I just received this e-mail from our Travel coordinator today.

I received notification today that the CCAA received your paperwork yesterday. We can begin the process of counting down to your TA. I would project , roughly a three week return on your paperwork the first full week of February is when we can start looking for it). I will communicate with you just as soon as it comes in.

What is happening now is the CCAA is contacting the orphanage(s) and the local provincial officials in the civil affairs office. All bodies then begin to coordinate the paperwork that will finalize the adoption. There are several bodies handling the movement of paperwork and final clearances, and if there are multiple orphanages and provinces the prospect of having delays increases. It will only take one person being sick, or a government inspection, or a holiday to extend the 21 days (it’s a very fragile system this way). The CCAA will only issues your travel invitation (TA) after all the paperwork has been processes in the orphanage, then the province, and finally all of it gets back to the CCAA. Again, in a normal month this will take 21 days. I do project that your paperwork would arrive before the New Year’s Celebration, but if it does not arrive before February 19th, we can expect a delay.