Kazakhstan foreign investment not so hot anymore

Those of us adopting in Kazakhstan tend to get 100% focused on the adoption process but it is good (I think) to pop our heads up now and then and see what is actually happening in the country itself.

From Bloomberg news today:

“The crisis in Kazakhstan is a legacy of banks that piled on debt as the economy soared and couldn’t repay when credit dried up. Gross domestic product shrank 2.2 percent in the first quarter. Foreign investors are drawing back capital as their favorable terms with lenders evaporate, said Kieran Curtis, who helps manage $800 million in emerging-market debt at Aviva Investors Ltd. in London, including Kazakh bonds.”

It seems like Kazakhstan is having as much difficulty with their banking sector as the rest of the world.

Escorting adopted kids home

The end to end process in Kazakhstan is rather lengthy. From the time you first set foot in the country to the time you get on a plane with your newly adopted child or children can be as long as three months and eight to nine weeks is pretty normal. This time frame is in contrast to what is  normal in other countries like China (13 days total).

Since you can pretty much get your bonding period and court date completed in three and a half weeks this leaves a pretty large gap of time in which you are cooling your heels until the waiting period expires (currently two weeks, potentially moving to four at some point in the future depending on what the government decides to do) and for all the paperwork to be processes both in Kazakhstan and with the US Embassy.

While many people stay the entire time, others just cannot be away from homes and jobs that long. We fell into the second camp so we decided to have Jennifer escorted home rather than come back for another week to week and a half in a month. It is less that ideal on a lot of levels but it is the formal process that is in place and you need to follow it. We loading up her care-givers with stuff to take care of her while we were.

So to organize all this I had to get back on that scary turbo-prop airplane and head to Almaty to sign the necessary paperwork with the US Embassy to have her escorted. It is actually pretty simple once you figure it out but it took a number of calls to the Embassy to get to the bottom of what exactly we needed to do.

Here is what I believe is the master list of documents (at least it is everything we signed and it worked out for us):

1. Form DS-230 which is the child’s application for a Visa to come to the US
2. Form DS-1981 which is where you confirm you will get the child vaccinated
3. The I-600 which is the petition to classify the child as an orphan and allow for the adoption
4. A power of attorney at the US Embassy which allows your escort to sign on your behalf for the visa, medical exam, etc. (they have it at the embassy)
5. A power of attorney for travel from wherever this child is to Almaty or Astana. This is a Kazakhstan style power of attorney that allows them to bring the child to a departure city for the US. You need to do this at a notary in country and it needs to be translated.
6. A power of attorney for travel from Almaty or Astana to the US. This is a US style power of attorney that allows the translator to bring the child to the US on your behalf

The other thing you do at the embassy is pay for the visa (approx US$450 at the moment and they take credit cards). We actually missed #6 and had to do it from the US and have it apostilled and sent. For reference, a priority letter from Boston to Kazakhstan is $106.00 and takes about four days to get there.

I’m amazed it actually worked….

Jennifer comes home

So it has been a ridiculous amount of time since my last post but that was primarily because we were waiting for Jennifer to actually arrive here in the US. So with a minor paperwork scramble out of the way, she got off a plane about four days back and was quickly collected and driven home.

Sam and Jennifer

We decided to have her escorted home as taking another week off to head back to Kazakhstan was going to be very difficult. In the end it all seems to have worked out.