Where I think things are
The way I read the CCAA’s announcement is that those holding a TA can travel, but the CCAA would rather they wait. I’d like for someone who grew up speaking and reading Mandarin to read the Mandarin version and give us their input on that, but my reading of the English version is just that the agencies should “counsel” their families to wait, but that they aren’t telling families who already have their TA that they absolutely cannot come.
As for those waiting for referral or TA, I think you’re just going to have to wait until next week to get a definitive answer. The CCAA is giving different answers to different agencies, and in the past when that has happened it has sometimes meant that the higher ups haven’t reached a final decision yet but they are discussing all of the options. Employees then give out information based on what they want to happen, or sometimes based on what their superior wants to happen. So, those who don’t think they should halt referrals say that everything will proceed normally, and those who think they should halt referral and TA’s say they aren’t going to issue them for a short time.
My guess is that the agreed upon decision was that since they are going into a long weekend that they would just wait and see what the state of things is when they return and then they would make a formal decision and announcement. The only thing that needed to be addressed right away was the question of those already holding TA’s, so they posted that they’d rather those people wait, and that they would automatically extend the expiration date so families could wait without worrying about their travel approval expiring.
To recap, here is what agencies are reporting:
- Several agencies have been told the “20 to 30 days” thing, that referrals and TA’s will not be issued for 20 to 30 days and then another decision will need to be made at that time.
- Several agencies have just been told referrals and TA’s are not being sent at this time due to the swine flu outbreak.
- Several agencies have been told the rumor is not true and that once the matches are made they will be mailed as normal.
However, under “normal” circumstances we usually would have seen TA’s by now. So (assuming the agencies have nothing on the way) I believe that the CCAA is at the very least holding off until they come back from their long weekend to make a decision.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Thank you RQ! As weird as this may sound, hearing conflicting information and an explanation as to why that might be happening is easier than hearing no information at all.
Prepared to wait out the long weekend and hear more early next week. Praying that all the preparation and precautions countries are taking will help to minimize the affects of this situation.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Boy this is the best roll coaster ride of my life! -NOT
April 30th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Since we haven’t had anyone speak up with a breakdown of how they read the Chinese version, I’ll do my best with one word of it. With a warning that I know just enough Chinese to be dangerous, and that I hope we hear from someone more knowledgeable than me on this.
In the Chinese version of the statement, the word for counsel or advise they use is:
?? fèng quàn
The fèng character means “to receive (from superior); to offer; to revere”
The quàn character means “to advise; to urge; to try to persuade; exhort”
Which goes back to my understanding that they are asking the agencies to advise, or persuade, their clients to postpone their travel, but they are not making a declaration that families holding a TA must postpone their trip.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:16 am
RQ wrote: the agencies should “counsel” their families to wait.
it probably means no travel since that’s how they do things. The rise in the orphanage fee donation was also a “request” to agencies. what agency is going to go against the CCAA’s recomondation?
i’m not debating whether or not the CCAA should or shouldn’t do this – just that to me this statement essentially means what we originally thought – no referrals or travel for a period of time.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Argh, the characters showed up in the editor, but not on the site. Bummer.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:44 am
I hate to add to the bad news, but we just spoke with our agency (Canadian) and they confirmed that they have spoken with the CCAA and there will be no referrals sent out this month. No mention of TA’s (probably because this agency has no TA’s expected.)
This is just so hard.
LID 3/15/06
April 30th, 2009 at 10:58 am
So far I have heard from three people (from two different agencies) with confirmed travel plans who have been given the green light by their agency to travel if they wish to, and only one family who has been told they must cancel their flights.
So that means so far out of three agencies, two are saying their families can travel and one is saying they cannot.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:02 am
The CCAA site has english version of “News Announcement” – I think they are asking agencies to ask families ready to travel (already received TA’s) to postpone and they appear to be holding off on releasing further TA’s (and probably referrals). I could be wrong – but that is what I am thinking. As I sadly await travel, I do understand…
April 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I just don’t get why the referrals can’t be mailed. What is the risk of exposure to swine flu by the mailer when its the mailee that has the problem? And that’s even assuming the virus could live in paperwork! I just don’t get it. Travel I get, Mailing referrals I don’t get.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:57 am
There are several reasons to stop mailing referrals if they are going to put a hiatus on travel.
1. Once a family knows where their child is then potential traffic to the SWI grows. Sometimes an agency sends a rep by to check on the child. And often the new family wants to send packages to the child and if ten families send a package then those ten deliveries could potentially be ten “visits” that would not normally happen. The idea during an outbreak is to keep an orphanage quarantined away from society as much as possible.
2. But mostly I think it’s about time frames of what happens after referrals are issued. Once the referral is issued the family signs the LOA, and then the CCAA checks with the orphanage to make sure the child is still available, and then the CCAA issues a travel approval. The dates between the referral, the LOA, the document the SWI signs, and the TA are all supposed to be within so many days of each other. If a referral is issued when there is no way of knowing when travel might happen then some things may have to be done twice.
3. After the SARS stoppage, the CCAA was careful to issue the already matched referrals at a rate the various consulates could keep up with. Otherwise they may have had to issue multiple TA’s for a family if the family could not get a consulate appointment.
I know it’s impossibly heartbreaking for those people expecting a referral right now. I can totally understand your anguish. But I have a feeling that if they are going to stop issuing things for a while, then they will follow the SARS precedent and withhold everything until they decide travel for the babies is once again safe.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
We are currently waiting for our TA, and were told to expect it this week or next week. Our travel plans are booked to leave in 3 weeks.
Our agency (Canadian) has told us we will have to wait until Tuesday to see if our TA has arrived. If it has not, then we will assume (at this point) that they are delaying TA’s. Our agency, told us anything can change over the next weeks depending on the severity of the flu outbreak.
I will be watching the news over the weekend to see how the Swine Flu progresses or is contained. Not holding out much hope at this point.
Thanks RQ for sharing the procedure during the SARS stoppage. Can RQ tell us how long of a period of time that affected referrals and TA, and travel?
Heartbroken in BC…
April 30th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
my large, know-it-all american agency just confirmed that the CCAA is NOT planning to hold or suspend matches for any reason. so matches should be coming more or less on time.
i didn’t ask about travel, though.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Dear RQ,
You are totally amazing…three years and waiting with an LID of March 15,2006
for DD #2.
I want to say thank-you and God bless you for
keeping us up to date.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
My large China agency has told us that when we have our referral (expecting soon) that it will be up to the families at that time how soon to travel given the most current conditions. They did not say how soon they expected to receive the TA’s.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Even after being in this process for 4 1/2 years I still have so much to learn. Thank you RQ for helping to clarify some of the reasons why referrals may not be sent out right now.
I fully support whatever decision CCAA makes but hadn’t thought of things like care packages, etc. meaning extra visits to the SWI’s. You have a beautiful way of explaining things to us clearly yet with great understanding too.
Catherine
LID 03/23/06
April 30th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
thanks RQ. your explanation makes perfect sense.