In November 2006, the first shipment of a product labeled as wheat gluten known to be contaminated with melamine or its related compounds arrived in the United States. In July of 2006, the first shipment of a product labeled as rice protein concentrate known to be contaminated arrived in the United States. FDA personnel went to China in April 2007 to work with Chinese government officials to find out how the contamination may have occurred and how to prevent it in the future.

The trip is approximately 12 to 15 days. The overall length of the trip is influenced by the province the child is from, the appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, international flight availability for the group, etc.

Currently it takes approximately 18-24 months from the time your application is accepted until travel to China to pick your child up. This time frame can lengthen or shorten depending on the China government?s timeframe in processing paper work. The process is divided into 5 phases. The Paper chase: This is the time frame that you will submit your application and begin to gather the necessary documents for your dossier. This will also include state mandated parenting classes and your home study.

Upon receiving your information, we will fax you your tour confirmation letter of our official stationery with our company seal, you may go to the nearest China Embassy or consular in your region with our letter, you will be able to get your visa. You may also ask for mailing service from our Embassy.

There is a 3 year limit on foreign expert holders teaching consecutive time with any one public university. This "Rule" is ten years old. No "Rule" eminating from Beijing is universally enforced throughout China due to autonomous and semi-autonomous regions and special economic zones which have the right to adopt and implement their own rules. Beijing's edicts are just guidelines except for schools under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education.

The exact process differs among the various provinces in China. In general, there are four phases, provincial paperwork, the final adoption, the childs' passport, and the US INS paperwork. The provincial paperwork provides the final permission to adopt and is done in the provincial capital or a major city. The final adoption may be done in the same location or may require travel to the city where the orphanage is located.

The officials in China deal only in cash and usually but not always in $U.S. The larger hotels will accept credit cards, but most other places will only accept cash. You will need the local currency (RMB) for restaurants, any items you buy for the baby or yourself etc. The exact fees vary among the different provinces but here are some ballpark figures: donation to the orphanage $3000 - $3500, provincial registration fee: $100 - $200, Notary/adoption fee: $400 - 700, passport fee: $50 - 100, U.

A radically different culture. People may behave in ways that would be considered impolite at home, but are acceptable in China. Keep an open mind and an easy-going attitude, and you will be fine.

The US government reports that U.S. citizens and other foreigners have seldom been victims of violent crime in China. However, petty theft does occasionally occur. Bring traveler’s checks, and store the list of check numbers separately from the checks so that you can have them replaced - just in case.

With regular tourist or business visa, you can now normally stay 90 -120 days for each entry. If you need to stay longer while you are in China, please contact with the visa office of the local Public Security Bureau to file for an extension. Do not overstay. No! You need to apply for a double entry visa in this case. Because, Hong Kong and Macao are Special Administrative Region. Once you go there from mainland China, you are considered to exit China already.

The time frame for the entire adoption process varies as personnel, policies or procedures may change at the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). Other factors that may affect the time frame include the CIS approval, the home study process and the collection of all required documents. It is of the utmost importance that families in the "paperwork chase" follow the guidelines closely and be well organized, pro-active and efficient in compiling the documents.

Typically, ordering containers directly from China can take anywhere from 60-90 days from production date to delivery at customer location.

In most cases it takes over a year to complete an adoption. The first three or four months are spent completing your home study, gathering other documents, and preparing them for submission to the Chinese government. The Chinese government then takes 8 - 10 months to review your documents, and send you a picture of your child. About two months after receiving that picture, you travel to China. Your stay in China is usually 10 or 11 days.

The time you could actually stay in China, or "duration of stay after entry" is usually 30 days. However, a maximum of 90-day duration of stay is available upon request. To get a 60- or 90-day duration of stay, you must write down such number on the Chinese Visa Application Form. If you did not specify the number of days on the form, you will be allowed for 30 days.

The standard tourist visa permits you to stay in China for up to 30 days. This is long enough to cover the two-week tour and the optional one-week extension. [top]

A.From the day of making a transfer, normally it will take two working days for funds to be received either overseas or into your (ANZ) China bank account. If funds are not received within 3 working days, inquiries should be made firstly at the receiving bank, and then at the sending bank.

A : We allows 2 hours for 20' container and 3 hours for 40'container of free loading / unloading time.

It depends on your product, it varies from days to weeks. A thorough work at my side ensures satisfactory results for your benefit.

We use the top container carriers out of China, and it takes about 27 days to ship from our home port in China to our loading dock in Portland. From Portland, we can ship your order directly to you.

This is done because it is easier for the agency and for CCAA to track the dossiers if they arrive in a group. In addition, this reduces the travel costs. This is because one guide/translator can work with up to ten or so families. This allows the costs for guide services are shared among the group rather than being paid for by just one family. Some agencies do not group families for either sending dossiers or for travel.

This is the process as described in January 1997. Your dossier is condensed into a registration form that can be reviewed instead of searching through bulky dossiers. The steps are as follows: Step one - all applications go through the initial office where the paperwork is translated or its already existing translation is verified. The registration form is completed and entered into the computer. This step can take two to four months based on current volume.

There are two immunizations that you should get while waiting if not before, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B. These are both viral diseases that primarily affect the liver, and there is little available treatment for either condition. Hep A is usually transmitted through water or sometimes food, uncooked shellfish are a prime route for catching this disease. The Hep A immunization is done with two injections about a month apart.

Yes, this is a requirement of the Chinese government and is not subject to negotiation. In two parent families, one parent may stay home but this requires additional paperwork. The child will have to be brought in on an IR-4 visa instead of the usual IR-3. This invokes a requirement for a readoption in the U.S. In addition, specific steps must be taken to legally sign the I-600 form (see below).

China is a big country, actually larger than the continental U.S. and the weather varies accordingly. The monthly averages for high and low temperature, humidity, inches of rainfall, and days of snow cover for 48 cities in China can be found on the Families with Children from China (FCC) web site (http://fwcc.org/climate.htm). There are also links to websites with current condtions found on the page with information for families waiting to travel (http://fwcc.org/info2.htm).

If you stay in the big cities and in the larger international hotels, you will have forks & spoons for eating. However, if you end up traveling to a smaller city for the adoption, you may end up in a restaraunt where chopsticks are the only available eating implement. It might be a good idea to practice with chopsticks regularly at your local Chinese restaraunt before you travel.

The best way to locate other China adoptive families is to join the nearest chapter of Families with Children from China. This organization is set up to support and connect families such as yours. They also usually have activities for waiting families as well. To locate the group nearest to you check the Internet at: http://fwcc.org/contacts.html for the most current listing of FCC groups. By mail, write to: Susan Caughman, 255 W 90th Street, 11C, NY, NY 10024.