Citing the need to work on quality and focus on more important strategic issues, the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA)  has indicated it will reduce to a maximum of five the number of adoption cases it processes per day, effective March 10, 2011.  Under Ethiopian adoption procedures, MOWCYA approves every match between prospective adoptive parents and an Ethiopian child before that case can be forwarded for a court hearing.  The U.S. Embassy is working with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies to learn more about this change in procedures.  We will continue to share information as it becomes available.

Given MOWCYA’s current caseload, the U.S. Embassy anticipates that this change could result in an overall decline in case processing of some 90 percent.  If this change is implemented as proposed, we expect, that parents who have begun the process of adopting from Ethiopia but have not yet been matched with a child could experience significant delays.  It is not clear if this change in procedures would have any significant impact on cases in which MOWCYA has already approved matches.

Prospective adoptive parents should remain in close contact with their adoption service provider to obtain updates on individual cases.

The Embassy’s Adoptions Unit can be reached at consadoptionaddis@state.gov. Please continue to monitor http://adoption.state.gov/ for updated information as it becomes available.

January 13, 2011

According to the Government of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Education (MoE), all pending adoption dossiers that were not matched with children by December 15, 2010, will be returned and will have to be re-filed as Hague Convention cases once the Hague Convention is fully implemented. The Department of State will continue to monitor the developments in Kazakhstan and seek the confirmation of the Government of Kazakhstan when the new Hague Convention adoption process is in place.  U.S. prospective adoptive parents whose dossiers are returned may refer to the description of the Hague Convention intercountry adoption process (the Form I-800A/I-800 process).

Affected prospective adoptive parents with an approved Form I-600A for Kazakhstan wishing to request a transfer of their approved Form I-600A to enable them to adopt from another non-Hague Convention country  should refer to the USCIS website.

February 25, 2011

In January 2011, The Department of State published the Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption to Congress.  We learned that one case was mistakenly reported as an adoption of a Kyrgyz orphan due to a transcription error made when the visa was issued.  We have confirmed there were no adoptions of children of Kyrgyz nationality by U.S. citizens in fiscal year 2010.  The Department regrets this error in its Annual Report and will continue to provide updates on intercountry adoption in Kyrgyzstan.