Children's Bridge Weekly Update

Hi Joseph and Dianne,

A lot of families are asking about expired documents after your file is sent to the CCAA. Once your file is registered at the CCAA, documents do not expire. The only document that can expire is the Provincial Approval Letter, IF it has an expiry date listed on the letter. For example, the Ontario Ministry Approval Letter has an expiry date of 18 months. This means that the CCAA can ask for an updated Approval Letter after 18 months. In the event this occurs the CCAA will contact The Children's Bridge directly. We will advise your provincial government (and notify you as well) and the Provincial Coordinator will issue an updated Approval Letter. In most cases this does not require anything from the adoptive parents. Many families have also been asking about timelines. While this truly is the million-dollar question, unfortunately we do not have a concrete answer. All I can recommend is that families from Groups 257-292 estimate at least a 24-month wait to referral. Families in Groups 245-256 will have an estimated 18-23 month wait to referral. Please remember this is our estimation only. If CCAA had a concern about a file registered prior to March 14th, we would have been informed by now. You can also see matching is still being done on those files registered in 2005. At a matching rate of two weeks per referral group, it will take about five more months to finish all the files registered in 2005.It is now the Chinese New Year holiday in China and work has virtually screeched to a halt, much as Canada does during the Christmas season. We expect no news at all over the upcoming week.