The Latest

This is the latest email we received from the corporate office:

For families who currently have cases submitted to the US Embassy and are waiting for clearance to travel - our team in Ethiopia passed on that the Vice Consular Chief is back from his trip to the south. While in the south, he visited a number of orphanages, in order to complete his investigations into these orphanages. Our team was told that the Vice Consular Chief would begin issuing reports on cases under field investigation to agencies starting tomorrow. As there are many families, orphanages, and adoption agencies involved in this investigation, we do not know if we will hear more on Bethany cases in particular by tomorrow or even this week. It appears that as a report is finished, the US Embassy will forward it to the agency. Note that the report could include clearance for the family to travel, or it could include a request for additional information.

We heard another update from our team in Ethiopia, which was confirmed by a Dept. of State conference call on Ethiopia that we are now on. The US Embassy will no longer only permit agencies one appointment every other week, but instead, once a family is cleared for travel, the agency, family & Embassy will work together to schedule the best Embassy appt. date for all involved. So, appointments, in theory, could be made every day, with more than the normal 10 cases per agency per day, but based on the Embassy's availability (as there are other agencies that will be making appointments as well). As long as the Embassy has a slot for a particular day, and the family's case has been cleared by the Embassy, they will see that family.