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THE ASSISTANT
STORK |
* This page updated 9/3/10 *

| The Assistant Stork, All Embassies and the US Department of State will be closed Monday, September 6th, for Labor Day. | |
| The Embassy of Ethiopia will be closed Friday, September 10th for Ethiopian New Year and Monday, September 27th to honor the Finding of the True Cross. | |
| Starting August 10, 2010, The Embassy of Nicaragua is raising their fees. New fees are listed below. | |
| Now the Chinese Embassy requires a birth certificate or adoption certificate for every child obtaining a visa. |

Fourteen years ago, folks on the APC(Adoptive Parents of China) list asked me to become their personal courier. They helped me set my prices, and even came up with my name! I agreed to start this courier business to be able to quit my job as a secretary and be home more for my "homemade" daughter and the new baby. A few years later, my husband Steve joined me as "The Assistant to The Assistant Stork" and we have served the adoption community ever since. As adoptive parents, we know how important it is to get your dossiers authenticated quickly and correctly. We will make sure all of your documents going through the authentication process at the State Department and/or the Embassy get exactly that kind of service.
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For your fee, as soon as we receive your documents, we will go through everything and scrutinize your documents thoroughly, making sure each document has been authenticated correctly. Next, we will take your documents to the State Department as soon as possible. (The State Department is normally only open 7:30 AM-11:00 AM and the mail usually comes in too late for us to take them over the same day we receive them.) (See new hours above.) At the State Department we will wait while they Authenticate your documents. We will check to be sure that they authenticate every single document correctly (after all, they're human beings, they make mistakes too.)
As soon as that's finished, we will take your documents down to the Embassy for Authentication. We will leave your documents with the Embassy and pick them back up on the date they are ready,
Because every country has different requirements, and the requirements seem to change daily, please email us a laura@asststork.com for complete instructions and fees for each country.
We also process Visas for all Embassies.
Because every country has different requirements, and the requirements seem to change daily, please email us a laura@asststork.com for complete instructions and fees for each country.
NOTICE: It has come to my attention that some of you would prefer to pay by credit card. Some of you are overseas and cannot get Money Orders. Due to this, I am now willing to accept Pay Pal payments, but they charge me 4.5% of the total for the privilege. Let me know if you wish to pay via PayPal and I will email you an invoice.
Please use the service of your choice (i.e. FedEx/ExpressMail/UPS/DHL/whatever - anything trackable) to mail your documents to:
Laura Morrison
The Assistant Stork
2144 Aquia Drive
Stafford, VA 22554
Our phone number is: 540-659-6845
Please be sure to sign the "waiver of signature" on your package if you use ExpressMail. We are in DC processing dossiers when the mail carrier arrives. There is a special place the mail carrier leaves the dossiers that only he or she can see from my door, not visible to the street. FedEx, DHL and UPS always leave the packages for us, whether we are here or not.
Be sure to keep the "Sender's copy" of your waybills or at least write down the tracking numbers so you can watch your package being delivered and leaving my office on its way back to you.
Please call or email me when you've sent your documents so we'll know to look for them. laura@asststork.com
I'm available M-F 9AM-4PM
*COUNTRY-
SPECIFIC INFORMATION ON PROCESSING DOCUMENTS AND VISAS *
Bahrain, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, Canada, China, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Great Britain, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Nepal, Nicaragua, Oman, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen
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For Bahrain - they want a Money Order or Cashier's Check made out to "The Embassy of Bahrain"
$30 per document
5 business day turnaround
You must include a photocopy of each document
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For Barbados - they only want CASH only:
$40 per document approximate turnaround time is one week
For Bolivia make your money order out to "Embassy of Bolivia" for:
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For Brazil
make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check out to "Embassy of Brazil" for:
The turnaround time is usually 2 days.
Jurisdiction: District of Columbia, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia
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For Burundi make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check out to Embassy of Burundi for
Turnaround time is usually two days, but can take up to one week
Burundi allows you to batch all your paperwork. Therefore, your entire dossier is counted as one "bundled document" at the State Department and the Embassy of Burundi. Each document in the bundle must be separately State Sealed.
The Embassy also wants a complete photocopy of the entire dossier.
Due to the amount of work involved in putting together an Burundi dossier, we charge $80 to process the dossier, rather than our usual minimum fee.
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For Canada
make your money order or cashier's check,
check ONLY out to "Embassy of Canada" for:
The turnaround time is usually 2 days.
Vital
Records must first authenticated by:
Authentication & Service of Documents Section(JLAC)
Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa K1A0G2 ONTARIO
CANADA
613.995.0119
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For China, make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption
Agency check out to "The Embassy of China"
(they wil not accept anything made out to the Consulate) for:
$20 per adoption or civil document = 4 business day turnaround
$40 per corporate document = 4 business day turnaround
| Documents processed overnight are $20 extra per document for the expedite fee. |
Please
Note: We now need copies of your passports or driver's license and the G-1
We now need copies of corporate, civil and Adoption documents
*IF
YOU ARE ADOPTING,
YOU
DO NOT HAVE ANY CORPORATE DOCUMENTS,
YOU HAVE ADOPTION DOCUMENTS*

Visa Service:
Visa Application: http://www.china-embassy.org
And yes, I need your ACTUAL passports. PLEASE SIGN YOUR PASSPORTS!
| THE EMBASSY OF CHINA WILL NOT ACCEPT VISA REQUESTS THROUGH THE MAIL - YOU MUST USE A COURIER OR SHOW UP IN PERSON | |
| You no longer need the Declaration Statement | |
| There are new requirements for China visas. Please contact us via email for updated instructions. | |
| 11-10-09 The Embassy will no longer issue 2-year visas for holders of American passports |
The CURRENT fees are:
ALL VISAS: (good for multi-entry, one year visa)
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For Ecuador
make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check out to Embassy of Ecuador for:
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For Ethiopia
make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check out to Embassy of Ethiopia for
Turnaround time is usually overnight, but can take up to 3 days
Ethiopia allows you to batch all your paperwork, except the Power of Attorney, under one cover sheet. Therefore, your entire dossier is counted as one bundle plus one document at the State Department and the Embassy of Ethiopia.
Due to the amount of work involved in putting together an Ethiopia dossier, we charge $80 to process the dossier, rather than our usual minimum fee.
Ethiopian visa: $70 per visa.
Include application, one photo, PASSPORT and money order or cashier's check made to "Embassy of Ethiopia."
Visa application can be found on: http://www.ethiopianembassy.org
Turnaround time is usually overnight, but can take up to 3 days
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For Georgia make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check out to Embassy of Georgia for
*You must include a complete photocopy of EVERY document.*
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For Ghana, make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check out to Embassy of Ghana for
Turnaround time is usually overnight, but can take up to 3 days
Ghana allows you to batch all your paperwork, except the Power of Attorney, under one cover sheet. Therefore, your entire dossier is counted as one bundle plus one document at the State Department and the Embassy of Ghana.
Due to the amount of work involved in putting together a Ghana dossier, we charge $80 to process the dossier, rather than our usual minimum fee.
*You must include a complete photocopy of EVERY document.*
PLEASE NOTE:
| THE EMBASSY OF GHANA IS CLOSED EVERY FRIDAY |
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For Great Britain, make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check
out to Embassy of Great Britain for:
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For Guatemala make your *MONEY ORDER ONLY* out to Embassy of Guatemala for
1 - 3 docs:
Usually takes 24 - 48 hours
4 - 25 docs: Usually takes
5 -7 business days
NOTE: The Guatemala Embassy will NOT accept Adoption Agency checks. It must be a money order.
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For Haiti make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check
out to Embassy of Haiti for:
The turnaround time is usually 1 - 2 weeks.
As of 10/7/98, the Haitian government requires that the French translation be authenticated by the Embassy also. Please attach the French Translation to each document before you send it to me and the fee will still be $25 for each document.
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For India make your money order, cashier's check,
or Adoption Agency check out to Embassy of India for :
Documents
*You
must include a complete photocopy of EVERY document.*
We do NOT provide same-day service of documents for India