ICBF WAIT LIST STATISTICS

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ICBF recently published its mid-year report (July 29, 2011) on Adoption statistics. I intend to highlight this report over the next few days. Today, I wanted to adress the number of families currently approved to adopt through ICBF.

As of July 29, 2011, there were 124 Colombian families on the Colombian wait list. This list is prioritized over all other lists. In years past, there was practically no wait list for Colombians.

When we processed our adoption in 2006, there was NO COLOMBIAN FAMILY WAIT LIST. The referrals were practically instantaneous. For example, we submitted our paperwork to ICBF and were approved within 2 weeks. The week following our approval our dossier was sent to the Bogotá regional office and the next week we had a referral -- 4 weeks total. Now, that was considered fast even then, but most of the Colombian families we knew at the time were going through the same process in no more than 6-8 weeks.

Today, however, it seems to be taking 3-6 months from submission to referral. Why? Because there is now a Colombian only wait list. This list has the greatest impact on children ages 0-36 months because it seems that many Colombian families are most interested in adopting healthy younger children -- though this is changing some.

This truly is great news for Colombian children. It means more children will grow up with a connection to their homeland and home culture.

How does this impact other waiting families? It will inevitably make the wait longer for foreign families because Colombian families jump to the front of the line -- no matter how long others might have been waiting.

Tomorrow I will discuss the number of families on the the Foreign Family Wait List.

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