On November 9th our case entered PGN. These letters stand for Procuraduria General de la Nacion. This is final Guatemala government part of the adoption process where the PGN officers are responsible for reviewing each adoption case individually when all of the paperwork has been completed by the adopting parents, the agency, and the lawyer. To enter this stage a case must have already received "pre-approval" from the US Department of Homeland Security and have gone through the Guatemalan Family Court where a social worker has reviewed the facts surrounding the relinquishment of parental rights by the birth mother. At that point, the attorney can submit the case to PGN.
Each case file is reviewed by two "officers" who individually have the right to determine whether a case is ready to be signed off or needs additional information or corrections. If this happens, a "previo" or kick-out (KO) is issued and the attorney, agency, or adoptive parent has to gather additional information or fix whatever the problem is. Sometimes this can be done quickly and other times it can take weeks. Once the case is complete and has gone through two reviewers, it is sent to PGN director's office (Hector Barrios) for a final signature and a PGN decree.
On average, it takes a case about 8 weeks to get through PGN, although there are people who fly through and others who get stuck in this stage for several months. To outsiders, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how quickly one case gets through compared to another. Today marks 5 1/2 weeks that we have been in PGN and 5 of those weeks have been with the 2nd reviewer. I am so tempted to call PGN today to check on our progress. There is a wonderful woman named Laura there who must talk to adoptive parents all day, every day. She sweetly tells you when you call that "you can wait" as Guatemalan time certainly doesn't seem to be the same as "waiting American adoptive parent time"!
Note: I copied the photo from N.L.'s page. Thank you!
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