August 5, 2011

Ethiopian government officials have confirmed that several orphanages in the Southern Nations state are closed due to revocation of their licenses to operate by Ethiopian authorities. 

These orphanages are:

• SOS Infants Ethiopia (Arbaminch, Dilla, and Awassa branches)
• Gelgella Integrated Orphans (Tercha and Durame branches)
• Bethzatha Children’s Home Association (Sodo, Hosaena, Dilla, and Awassa branches)
• Ethio Vision Development and Charities (Dilla branch)
• Special Mission for Community Based Development (Hosaena branch)
• Enat Alem Orphanage (Awassa branch)
• Initiative Ethiopia Child and Family Support (Awassa branch)
• Resurrection Orphanage (Hosaena branch)

According to officials in the Charities and Societies Agency office, which oversees the licensing and regulation of orphanages in Ethiopia, the children in the care of those facilities have already been transferred to other orphanages. 

Ethiopian officials indicate that cases involving orphaned children from these facilities that are already pending with the Federal First Instance court will continue to move forward.  The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa is working closely with Ethiopian officials to determine if children from these facilities who were previously referred for adoption or matched with prospective adoptive parents will be allowed to continue in the adoption process.  MOWCYA officials have confirmed that the affected children’s case files are currently being reviewed, a process that is expected to last at least one month.

We continue to ask prospective adoptive parents and agencies that hear news of specific closures to inform the Department.  Please send any specific information regarding orphanage closures to AskCI@state.gov with the subject line “Ethiopia Orphanage Closures.”

Prospective and adoptive parents are encouraged to remain in contact with their adoption service provider to stay up-to-date on any information pertinent to their individual case.  The Department will post confirmed information on www.adoption.state.gov as we receive it.

The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia has received information from the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs indicating that processing of cases that received a court summons prior to March 8, 2011 is still ongoing.  This exceeds their estimated 15-20 days to expeditiously process this caseload, as indicated in our April 5 notice.  The Embassy also understands that processing of cases with court summons after March 8 is proceeding at 5 cases per day, and there is no indication that these numbers will increase in the short term.

Prospective Adoptive Parents and parents awaiting final approval of their match from the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs are cautioned to anticipate continued and considerable delays and are encouraged to remain in contact with their agency for updates to their case.

Please continue to monitor http://adoption.state.gov/ for updated information as it becomes available.

June 15, 2011
Intercountry adoption is not possible from Vietnam at this time.  Adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents should not seek or accept new (or potential) adoption referrals from Vietnam until an announcement is posted that the United States Citizenship and Information Service (USCIS) is again processing new I-600 or I-800 petitions for intercountry adoption in Vietnam. 

 In June 2010, the Vietnamese legislature passed a new adoption law which took effect on January 1, 2011.  The Vietnamese Prime Minister subsequently signed the new adoption decree on March 21 which took effect on May 8.  Vietnam continues their efforts to implement the new law and achieve Vietnam’s stated goal ratifying the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Convention). 

 Vietnam signed the Convention on December 7, 2010 and has expressed its intent to ratify the Convention in July 2011 which means that the Convention would enter into force (and Vietnam would become a party) in November 2011.  Under U.S. law, if/when Vietnam becomes a party to the Convention, the United States Central Authority (USCA) must evaluate whether procedures leading to the adoption of a child in Vietnam conform to the standards established by the Convention and the U.S. Intercountry Adoption Act (IAA). 

 The United States recognizes Vietnam’s initiatives as significant developments in the renewed commitment by the Government of Vietnam to strengthen its child welfare system and the integrity of its domestic and international adoption process.   Nevertheless, adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents are cautioned that important steps must still be taken before Vietnam completes this reform process and before intercountry adoptions between the United States and Vietnam can resume. 

 The USCA cautions adoption service providers that they should not offer or appear to offer adoption services in Vietnam until specific adoption service providers have been accredited or otherwise approved by the Government of Vietnam.  In addition, under applicable U.S. regulations, accredited or approved adoption service providers may only provide services in a Convention country if the USCA has determined that the Convention country is compliant with Convention standards. 

 The United States welcomes Vietnam’s strong efforts to create a child welfare system and an intercountry adoption process that will meet its obligations under the Convention.  At this time it is not possible to estimate when adoptions between the United States and Vietnam may resume. 

Updated information will be provided on www.adoption.state.gov as it becomes available.

July 13, 2011

The Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security announced today, July 13, 2011, that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signed a bilateral adoptions agreement that will strengthen procedural safeguards in adoptions between our countries.

This Agreement will provide additional safeguards to better protect the welfare and interests of children and all parties involved in intercountry adoptions. Under the Agreement, only adoption agencies authorized by the Russian government will be able to operate in Russia and provide services in adoptions covered by the Agreement, except in the case of an adoption of a child by his or her relatives. This will largely eliminate independent adoptions from Russia and create a better defined framework for intercountry adoptions between the United States and Russia. The Agreement also includes provisions designed to improve post-adoption reporting and monitoring and to ensure that prospective adoptive parents receive more complete information about adoptive children’s social and medical histories and anticipated needs.

The United States is committed to working with the Russian Federation on implementing the provisions laid forth in this Agreement as soon as it enters into force.

The Department of State will publish criteria, procedures, and clear guidance related to the Agreement on adoption.state.gov prior to the Agreement’s entry into force.

For additional FAQs on the agreement, please visit adoption.state.gov.

On July 8, 2011, the president of Ukraine signed an order which extends the State Department on Adoption’s (SDA’s) authority to process adoptions. We have been informed by the SDA that the order will not take effect until the order is published, likely within a few days. The SDA currently is not accepting adoption applications. According to the order, the SDA will have the authority to continue processing adoptions until the Ministry of Social policy is ready to take over as the new adoption authority in Ukraine. The Ministry does not yet know when they will be prepared to take over adoption processing.

We will continue to ask the Ukrainian government to resume adoptions as quickly as possible. We will also continue to encourage the Ministry of Social Policy to protect adoptions where U.S. prospective adoptive parents have already been approved by the SDA to adopt a particular child.

According to the SDA, there are approximately 139 U.S. families registered with the SDA, some of them already in-country. We will be following new developments closely to understand how they will affect the families currently in process and will be posting relevant updates. In that respect, we recommend that all American families that are currently in Ukraine or have appointments with SDA during the next few weeks send their contact information to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine’s Adoption Unit at: kyivadoptions@state.gov. Families should contact their local adoption service provider for further updates and details.

Updated information will be provided on www.adoption.state.gov as it becomes available.

April 8, 2011
On the evening of April 7, 2011, President Yanukovych signed a Decree transferring all functions of, the State Department for Adoption and Protection of the Rights of the Child (SDA– the current central adoption authority of Ukraine), to the Ministry for Social Policy.  We do not yet know how the implementation of this transfer will affect processing of adoption cases.  Whether SDA will be able to continue processing currently filed cases remains unclear.

The Presidential Decree will become effective immediately upon its publication in the Government’s official newspapers, which may be as early as Monday, April 11.  According to SDA, there are now 134 U.S. families registered with the SDA, some of them already in-country.  We are asking all American families that are currently in Ukraine or have appointments with SDA during the next few weeks to send their contact information to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine’s Adoption Unit at:

kyivadoptions@state.gov . Families should contact their local adoption service provider for further updates and details.

We will keep monitoring the situation and will provide updates as they become available.

April 5, 2011

The Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (MOWYCA) told the American Embassy officials that adoption cases presented to the Federal Court of First Instance prior to March 8, 2011 will be processed expeditiously.   However, cases presented to the Court after March 8 will be processed in a more deliberate manner to allow greater scrutiny and oversight.  Based on their March 8 announcement the American Embassy anticipates that MOWYCA will process these cases at a rate of approximately 5 per day.

It is unclear whether there will be an official announcement from the Government of Ethiopia regarding the plan to reduce the number of cases adjudicated daily.  Prospective adoptive parents who did not reach the court summons stage before March 8, 2011, should expect significant delays in the progression of their paperwork through the Government of Ethiopia. Prospective adoptive parents should be in close touch with their adoption service providers to confirm the status of their cases.

The U.S. Embassy continues to work with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies to gain a clearer understanding of these procedures, and will continue to post information as it becomes available.

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.

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.

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.

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.