What is a dossier?
A dossier consists of letters of reference and other credentials that speak to a candidate’s scholarship, research interests and teaching experience. A dossier is specifically used in applying for teaching positions at either the secondary level or college level and for fellowship applications. Columbia partners with Interfolio, Inc., an electronic dossier service provider, to manage the Dossier Service.
A dossier contains all the documents required by the foreign government to complete the adoption of a child. The foreign authorities use these documents to evaluate the prospective adoptive parents and to document that the adoption is in the best interests of the child. It is compiled according to the laws of the country where you intend to adopt. Law and custom will dictate which documents are required in the dossier and how they shall be prepared and presented. Documents typically included in a foreign dossier are the home study, photos of the prospective parents and their home, BCIS pre-approval to adopt, criminal record and child abuse clearances, employment verification letters, financial statements, petitions to the court or other foreign authority, medical statements, birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce certificates, passports, deed or lease to home, and sometimes personal references. These documents must be notarized, legalized, authenticated and translated as th
Opening the first job listings is like opening presents on Christmas morning. There are the pleasant surprises, the perfect toys, and the occasional unsightly outfits from that aunt you’d rather not talk about. But for the most part it is an occasion for excitement and wonder. There is the sense of abundance, of endless possibilities. But the next day, childlike wonder gives way to infantile greed. Why did she get more presents than I did? (Both Jason and I have sisters.) Why are there so many job listings this year in metaphysics and so few in epistemology? Where’s all my stuff? And then there is the massive nightmare of paper everywhere. The job market’s paper nightmare is not stuffed into trash bags and hauled to the curb for the garbage collectors, but collated, clipped, and slid carefully into perfectly labeled envelopes entrusted to the Postal Service. Deciding what goes into those envelopes is more difficult than we had expected as we pursue our joint search for jobs in the same
Your dossier is a set of documents, which is separate from your home study, and which gives foreign government officials necessary information about you and your family so that they can be sure that you will take care of your adopted child, and so that they will be able to match your family with the best child for you. The dossier is only required if you are adopting internationally.
