Posts
Volgograd
Here are some blurbs from the FRUA website concerning Volgograd. Although these are sketchy notes, they do give an accurate picture of what does go on in the region.
“I know of two families for whom the Volgograd judge asked for extra paperwork when IN court. This necessitated a return to the US to complete the additional paperwork and then go back for the new court date. Since the 10 days was not waived and it was 10 business days, they came home to wait that out also. So a 4 trip adoption!”
“For Volgograd (10 business day wait not waived), had to get a large number of documents (this was in addition to/after our prefile and submission of dossier). Can't remember them all, but here's what I do remember: FBI and state fingerprint checks (even though ours had not expired), new (yet again--3rd or 4th time) medicals, new employment letters (3rd time), new mortgage letters, new certified copies of house deed, new (2nd time) financial documentation signed by SW, new (2nd time) living conditions documentation signed by SW, and yet another (our 3rd) update to our homestudy. And of course, all of this had to be notarized or certified and apostilled.
But no problems in court, so better that we learned of the extra paperwork ahead of time. I know that our coordinator was only a little worried about our court date, but was quite worried about the court date for another couple that was going to be arriving after us. Apparently they were assigned a different judge that was known to be balky.
Almost forgot. Was required to make a speech in court (~15 min long or so). Found out the day before, so spent most of the night writing/memorizing the speech. Was quite nervous.
Our adoption took place this past summer.
The speech was basically to outline why we felt we would be good parents, and it was suggested that we use facts from our dossier paperwork as a guide. So in addition to the "touchy-feely" stuff, we summarized our dossier (e.g., we have good secure jobs, earn a good salary and can provide a nice home for children; have a room already prepared; etc.)
The judge we had seemed like a nice guy and seemed to be quite good at his job--very thorough, came to court prepared with specific questions, and went through all of our paperwork carefully during court asking additional questions as he reviewed different documents(he was quite serious during court, but very pleasant when we bumped into him again outside the building). Our prosecuter was reputed to be tough, but again I found her to be thorough but fair. The additional paperwork that we had to submit apparently addressed most of her areas of concern.
So while it was a big pain in the neck to do (if we hadn't already met our very cute kids I would have given up when I got the LONG list of additional documents required), and contributed to our 5 month wait between trips, I'm glad we had the extra paperwork taken care of and didn't have to do the 4 trip plan like HardRegion2.”
“We have adopted twice from Volgograd. No extra paperwork during court. 10days not waived so we just got to know the city better. Babies are very well cared for. We love Volgograd.”
