November 7, 2005

It has been brought to our attention that families adopting from Guatemala have recently experienced increased delays while waiting to receive their pre-approval from Citizenship and Immigration Services. Today we spoke at length with CIS regarding these concerns. At this time CIS confirmed that families will need to anticipate increased wait-time for pre-approvals during the holiday season. While in the past, this was estimated to be 30 days, the current average wait is 45 days for pre-approval. This is an increase of approximately 2 weeks per family. It is not unusual for CIS to receive an increased number of dossiers before the holidays. However, over the past week, the volume of cases has been even higher than in previous years. CIS has taken measures to make the processing of dossiers as efficient as possible during this time. They recently increased CIS staff in Guatemala and have placed 3 additional people there to help throughout the holiday season. 

CIS Request for assistance from Agencies and Families:

 CIS has requested the assistance of agencies and families in order to ensure that processing can remain in the 45 day time frame. Over the past several days, CIS has received over 400 emails from waiting families and agencies. CIS has made a commitment to respond to every inquiry it receives, but the staff members at CIS who respond to these inquiries are the same who are trying to adjudicate cases. Please share this information with your families – as long as CIS is working to respond to a high volume of emails, wait times cannot decrease. If families have waited 45 days or less to receive pre-approval, there is no need to contact the CIS office. 

What Should AHH Guatemala Families Do? Some cases may require further investigation and could easily take longer than 45 days. While this is not the norm, families will not necessarily be notified if their case is under investigation. If you have have waited for pre-approval for longer than 45 days and would like to inquire about your case, please email to Andrea Phillips, your family name, child’s name, child’s birthdate and other relevant case information. We will collect and send this information to CIS in order to facilitate the process by which they verify the status of pending cases.

NOTE: AHH family's efforts to limit direct contact with the CIS office will enable CIS to more quickly process cases. Your assistance will help to ensure that children will be placed with their families as quickly as possible.