Our First Phone Conference

It was at 1pm Mountain Time yesterday about "Travel". It was @ an hour. There was a number to call and a password to type in. Easy, easy, easy. If you miss the conference they provide a recording of it for you.
The topics covered:

PAPERWORK (abv. PW):

We are finished and already have our visas! So, we napped during this part hehe! To see more about the paperwork required click here PAPERWORK

TRAVEL APPROVAL (abv. TA's):

Will come 2-5 weeks after our photo (which was Aug. 3, 07) from the CCAA. CCAI has no control over this part.

CONSULATE APPOINTMENTS (avb. CA's):

CCAI cannot make this appointment until we have our TA. This appointment determines the exact date of travel. The consulate can take 1-6 days to respond to CCAI's request for this appt.

TRAVEL DATES:

CCAI gave us an example of a 14 day in country itenerary. After we have our Consulate Appointment we get a 'real' itenereary and we can book our flights. We will have 7-14 days notice for departure.

In October there is 2 holidays and many agencies do not allow their clients to travel during October. To avoid this they want us on the plane no later than SEPTEMBER 14th and home by SEPTEMBER 28th! Their aim is to have us outta here sooner. So - we finally have an idea of when we'll leave but not really. LOL

FINALIZING OUR TRIP:

They went over costs for our trip, tips, gifts etc. These line up with what CCAI originally gave us 2 1/2 yrs ago. I did not sit down and compare "they told us $50 for this 2 yrs ago and now it $52". But everything looked almost exactly as it did originally. I didn't feel there were any monetary surprises. There is NO increase for any province for the orphanage fee at this point, as has been discussed on blogs and boards for the last couple of months.

So this is what we know in a nutshell!

I cannot believe how easy CCAI is making all of this. I feel comfortable and I'm able to prepare accordingly. Couldn't be more thrilled with them...