The final stretch

We found out on Monday that our 800 petition for Zachary's visa was approved! This means that the US has assigned him as our immediate relative and he can officially request a visa to enter our country. So exciting!

The next steps are kind of confusing and only adoptive families probably care what they're called or even understand them.  But I'll still try to explain ;)

1.  We are waiting for something called a guz# and RTF, which means Zachary's visa approval has been forwarded to the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, where all adoptions are finalized.  Once this happens we move on to the next step..

2. We fill out our 260 form with our guz#  and send it to our agency, who forwards it to their contact in china.

3. Our contact in China puts our 260 with the rest of our waiting paperwork (LOA, ect) which officially becomes our Article 5

4. The article 5 is dropped off at the consulate in Guangzhou to be officially reviewed and stamped/signed.  This takes exactly 10 business days and is the final step required by the US to prove that we are allowed to request a visa for Zachary.

5. The article 5 is picked up after 10 days and sent to the China center for Adoptions to await travel approval.  This can take 1-4 weeks.  Once approved they will send our TA (travel approval) to our agency and we are officially invited to come get Zachary!

6. When we get TA we have to call the US Consulate in Guangzhou to set up an appointment for our final interview to get Zachary's visa.  This CA (consulate appointment) determines when we can travel.

7. We get our official CA date and book flights for about 10 days before that date.  (During those 10 days in China we will do a lot of paperwork and have our "gotcha day", the day we get Zachary in our arms.)

8. Leave for China! Praise!

If you read through all that, bless you.  Anyway, we are 8 weeks out from meeting our boy.  Thanks for your prayers!