Okay, well, it's actually our agency that's super efficient - but the U.S. Consulate deserves some credit for confirming our appointment in less than a day! We have a consulate appointment on July 18th - which means we will leave Atlanta around July 8th and can return on July 20th! We haven't booked anything yet, but based on the timing it looks like we will be able to take advantage of the recently-reinstated, non-stop, Shanghai-to-Atlanta Delta flight for our trip home. Hallelujah!
We've had people ask why it takes about 2 weeks to complete the adoption trip. Why can't we just pick up Ellie and come home? Well, the adoption itself is completed in Ellie's home province, Henan. Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan, and that is where we'll meet Ellie - but we need to begin our trip in Beijing, in order for our agency to accomodate flights from various places in the U.S. Our stay in Zhengzhou involves receiving Ellie (an event often referred to as "Gotcha Day"), finalizing the adoption (could be the same day or the next day), then waiting for Ellie's passport to be ready. All of that takes about a week. Then we travel to Guangzhou, where Ellie will have a medical exam at the consulate, followed the next business day by our official "consulate appointment" (during which we will take the oath of citizenship on Ellie's behalf). The next day, her visa will be ready. We can fly home the day after we pick up Ellie's visa.
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