Vietnam: Opening Again?

Posted by admin on 12/30/10 • Categorized as Paperwork

From Rainbow Kids Magazine: The Vietnamese Ambassador to the Netherlands, Huynh Minh Chinh, has signed the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. Mr Chinh was authorized by the Vietnamese Government to sign the international convention at the head office of the Dutch foreign ministry in the presence of Gerald Limburg, Head of the Treaties Division under the Dutch ministry, and representatives of the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice.

Vietnam’s signing of the Convention is considered to create a consistent legal framework for domestic adoptions and foreign-related adoption for the best interests of children, including Vietnamese children. At the signing ceremony, officials of the Dutch foreign ministry expressed their delight at the fact that Vietnam had joined the important convention.

Ambassador Chinh stressed that the Vietnamese government will do its best to enforce the convention as soon as possible. He also expressed Vietnam’s wish to increase its involvement in the Hague Convention on Private International Law to strengthen legal foundations for the country’s international integration.

The question US families are asking: Will the US sign an adoption agreement with Vietnam? At this time, the US Department of State has not updated its notificiations on adoption from Vietnam. It may be assumed that the US will be cautious in entering a new agreement with Vietnam. In the past, the US opened and closed to adoption from Vietnam twice. An excellent overview of the problems with Vietnam adoption pre-Hague may be found in EJ Graaf’s article, “Anatomy of an Adoption Crisis.”

The Hague requirements take time to implement, and will be closely monitored before any adoptions are initiated from Vietnam. Families wishing to adopt from Vietnam are cautioned to be patient and fully educate themselves on the history of this program, and undestand that Vietnam is currently NOT open to new applications. With Vietnam’s signing of the Hague, the first step in the journey towards a transparent, ethical adoption program has been taken. It remains in the hands of the Vietnamese authorities to implement the necessary organizational and legal system practices that will once again open the door to US adoption from Vietnam.

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In the world of adoption

* Australia has closed its international adoption program with Ethiopia citing long waits for prospective adoptive parents and an "increasingly unpredictable, complex and uncertain"environment in the adoption forum.

* November. 9 2012: The Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs in Ethiopia has temporarily suspended services to US adoption agencies International Adoption Guides and Adoption Advocates International. This suspension follows reports of abuse to Ethiopian adoptees placed with U.S. families by these agencies. This suspension of services applies to new cases only.

While court hearings may be assigned, the suspension of services may prevent a final decision from the Federal First Instance Court, or a final decree from the Ministry, from being issued. The Ministry indicated that this action is temporary, and that a final determination will only be made once the Ministry has sufficient opportunity to investigate the abuse cases and to review the actions taken by the agencies to address the situation. Check the the US Department of State's website for additional information.

* In January, April and September, 2011, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, the Office of Children’s Issues of the Department of State, and the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducted public meetings to address concerns about the quality and completeness of intercountry adoption cases presented in Ethiopia.

Around 80% of I-600 petitions submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa in recent months were incomplete, contained inconsistencies or errors, or did not contain sufficient evidence to document the child as an orphan under U.S. law. In addition, the Embassy continues to see cases which involve abandoned children but do not include sufficient evidence to document the abandonment and/or evidence of appropriate efforts to locate a child’s birth family. The Embassy also has received evidence of unethical recruitment of children from birth relatives and cases involving known birth parents from whom parental rights have not been severed by the Ethiopian courts. In these cases, consular officers in Addis will need to take additional measures to confirm that a child meets the legal definition of orphan, which could delay processing by several months. Read more on the PEAR website.

* The Ethiopian Government has revoked Better Futures Adoption Services’ registration to operate in Ethiopia, including its ability to perform intercountry adoptions.

* U.S. Embassy Kyiv has learned the proposed bill to place a moratorium on intercountry adoptions in the Ukrainian parliament has once again been postponed. There has been no announcement of a rescheduled date. In order to best prepare for all possibilities in Ukraine, Embassy Kyiv encourages any prospective adoptive parents with cases currently open in
Ukraine to contact the U.S. Embassy Kyiv Adoption Unit with their case status and contact information.

* Find information on adoption tax benefits for Americans here. And updated information about how it expires in Dec. 31, 2012.

* There have been cases in which adoptive parents have been asked to pay a fee for an exit clearance letter in Liberia. Liberia’s Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization does not charge a fee for the exit clearance letter. Any requests for such fees should be immediately reported to your embassy.

* The US Embassy Moscow does not require a power of attorney notarized by a U.S. notary for IR-3 cases. However, if only one parent is present at the visa interview, proof that both parents have met the child (a photograph of the absent parent with the child) is required. A power of attorney is required for IR-4 cases if the petitioner is not present at the interview.

*PEAR has an updated (black)list of US homestudy providers with missing post placement reports for Russian adoption. And here's an updated list of agencies accredited to work with Russia.

* The USDOS and USCIS has announced a decision to suspend processing cases of anonymously abandoned children in Nepal. The process has been halted because children who were temporarily placed in orphanages by their parents were being offered to prospective adoptive families in the US. Adoptions from Nepal were also suspended by the governments of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, England and Italy. Cases already underway as of this decision are being processed to conclusion. Learn more here.

* The U.S. Embassy Kyiv (Ukraine) now requires advance appointments for all adoption cases. The process takes 2 days and includes document intake on the first day and a full visa interview on the next business day. Barring any problems, the visa will be issued the end of the second day. No adoption processing will take place on the last Friday of the month. The Consular Section is closed on Ukrainian and American holidays.

* Parents For Ethical Adoption Reform (PEAR) has assembled a free "Guide to Researching US Adoption Agencies." Download it here.

Adopting While Abroad