The conditions in the country from which you choose to adopt from will dictate the process of your adoption. Understanding the procedures in the different countries is an important part of selecting which country to adopt from.
Due to conditions in the following countries, case processing has been severely impacted.
Russia
On July 28, 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into Russian law the bilateral adoption agreement, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had signed on July 13, 2011. The Russian Duma, or lower house of parliament, approved the Agreement on July 10, 2012, and the Russian Federation Council, or upper house of Parliament, approved the Agreement on July 18, 2012. The Agreement will provide additional safeguards to better protect the welfare and interests of children and all parties involved in intercountry adoptions.
The United States and Russia will now establish new procedures to implement the Agreement. After establishing these new procedures, the U.S. and Russia will exchange diplomatic notes. Once the two governments exchange these diplomatic notes, the Agreement will enter into force between the two nations.
Adoptions will continue according to the existing procedures while the U.S. and Russia work together to implement the Agreement.
Before the Agreement enters into force, the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will provide guidance about the new procedures on their websites. This website guidance will inform U.S. families seeking to adopt in Russia how and when to begin following the new procedures. To learn more, please visit U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) FAQs and U.S. Department of State’s FAQs on the Agreement. Please also monitor uscis.gov and adoption.state.gov for updated information.
Ethiopia
Annual adoptions from Ethiopia by U.S. families grew steadily in the last few years until 2011, when the number fell by about 30% over the previous year. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, the Department of State (DOS) issued 1,732 adoption-related immigrant visas to Ethiopian children, compared to 2,511 in FY 2010.
In 2011, the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs announced its intention to dramatically reduce the number of adoption cases that it would process. Ethiopia slowed down processing for a number of months after the announcement, but USCIS understands that Ethiopia has since resumed a rate of adoption case processing, similar to before the slow-down. The slow-down appears to have generated the decline in annual adoptions from Ethiopia by U.S. families in FY 2011.
Also in 2011, Ethiopian officials closed several orphanages in the Southern Nations State. A number of U.S. prospective adoptive parents were in the process of adopting children from these orphanages. Those families should communicate with their adoption service providers (ASPs) to learn about the status of their cases. The DOS will post updated information about these closures and any other developments in Ethiopia as the new information is confirmed at www.adoption.state.gov.
USCIS and Department of State Roles
Prospective adoptive parents adopting from Ethiopia have the option to file their Form I-600, Petition to Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative, in:
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Ethiopia with DOS at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, or
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In the United States at the USCIS National Benefits Center (NBC).
While USCIS is responsible for the adjudication of all Form I-600 adoption petitions, USCIS has delegated limited responsibility to the DOS to process these petitions at locations, such as Ethiopia, where USCIS does not have an international field office.
Adjudications Process
As part of the adjudication, DOS completes an orphan investigation (Form I-604, Determination on Child for Adoption) and then adjudicates the Form I-600 petition. DOS has the authority to approve “clearly approvable” Form I-600 petitions, but must forward any “not clearly approvable” petitions to the USCIS international office with jurisdiction for decision.
If the DOS determines at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa that a Form I-600 adoption petition is “not clearly approvable,” the DOS Consular Officer will forward the petition to the USCIS Field Office in Nairobi, Kenya, and notify the prospective adoptive parents that the case has been forwarded. USCIS Nairobi will notify the prospective adoptive parents when it receives the forwarded case and then again when they adjudicate the petition.
If additional evidence or information is needed during the adjudication, USCIS Nairobi will issue a Request for Evidence explaining the deficiencies and what is needed to overcome them. If the petition is ultimately approved, USCIS Nairobi will return the case to the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa for immigrant visa processing. If a case cannot be approved, USCIS Nairobi will issue a Notice of Intent to Deny. If a Notice of Intent to Deny is issued, the petitioners may respond with evidence in support of their petition.
Filing Domestically:
As mentioned above, prospective adoptive parents may also file their Form I-600 petition domestically at a USCIS lockbox facility which will send the application to the National Benefits Center (NBC).
If approved, the NBC will forward the petition to the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa for completion of the Form I-604, orphan investigation and subsequent immigrant visa processing. If a Consular Officer uncovers information during the orphan investigation or visa interview that suggests the Form I-600 petition should not have been approved, the Consular Officer will initiate a consular return by returning that petition, case file, and explanation to the NBC. USCIS will then review the file in light of the new information and determine whether the approved Form I-600 petition should be revoked. (For questions regarding the consular return process, contact the NBC at 1-877-424-8374 or nbc.adoptions@uscis.dhs.gov .)
Recent Developments
During FY 2011, the Consular Section in Embassy Addis Ababa began identifying an increased number of Form I-600 petitions filed in Ethiopia as “not clearly approvable,” leading prospective adoptive parents and stakeholders to question whether the DOS had changed its adjudication policies. DOS officials report that they have not changed their policy regarding processing of Form I-600 petitions; rather, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has made a practical change to ensure that its procedures more closely adhere with DOS policy.
Before the changes, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa had sent multiple requests for additional information to the ASPs locally in Addis Ababa, giving them several chances to correct deficiencies in the cases filed. This often delayed cases awaiting responses and additional documentation from the ASPs. The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa no longer affords ASPs the opportunity to correct deficiencies in cases and conforms strictly to DOS procedures worldwide: if a case has material deficiencies, rather than issuing extensive requests for more information, DOS classifies that case as “not clearly approvable” and refers it to USCIS.
USCIS Nairobi gives priority attention to intercountry adoption cases referred from DOS in Ethiopia as “not clearly approvable” and makes every effort to review the cases and inform prospective adoptive parents of their case status as quickly as possible.
In addition to sending all correspondence through regular hard-copy mail, USCIS Nairobi also seeks to communicate with prospective adoptive families by e-mail. Prospective adoptive parents seeking information about an Ethiopian adoption case that has been referred to USCIS Nairobi can contact that office by e-mail at nbo.adoption@dhs.gov. USCIS requests that families allow USCIS Nairobi at least two full business weeks after receiving notice that USCIS Nairobi has received the case before requesting a status update.
Nepal
The U.S. Government is currently adjudicating intercountry adoption petitions filed on behalf of Nepali children who have been relinquished by a known birth parent(s) whose identity and relationship can be confirmed. The U.S. Government is not adjudicating adoption petitions filed for Nepali children who are described as having been abandoned. On August 6, 2010, the U. S. Department of State and U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) suspended processing of new adoption cases from Nepal involving children claimed to have been found abandoned because documents presented in support of the abandonment of children in Nepal have proven unreliable.
USCIS and the U.S. Department of State continue to strongly recommend that prospective adoptive parents refrain from adopting children from Nepal due to grave concerns about the reliability of Nepal’s adoption system. We also strongly urge adoption service providers not to accept new applications for adoption from Nepal.
The U.S. Government continues to encourage the Government of Nepal to work with the international community, including the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, to implement the Hague Adoption Convention and reform its adoption process to protect children and families.
There are special filing instructions in place for adoption petitions under the orphan system involving Nepali orphans. For more information, please see the page called “Special Instructions for How and When to File Adoption Petitions on Behalf of Nepali Children.”
USCIS and Department of State Roles
USCIS is responsible for the adjudication of the Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative. In overseas locations where USCIS does not have an office, such as Nepal, USCIS has delegated limited authority to Department of State consular officers at U.S. embassies and consulates to accept in-country filings of Forms I-600 in certain circumstances and to approve petitions that are clearly approvable. Form I-600 petitions found by the consular officers to be “not clearly approvable” are then forwarded to the USCIS office overseas with jurisdiction over that location for adjudication. The USCIS office in New Delhi, India, has jurisdiction over petitions filed with the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Recent History
On August 6, 2010, the Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services jointly decided to suspend adjudication of new adoption petitions and related visa issuances for children who purportedly were abandoned in Nepal.
In early August 2010, a joint assessment team from the U.S. Department of State and USCIS travelled to Nepal and performed a detailed analysis of the evidence being presented to document the abandonment of children in Nepal. The team found that information presented in support of orphan petitions included vague and self-contradictory testimony and documents. Local officials were often uncooperative or appeared to purposefully mislead or deter investigations. The U.S. Government committed to complete the processing of the 65 cases where U.S. families had received an official referral of a Nepali child before the announcement of the suspension (these cases are referred to as “pipeline” cases).
On January 5, 2011, Nepal’s Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare announced that children found by the police and considered abandoned will not be available for intercountry adoption until further notice.
In January 2012, Nepal’s Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare announced on its website that there may be children who could be considered eligible for intercountry adoption by the Government of Nepal as relinquishment cases (meaning that the children had become orphans by virtue of having been relinquished by their birth parent(s)). Due to the concerns regarding the reliability of Nepal's adoption system, any future relinquishment cases received by the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu will require thorough investigations, which may include birth parent interviews and DNA testing. USCIS cannot estimate the time any investigations may take to complete. Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that investigations may require significant time and would likely result in an increased financial burden.
Haiti
Haiti’s adoption authority, the Institut du Bien-être Social et de Recherches(IBESR), has informed the U.S. Government that they are now accepting new adoption applications for Haitian children who were either documented as orphans before January 12, 2010, or who have been relinquished by their birth parent(s) since the earthquake. The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince has also resumed normal visa processing.
You may also refer to "Haitian Child Paroled Under Special Circumstances" if your Haitian child was paroled into the U.S. under the Special Humanitarian Parole Program for Haitian Orphans.
China
China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) announced that all prospective adoptive families will be required to work with a U.S. Hague accredited adoption service provider for both transition cases and Convention cases beginning December 1, 2009. This requires all families to work with an agency that is both U.S. Hague accredited and a CCAA-licensed agency for both transition cases and Convention cases for all steps in the intercountry adoption process. In order to facilitate this transition, CCAA has indicated that each non-accredited agency will be required to choose an accredited agency and transfer all remaining cases to that agency no later than December 1, 2009. This information will in turn be provided to CCAA. If an agency chooses not to turn over their files to an accredited agency, CCAA has indicated they will terminate the processing of those documents.
Prospective adoptive parents grandfathered under the orphan process will not be required by USCIS to obtain an updated home study based on this change in service provider. All cases grandfathered under the orphan process (I-600 process) transferred to a Hague accredited agency and a CCAA-licensed agency will continue to be processed in accordance with U.S. immigration regulations for orphan adoptions. For more information please refer to the Department of State Country Information page or contact your individual adoption agency.
Vietnam
See "USCIS Unable to Resume Processing Adoptions from Vietnam" for more information.
Guatemala
Guatemala is a party to the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention. DOS determined that Guatemala is currently not meeting its obligations under the Convention. For this reason, DOS Consular officers cannot issue the required Hague Adoption Certificate or Hague Custody Declaration at this time.
In light of the inability to complete the immigration process for Hague cases, prospective adoptive parents are strongly urged not to file Form I-800A, Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country, identifying Guatemala as the country from which they intend to adopt.
Cambodia
Cambodia is a party to the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention. DOS determined that Cambodia is currently not meeting its obligations under the Convention. For this reason, DOS Consular officers cannot issue the required Hague Adoption Certificate or Hague Custody Declaration at this time.
In light of the inability to complete the immigration process for Hague cases, prospective adoptive parents are strongly urged not to file Form I-800A, Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country, identifying Cambodia as the country from which they intend to adopt.
Additionally, the United States suspended orphan visa petition processing in Cambodia on December 21, 2001, due to the inability to verify that any particular Cambodian child is an “orphan” as defined in U.S. immigration law. It is important to note that this suspension remains in effect for any Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, filed prior to April 1, 2008.
General Country Conditions
The Department of State has dedicated a substantive section of its intercountry adoption website to country information. Go to the Department of State Country Information page to find more information about:
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Whether a country is party to the Hague Adoption Convention
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A specific country’s adoption authority
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The eligibility requirements for prospective adoptive parents
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Who can be adopted
