles and pale complexion due to lack of sleep and make-up.
Cycle Duration: Women usually experience PRS symptoms from 2 days to 2 weeks before the onset of Adoption Referrals being received at adoption agencies and can show continued symptoms for 2 days to 2 weeks AFTER referral information has been officially announced. Warning: Those experiencing symptoms 2 weeks before AND 2 weeks after SHOULD SEEK
MEDICAL ATTENTION or at least have an extremely supportive network of family and friends who can make sure that she doesn't go to work in her underwear or fall asleep in unusual places.
Life-time Duration: This is a chronic disorder that will continue on a regular basis until the cure* is administered. Years ago experts in this area believed the duration of PRS to only last 6-8 months. Then 10-12 months, 22-24 months and now some believe it could go as long as four years. As you can see there is not a definite end to this syndrome and those considered experts actually have no idea either.
*Cure:One adopted daughter, home in her mother's arms.
taken from a forum that I belong to, that was taken from a blog out there somewhere :)
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
This is a joke, right??
Imagine my surprise when I read the article below. One can't seriously think that the powers that be in China(who are so diligent in their reviews of families hoping to adopt a child) would approve someone like Britney Spears to adopt twins! Is this a case of celebrity special privelege? Is there a way of adopting privately in China? For the love of all that is good please let this be a bunch of bullsh*t tabloid pot stirring. Read on, friends...read on...
People News
Just what Britney needs, two more kids
08/31/2007 - Britney Spears - USA © Erik Kabik / PR Photos');
//-->
08/31/2007 - Britney Spears - USA © Erik Kabik / PR Photos
Nov 26, 2007, 12:30 GMT
';
var PageContent= 'Britney Spears is reportedly set to adopt Chinese twins.\n\nThe troubled singer - who recently lost custody of her two sons, Sean Preston, two, and 14-month-old Jayden James, to ex-husband Kevin Federline - is allegedly in the final stages of talks with an agency about adopting the six-year-olds.\nFriends claim Britney - who has three supervised visits with Sean and Jayden a week - is desperate to fill the void in her life since she lost the boys and believes opening her home to the disadvantaged youngsters will give her life new purpose.\nA source said: "She misses her boys terribly and needs them in her life. She thinks adopting the twins is the perfect solution."\nThe \'Gimme More\' singer - who was ordered by a judge to undergo random drug tests to prove she\'s a suitable mother - is also said to be planning her own funeral.\nBritney, 25, is so concerned her unhealthy lifestyle will eventually take its toll so has splashed out £25,000 in case she ends up in an early grave.\nA friend added: "Adoption and a funeral? They two don\'t exactly go hand-in-hand.\n"Paying for a funeral is a sensible thing to do - but not when you\'re only 25! It\'s a case of too much, too soon with Britney."\nEarlier this month, Britney was banned from driving with Sean and Jayden and her court-ordered parenting coach recently slammed her mothering skills, saying her household: "Ranged from chaotic to almost somber with no communication at all."\n(C) BANG Media International';
PrintArticle();//-->
Britney Spears is reportedly set to adopt Chinese twins.
The troubled singer - who recently lost custody of her two sons, Sean Preston, two, and 14-month-old Jayden James, to ex-husband Kevin Federline - is allegedly in the final stages of talks with an agency about adopting the six-year-olds.
Friends claim Britney - who has three supervised visits with Sean and Jayden a week - is desperate to fill the void in her life since she lost the boys and believes opening her home to the disadvantaged youngsters will give her life new purpose.
A source said: "She misses her boys terribly and needs them in her life. She thinks adopting the twins is the perfect solution."
The 'Gimme More' singer - who was ordered by a judge to undergo random drug tests to prove she's a suitable mother - is also said to be planning her own funeral.
Britney, 25, is so concerned her unhealthy lifestyle will eventually take its toll so has splashed out £25,000 in case she ends up in an early grave.
A friend added: "Adoption and a funeral? They two don't exactly go hand-in-hand.
"Paying for a funeral is a sensible thing to do - but not when you're only 25! It's a case of too much, too soon with Britney."
Earlier this month, Britney was banned from driving with Sean and Jayden and her court-ordered parenting coach recently slammed her mothering skills, saying her household: "Ranged from chaotic to almost somber with no communication at all."
People News
Just what Britney needs, two more kids
08/31/2007 - Britney Spears - USA © Erik Kabik / PR Photos');
//-->
08/31/2007 - Britney Spears - USA © Erik Kabik / PR Photos
Nov 26, 2007, 12:30 GMT
';
var PageContent= 'Britney Spears is reportedly set to adopt Chinese twins.\n\nThe troubled singer - who recently lost custody of her two sons, Sean Preston, two, and 14-month-old Jayden James, to ex-husband Kevin Federline - is allegedly in the final stages of talks with an agency about adopting the six-year-olds.\nFriends claim Britney - who has three supervised visits with Sean and Jayden a week - is desperate to fill the void in her life since she lost the boys and believes opening her home to the disadvantaged youngsters will give her life new purpose.\nA source said: "She misses her boys terribly and needs them in her life. She thinks adopting the twins is the perfect solution."\nThe \'Gimme More\' singer - who was ordered by a judge to undergo random drug tests to prove she\'s a suitable mother - is also said to be planning her own funeral.\nBritney, 25, is so concerned her unhealthy lifestyle will eventually take its toll so has splashed out £25,000 in case she ends up in an early grave.\nA friend added: "Adoption and a funeral? They two don\'t exactly go hand-in-hand.\n"Paying for a funeral is a sensible thing to do - but not when you\'re only 25! It\'s a case of too much, too soon with Britney."\nEarlier this month, Britney was banned from driving with Sean and Jayden and her court-ordered parenting coach recently slammed her mothering skills, saying her household: "Ranged from chaotic to almost somber with no communication at all."\n(C) BANG Media International';
PrintArticle();//-->
Britney Spears is reportedly set to adopt Chinese twins.
The troubled singer - who recently lost custody of her two sons, Sean Preston, two, and 14-month-old Jayden James, to ex-husband Kevin Federline - is allegedly in the final stages of talks with an agency about adopting the six-year-olds.
Friends claim Britney - who has three supervised visits with Sean and Jayden a week - is desperate to fill the void in her life since she lost the boys and believes opening her home to the disadvantaged youngsters will give her life new purpose.
A source said: "She misses her boys terribly and needs them in her life. She thinks adopting the twins is the perfect solution."
The 'Gimme More' singer - who was ordered by a judge to undergo random drug tests to prove she's a suitable mother - is also said to be planning her own funeral.
Britney, 25, is so concerned her unhealthy lifestyle will eventually take its toll so has splashed out £25,000 in case she ends up in an early grave.
A friend added: "Adoption and a funeral? They two don't exactly go hand-in-hand.
"Paying for a funeral is a sensible thing to do - but not when you're only 25! It's a case of too much, too soon with Britney."
Earlier this month, Britney was banned from driving with Sean and Jayden and her court-ordered parenting coach recently slammed her mothering skills, saying her household: "Ranged from chaotic to almost somber with no communication at all."
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Talk about being put on a shelf...
This might give you an idea of just how many other families are waiting patiently to move from the review room to the matching room. Somewhere in the stacks and stacks of dossiers awaits ours. As of yesterday, those with dossiers LID on or before Aug. 31/06 have finished being reviewed. Those with LID of Dec. 8/05 are finally receiving their referrals. Almost a two year wait for them. Could late 2008 be our time? As much as it kills me to wait, I think that I can deal with that. Longer, however...well that is the bigger question. Do good things really come to those who wait? Today, my answer is yes. Ask me again tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Speed up, slow down...Where does the truth lie?
G'day sports fans! I thought that I would enlighten you with today's tid bit regarding wait times for our adoption. The runours are flying once again. I get my daily updates from Rumor Queen, since we get absolutely NO updates from our own agencies. I try to take everything with a grain of salt and not read too much into things.
Is there a glimmer of hope that things are going to start to speed up. I sure hope so. For the love of all that is good, I hope so.
Here are the terms for the abbreviations used in the post below:
CCAA (China Centre of Adoption Affairs)
SN (special needs)
NSN (non special needs)
LID (log in date)
IA (international adoption)
SWI (social welfare institute)
Happy reading! Fingers and toes crossed.
October 9th, 2007
We all know that the CCAA told multiple agencies and countries during their tour that things will pick up after the first of the year. Specifically, they will do 15 days at a time (or take two calendar months to do a LID month, there were several variations that said the same thing).
As I’ve noted before, it appears that in order to do 15 days at a time they will need to increase the number of NSN referrals issued per month in order to make that happen.
There has been a lot of speculation on whether this will happen. People remember that the CCAA has told agencies other things in the past that didn’t turn out to be true, and so there is a good deal of mis-trust about this statement.
I’ve received a few emails from people who claim to have special knowledge. Though they are a bit cryptic about their actual source, it appears from what little they do say, that their sources are probably different from each other. And yet they all have a few things in common. The most notable being that the 15 days per month are not going to happen. Putting them all together, I believe the main points are:
The ceiling/quota next year will be even lower than this year (which is lower than last year’s ceiling/quota).
The COA (which is part of the State Department?) is frowning on agencies that are trying to be vague about the wait times for China.
Two weeks (15 days) of referrals will not happen. They may get close a few times, but do not expect it to happen on a regular basis.
The Special Needs Program is now the primary focus, and they are trying to ramp the NSN program down as quickly as possible without it becoming a media event or having an outcry about human rights issues.
What does this mean?
I don’t know. I have people with “special insider information” saying both things - that the ceiling/quota is going to be higher next year from some and that it will go down yet again from others. The supposed sources for the good news seems to be agencies and facilitators and for the not-so-good news seems to mostly be from U.S. official channels. How would our State Department or USCIS or COA know these things? I don’t know.
Also, at least two agencies seem to be basing their speed up statements on the fact that they know that the CCAA is has matched their clients pretty far out ahead of time. As I’ve said before, I’m sure that the CCAA is matching some families far ahead of time, but I don’t know that they have matched everyone ahead of time. I have some circumstantial evidence from the most recent batch that tells me that they are not matching everyone early. I don’t know anything for sure, but if I’m correct on that then at least two agencies are basing their speed up hopes on incomplete information. Just because the CCAA has matched their families pretty far in advance, it does not mean the CCAA has matched all families so far in advance.
One thing I have heard quite a bit of that seems to be in agreement from all sides: Current SN vs NSN consulate appointments seem to be more SN than NSN. Also, many agencies (not all agencies, many agencies) are reporting that they are now sending more families to China to complete a SN adoption than they are in the NSN program. I believe that at this time the SN program is bigger than the NSN program. Not in terms of dossiers, of course, but in terms of children actually being adopted each month. (As a side note, the State Department numbers should be out soon for the fiscal year just ended, it will be interesting to see what those numbers say. I wish they broke them down by program, but I guess we take what we can get at this point.)
I believe that December is about 60% the size of November. I also believe that the CCAA should be able to get through December in three months (with maybe a few December LIDs included in a fourth month that would be mostly made up of January LIDs). This assumes that they continue to do about the same number of NSN referrals per calendar month as they have been doing. If they increase that number then it could be less than three months, if they reduce that number even more, then, well, I don’t want to go there.
As far as speed up rumors, let’s look at a bit of history. Over the past two years we have had at least two big events where we were SURE things were going to speed up in the next month or two. First there was the promise last summer that the CCAA didn’t want the wait to go over a year. We were certain things would speed up since we were so close to that year mark - and even when we hit the year mark there were agencies saying it wouldn’t go over 14 months, that the CCAA was working hard to keep the wait from continueing to grow. I believed them, as did many others.
Then, last fall we had the combined rumor of new SWI’s being added to the IA program in the spring plus Brian Stuy’s statement last September that we were currently at the longest wait times. And then there was the waiting dad with a December of ‘05 LID who asked the CCAA director face to face when he would get his referral and was told December. (We all thought it meant last December, none of us thought it was possible it would be the following December.)
So last fall we were all pretty much believing things would speed up, which didn’t happen. And then came January ‘07 and they put the brakes on even more.
There was also the rumor from agencies that the CCAA wasn’t going to let the wait get to the point where people would have to redo their I-171H, but the CCAA later made it pretty clear that they were not concerned about that and if we didn’t like it we should look to our government to change, not to them to shorten the wait.
More recently I’ve had correspondence from people who apparently believed Bob C on APC back in June when he promised that a ceiling would be reached on the waiting time over the summer. Though I don’t think that was a big event, just a few dozen people who hung their hat (and hopes) on his words.
So where does this leave us now? We’ve basically been promised (again) that things are going to pick up a bit. Soon. And this time we are hearing it from the CCAA (told to multiple agencies and governments over the summer) as well as agencies continueing to get this word now from the CCAA. Some of us interpret the CCAA’s statement to governments and agencies to mean this next batch (since we are through with November) and some people interpret it to mean the batch to arrive in December (the first batch of the CCAA’s next fiscal year) and some people interpret it to mean the batch to arrive in January (since that’s the first of 2008). And many of us feel like Charlie Brown and the football - not going to fall for it again. But then, hope springs eternal, and maybe they are telling the truth this time and the football won’t be yanked away yet again.
To summarize:
We know that if things stay exactly the same then LID days per batch should increase because we know there aren’t as many people logged in during the next few months.
We’ve been promised 15 days at a time (two months to do one month, etc), which would seem to mean an increase in the number of referrals per month.
There are rumors out there that the ceiling/quota will indeed be higher next year, which means maybe they are going to pull it off.
There are also rumors that the ceiling/quota next year will be lower, which would be very very very bad.
We may know this month, or next month, but at the latest we should know by the January batch whether this rumored speed up is going to happen.
There are dozens of theories of why things may be about to speed up. This blog post is too long as it is, so I’m not going to go there.
Is there a glimmer of hope that things are going to start to speed up. I sure hope so. For the love of all that is good, I hope so.
Here are the terms for the abbreviations used in the post below:
CCAA (China Centre of Adoption Affairs)
SN (special needs)
NSN (non special needs)
LID (log in date)
IA (international adoption)
SWI (social welfare institute)
Happy reading! Fingers and toes crossed.
October 9th, 2007
We all know that the CCAA told multiple agencies and countries during their tour that things will pick up after the first of the year. Specifically, they will do 15 days at a time (or take two calendar months to do a LID month, there were several variations that said the same thing).
As I’ve noted before, it appears that in order to do 15 days at a time they will need to increase the number of NSN referrals issued per month in order to make that happen.
There has been a lot of speculation on whether this will happen. People remember that the CCAA has told agencies other things in the past that didn’t turn out to be true, and so there is a good deal of mis-trust about this statement.
I’ve received a few emails from people who claim to have special knowledge. Though they are a bit cryptic about their actual source, it appears from what little they do say, that their sources are probably different from each other. And yet they all have a few things in common. The most notable being that the 15 days per month are not going to happen. Putting them all together, I believe the main points are:
The ceiling/quota next year will be even lower than this year (which is lower than last year’s ceiling/quota).
The COA (which is part of the State Department?) is frowning on agencies that are trying to be vague about the wait times for China.
Two weeks (15 days) of referrals will not happen. They may get close a few times, but do not expect it to happen on a regular basis.
The Special Needs Program is now the primary focus, and they are trying to ramp the NSN program down as quickly as possible without it becoming a media event or having an outcry about human rights issues.
What does this mean?
I don’t know. I have people with “special insider information” saying both things - that the ceiling/quota is going to be higher next year from some and that it will go down yet again from others. The supposed sources for the good news seems to be agencies and facilitators and for the not-so-good news seems to mostly be from U.S. official channels. How would our State Department or USCIS or COA know these things? I don’t know.
Also, at least two agencies seem to be basing their speed up statements on the fact that they know that the CCAA is has matched their clients pretty far out ahead of time. As I’ve said before, I’m sure that the CCAA is matching some families far ahead of time, but I don’t know that they have matched everyone ahead of time. I have some circumstantial evidence from the most recent batch that tells me that they are not matching everyone early. I don’t know anything for sure, but if I’m correct on that then at least two agencies are basing their speed up hopes on incomplete information. Just because the CCAA has matched their families pretty far in advance, it does not mean the CCAA has matched all families so far in advance.
One thing I have heard quite a bit of that seems to be in agreement from all sides: Current SN vs NSN consulate appointments seem to be more SN than NSN. Also, many agencies (not all agencies, many agencies) are reporting that they are now sending more families to China to complete a SN adoption than they are in the NSN program. I believe that at this time the SN program is bigger than the NSN program. Not in terms of dossiers, of course, but in terms of children actually being adopted each month. (As a side note, the State Department numbers should be out soon for the fiscal year just ended, it will be interesting to see what those numbers say. I wish they broke them down by program, but I guess we take what we can get at this point.)
I believe that December is about 60% the size of November. I also believe that the CCAA should be able to get through December in three months (with maybe a few December LIDs included in a fourth month that would be mostly made up of January LIDs). This assumes that they continue to do about the same number of NSN referrals per calendar month as they have been doing. If they increase that number then it could be less than three months, if they reduce that number even more, then, well, I don’t want to go there.
As far as speed up rumors, let’s look at a bit of history. Over the past two years we have had at least two big events where we were SURE things were going to speed up in the next month or two. First there was the promise last summer that the CCAA didn’t want the wait to go over a year. We were certain things would speed up since we were so close to that year mark - and even when we hit the year mark there were agencies saying it wouldn’t go over 14 months, that the CCAA was working hard to keep the wait from continueing to grow. I believed them, as did many others.
Then, last fall we had the combined rumor of new SWI’s being added to the IA program in the spring plus Brian Stuy’s statement last September that we were currently at the longest wait times. And then there was the waiting dad with a December of ‘05 LID who asked the CCAA director face to face when he would get his referral and was told December. (We all thought it meant last December, none of us thought it was possible it would be the following December.)
So last fall we were all pretty much believing things would speed up, which didn’t happen. And then came January ‘07 and they put the brakes on even more.
There was also the rumor from agencies that the CCAA wasn’t going to let the wait get to the point where people would have to redo their I-171H, but the CCAA later made it pretty clear that they were not concerned about that and if we didn’t like it we should look to our government to change, not to them to shorten the wait.
More recently I’ve had correspondence from people who apparently believed Bob C on APC back in June when he promised that a ceiling would be reached on the waiting time over the summer. Though I don’t think that was a big event, just a few dozen people who hung their hat (and hopes) on his words.
So where does this leave us now? We’ve basically been promised (again) that things are going to pick up a bit. Soon. And this time we are hearing it from the CCAA (told to multiple agencies and governments over the summer) as well as agencies continueing to get this word now from the CCAA. Some of us interpret the CCAA’s statement to governments and agencies to mean this next batch (since we are through with November) and some people interpret it to mean the batch to arrive in December (the first batch of the CCAA’s next fiscal year) and some people interpret it to mean the batch to arrive in January (since that’s the first of 2008). And many of us feel like Charlie Brown and the football - not going to fall for it again. But then, hope springs eternal, and maybe they are telling the truth this time and the football won’t be yanked away yet again.
To summarize:
We know that if things stay exactly the same then LID days per batch should increase because we know there aren’t as many people logged in during the next few months.
We’ve been promised 15 days at a time (two months to do one month, etc), which would seem to mean an increase in the number of referrals per month.
There are rumors out there that the ceiling/quota will indeed be higher next year, which means maybe they are going to pull it off.
There are also rumors that the ceiling/quota next year will be lower, which would be very very very bad.
We may know this month, or next month, but at the latest we should know by the January batch whether this rumored speed up is going to happen.
There are dozens of theories of why things may be about to speed up. This blog post is too long as it is, so I’m not going to go there.
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