NYHOMESTUDY BLOG

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/fashion/i-found-my-birth-mother-through-facebook.html?_r=1

By LISA BELKIN

“MOMMY, Mommy, she found me, she found me.”

Sixteen-year-old Alexander Dorf stood at the top of thestairs in his Tenafly, N.J., home two years ago, grinning broadly at hismother, Jami. He had just gotten a message on his Facebook wall that he’dbeen waiting for all his life.

From a Florida woman named Terri Barber, it read: “Hi,I was just wondering if your parents’ names are Jamie & Jeff?”Alexander recognized the name; he had searched the Internet for it himself withno luck. It belonged to the woman who had given birth to him.

Ms. Dorf and her husband, who had adopted Alexander as aninfant, were not surprised. Ms. Barber had reached out to them, too, a fewbeats after the e-mail to Alexander. “I sent Alex a message because Ifound him first, but I only asked him if you and Jeff were his parents,”Ms. Barber wrote. “I said nothing else. … Please let me know ifit’s O.K. if we speak…. Please don’t be upset.”

The Internet is changing nearly every chapter of adoption.It can now start with postings by couples looking for birth mothers who want toplace children, and end years later with birth mothers looking to reunite withchildren they’ve placed. A process that once relied on gatekeepers andofficial procedures can now be largely circumvented with a computer, Wi-Fi andsome luck.

“It used to be a slow process,” says AnyaLuchow, a psychologist who facilitates an adoption support group in BergenCounty, N.J., that includes the Dorfs. “And when the children wereminors, it was one that their adoptive parents could control.”

Now, says Leanne Jaffe, a Manhattan therapist (herself anadoptee) who specializes in adoption issues: “Kids, at the mostvulnerable time for developing identity, are plugged in online. Either they aresavvy enough to find their birth parents, or they spend time in places likeFacebook, where their birth parents can find them.”

There are stories of children as young as 13 approached bybirth parents online, and of children being contacted before they had been toldthey were adopted. Among the most cautionary of tales is that of Aimee L.Sword, who was convicted of having sex with her biological son, who was 14 atthe time, and whom she found on Facebook when yearly updates from his adoptivefamily stopped coming. “It’s uncharted territory,”  Dr.Luchow says. What are the new rules? They are being made up as the participants— adoptees and their parents — go along.

When Linda Wachtel and her husband, Zev, adopted theirdaughter, Jessi, 19 years ago, things were different. Open adoption was stillrare. Birth mothers were kept at arm’s length.

They did have Jessi’s birth mother’s first name,Sharyn, but were not certain of her last; she knew them as Linda and Steve(Zev, they thought, was too easy to find). For awhile they used an 800 numberto communicate, set up, per the norm at the time, so that their whereaboutsremained secret. A few years in, they disconnected that line.

The Wachtels assumed Jessi would eventually want to meet herbirth mother but thought they would be in charge of the timing.

To that end, the Wachtels were open with their daughter, whohas two brothers who are not adopted, and who was always curious about hergenetic roots. As the Internet became a part of life, both Ms. Wachtel andJessi herself would do Google searches for Sharyn periodically, but come upempty. “Mostly I wanted to know what she looked like,” Jessi says.

One day, two years ago, Ms. Wachtel happened upon herson’s Facebook page, left open on a computer screen in their home. On awhim, she typed “Sharyn” and “Padula,” which was onepossible last name. Up popped a photo that “was eerily familiar,”Ms. Wachtel says. “It was like looking at my daughter.”

Creating a new e-mail account — lindasteve92 —Ms. Wachtel e-mailed.  “Hi Sharyn,” Ms. Wachtel recalls writing,“I’m Jessi’s mother. I know it must be fairly shocking to getthis.”

Ms. Padula answered within minutes. The two women talkedelectronically for much of the day. Then Ms. Wachtel left to pick up heryounger son from school and in those 20 minutes Jessi came home. Sitting at thefamily computer she noticed lindasteve92 on the screen, and by the time Ms.Wachtel got home, Jessi was in a conversation with Ms. Padula that had movedfrom e-mail through instant messaging, to the telephone, to video chat.

Ms. Padula had been looking for Jessi all along. She hadbeen 24 and the mother of three when she became pregnant in 1992, and she wasfighting with her then-boyfriend, now husband, who did not want another child. She regretted the adoption immediately, she says, and called the agency thenext day. She called the Wachtels’ 800 number periodically, too, until itwas disconnected.

Knowing that the family lived in New Jersey, that they hadnamed the baby Jessica, and that the adoptive father, whose name she thoughtwas Steve, was an anesthesiologist, she started by calling doctors with thatfirst name in that state. Years later she moved on to contacting every NewJersey Jessie, Jessy, Jessica and Jessyca on Facebook and MySpace, butapparently never tried Jessi. If she had, it might have been the teen who founda thunderbolt in her mailbox.

John, a professional guitarist in San Francisco, sat andstared at the MySpace page often over several weeks last year, trying to decidewhat to do. The young man’s face staring back from the screen looked justlike him. There were photos of him with a guitar, which tickled John, who hadjust learned he was the young man’s biological father. There was also oneof those surveys that kids forward around asking something like “50Things About Mike,” and included were the facts that he was adopted, bornin Palm Springs, and of Irish ancestry.

All John, who asked that his last name not be used, knewwhen he began his search was the date the boy was born, and the names of thebirth mother, the hospital and the adoption agency. Rummaging around online, hecame upon one of the many Web sites that seek to connect searching parties, andafter filling out a rudimentary form, he heard back via e-mail fromgsadoptionregistry.com.

The note contained contact information and a warning.“They told me, ‘This is a young guy, I suggest that you be veryrespectful of his adoptive parents because you don’t know how they aregoing to handle it,’ ” he recalls of the Web site, which will notconduct searches by or for adoptees younger than 18.

Mike was 21 by then, not a minor, but still, he had parents,and the question was whether to reach out to him directly or to go through hisfamily.

Many friends advised him to approach the young man directly,assuming that the adoptive parents would be hostile. “But I decided to gothrough the parents first,” John says, “knowing that he is an adultand if I got an answer I didn’t like, I could always go back and goaround them.” He sent a handwritten letter to the parents. Three dayslater the father called, and then, within minutes, the son was on the phone.The two have met in person several times, but, fittingly, their relationship ismostly online. They are Facebook friends. This, it seems, is the nextunexpected role for Facebook. Jessi is “friends” with Ms. Padula,as well as her biological father, three biological brothers and one sister, hermaternal biological grandmother and aunt. The screen provides connection, butalso distance, a way to tiptoe through what can be the awkward in-betweenterritory of reconnection.

Alexander Dorf’s adoption had been, at first, arelatively open one, and after that first “ask your mother”Facebook contact, Ms. Dorf brought out a safe-deposit box full of oldcorrespondence with Ms. Barber, and went through it all with the teen. Sheshowed him photos of his birth mother and of Alexander’s biologicalfather, James. She told him that communication with the couple had ended afterabout four years, when Ms. Barber offered a second child to the Dorfs butchanged her mind.

After taking all this in, Alexander went back to thecomputer and began an instant message.

“Hi,” he typed.

“Hi. How are you?” she answered.

“I don’t know what to say,” he replied.“I never blamed you or my father. I know you gave me up because you lovedme. My mom always told me that you loved me. I read all the letters and saw allthe pics you sent and I want you to know I am happy.”

She wrote back: “It was the best thing for you. I knowyou had a great life. Better than we could have given you. Your brother andsister are always asking if we can find you.”

That Ms. Dorf did not control the timing of thisconversation is the reality. “If you think that what was private 17 yearsago is still private and that your child needs you to find a birth parent, youare fooling yourself,” she says.

That reality is how Ms. Barber justifies reaching out toAlexander in the first place, even though he was just 16. “Jami had toldme from the beginning that she would tell him the true story,” she says.“I didn’t feel unfair contacting him because I knew he knew.”

Ms. Dorf has since searched for, and found, the birthmothers of her two younger sons. Better to make the first move.

Like John and Mike, most communication between the Dorf boysand their birth families now takes place virtually. Alexander has become closewith his oldest biological brother, and the two play video games together fromseveral states apart, through Wii.

Alexander graduated from high school on Thursday. Ms. Barberwanted to go, but couldn’t take the time off. But she was there inspirit, she says. And there were photos of the ceremony on Facebook.

Lisa Belkin covers family life for The Times and writes theMotherlode blog for nytimes.com.

Lori P.Kling, LMSW

Adoption Options

lorikling@nyhomestudy.com

www.nyhomestudy.com

516-822-5626 phone

516-822-3465 fax

By Blake Ellis, staff reporter

April 01, 2011: 05:37 AM EDT

The Wards couldn’t believe the news when their tax preparer called to tell them they’re getting a $54,000 refund this year.

Thelma Ward was speechless. She had to hand the phone to her husband so she could dance around the living room floor in shock.

“I was thanking God like never before,” she said. “We’re just overwhelmed — that amount was so huge it was unbelievable.”

Even their tax preparer said she had to check the math — 10 to 15 times.

“We couldn’t believe it when we totaled everything up. We were like, that can’t be right,” said Dee Carter, owner of the local H&R Block where the Wards have brought their taxes for more than 10 years. “We had never seen anything like it before, so we had to check it over and over again.”

So what’s bringing this windfall? The federal adoption tax credit.

In the past few years, the Wards have expanded their already big clan of seven children by adopting five new kids. For each of these adopted children, they are eligible for a one-time tax credit of up to $13,170.

The credit has been around since 1997, but this tax season it is refundable for the first time — which is the tax equivalent of hitting the jackpot.

A refundable tax credit lets you get the cash even if you owe no taxes. A non-refundable credit just offsets any taxes you owe, and then rolls anything remaining to the next tax year.

The Wards adopted the five children over a span of three years, so they’ve filed for the tax credit each year. But because they didn’t make enough money, the tax credit simply rolled over from year to year and accumulated.

This year, because the credit became refundable, they are getting all the previous years’ leftovers in a lump sum. (The couple had an earlier adoption, in 2004, but unused credits can only be carried for up to five years.)

While the Wards haven’t received the refund check yet, H&R Block calculated that the unused adoption credits from the past five years add up to $45,560 — making up the majority of the $54,000 refund they’re expecting.

“When this was first coming through the tax reform legislation, we just kept looking at it going, ‘Wow, this is really, really significant for people adopting,’” said Kathy Pickering, executive director of The Tax Institute at H&R Block. “It’s not a large population who can claim it, but for those who do, it can really change their lives.”

A typical private adoption runs about $30,000, so the credit was intended to help families by reimbursing expenses, such as court fees. But the tax law allows parents who adopt “special needs” children to receive the entire credit even if they had no expenses.

All of the Wards’ foster children qualified as special needs, so Thelma was able to claim the full credit even though there were no adoption expenses. This is not unusual for foster children; about 80% of these kids are considered to have “special needs.”

“People adopting from the foster-care community are typically lower and moderate income, and most don’t have a significant tax liability, so the credit never helped them,” said Mary Boo, assistant director of the North American Council on Adoptable Children. “The expenses they have are life-long, so the government really stepped up this year to help these people.”

It’s significant to the Wards, who only make about $39,000 per year.

“We didn’t get into foster care to adopt anyone, but when we started being foster parents we couldn’t let a child leave us without a place to call home,” said Thelma.

She had to quit her job at a daycare to take care of her new children. And her husband, David, who works at a concrete company, had to take a significant pay cut last year to keep his job. The one saving grace: As foster parents, they receive about $3,300 a month from the state of North Carolina until the children turn 18.

“Any little bit helps, but it still doesn’t cover it,” said Thelma, who has had to learn to stay on a tight budget to afford giving her children the care they need.

Kelli, only three years old, has a serious heart condition and has required medical attention since she was born. She is scheduled for a major heart surgery this month.

Octavius has a heart murmur and is in and out of the doctor’s office constantly. And all of them — including Joquavius, Zoie and Mckayla — require either speech therapy, psychiatry or special classes for learning disabilities.

This attention really adds up, both emotionally and financially. So to save money, Thelma focuses on the little things, like using coupons everywhere she can, selling her children’s clothes at consignment stores, buying everything used and holding yard sales.

While the kids are at school, Thelma goes to three grocery stores to do her weekly shopping. But the family’s weekly grocery bill still totals around $400, including the more than three gallons of milk and four loaves of bread the children go through. It usually takes five or six trips to the car to get all the groceries unloaded.

The Wards hope to use their windfall refund to take their big family on a vacation, pay bills, and buy new windows for their home — which needs a little repair after housing so many foster children over the past years.

“We’ll have to see what we can afford,” said Thelma. “Money comes and money goes, so we want to make sure we spend it all wisely.”

Many more families are also finding themselves in the enviable place of planning what to do with such a windfall. Tax preparer H&R Block said 8,000 of its own clients have already claimed the credit, and the company expects 150,000 total taxpayers to claim it this year.

That’s a 50% jump from the 2009 tax year — but not because adoptions have increased that much. Instead, many people who had no tax liability in previous years, and thus wouldn’t have been helped by the credit, are now filing. And some of the refunds it has seen range as high as $90,000.

A couple from Alabama, Tina and Kenny Thomas, recently adopted five kids from foster care and are now expecting a check for a whopping $65,000, thanks to this credit. Like the Wards, they had absolutely no idea it existed until they went to their tax preparer.

“We went in having no clue about the credit, and we even thought we may have to pay money,” said Tina Thomas. “We never, never would have expected it.”

But before you run out to adopt a child in order to cash in on this credit, know that the IRS is a stickler for documentation and isn’t doling out refunds like this to just anyone.

“If you’re claiming the credit because of the nature of the credit and the size of the refund, there are many documentation requirements that Congress included along with it,” said Eric Smith, a spokesman for the IRS. “It is a generous credit for those who qualify — that’s why policymakers want to make sure the people who deserve it get it, and those who don’t, don’t.”

http://cnnmoney.mobi/snarticle?articleId=urn:newsml:CNNMoney.com:20110401:adoption_tax_refund:1&category=cnnm_business

The following announcement was issued by the U.S. Dept of State, Office of Children’s Issues on March 16, 2011. It can also be found on their website.

U.S. Department of State, Office of Children’s Issues, Adoption Division hosted a conference call for Adoption Service Providers on March 11, 2011 at 10:45 am to discuss recent announcements made by the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA). Below is a summary of information presented on the call.

As was stated in the March 9, 2011 Adoption Alert, the Department of State received information on the announcement made by the MOWCYA regarding the planned reduction in workload processing.

• MOWCYA planned to implement a reduction of case processing from approximately 50 cases reviewed per day to no more than 5 cases reviewed per day.
• MOWCYA has stated that this reduction is to improve screening of adoption cases while also devoting existing resources to other priorities on vulnerable children.
• MOWCYA reviews each adoption case at two points in the process: after the match with prospective adoptive parents and after the final court decree to approve issuance of new birth certificate and passport for child.
• MOWCYA has not announced any implementation guidelines on how reduction in processing will affect each stage of the process.
• If only 5 cases are reviewed per day, delays could be significant. Calculations based on rough estimates of cases in process (around 1000) indicate delays of one year or more.
• Department of State defines ‘cases in process’ as those whose dossier has been accepted up to those cases that have received the final letter approving issuance of passport and birth certificate.
• We are working on getting more details on implementation guidelines.

Since announcement, the Department of State has heard many rumors, but none have been substantiated. The U.S. Embassy can confirm that the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs has shuffled the portfolios of key adoption personnel. The Embassy has not been able to confirm how this reorganization may affect the processing of cases through the ministry.

Additionally, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa is discussing the possibility of developing a consolidated assistance proposal to MOWCYA to find out what the resource needs are and find what assistance can be given to allow MOWCYA to accomplish their goals.

Lori P. Kling, LMSW

Adoption Options

lorikling@nyhomestudy.com

www.nyhomestudy.com

516-822-5626 phone

516-822-3465 fax

Government departments and adoption agencies in receiving countries, In order to promote special needs child adoption and guarantee the basic interests of the orphaned and disabled children, CCAA decides to accept the adoption applications from female single applicants to adopt according to the requirements listed in this notice, starting from March 15, 2011:

Female single applicants are allowed to adopt special focus children listed on the special Needs System of CCAA.

One applicant can only adopt one special focus child at a time, with an interval of at least one year between two adoptions.

The applicant shall have reached the age of 30 years and are under 50. For applicants over 50, the age difference between the child to be adopted and the applicant shall be no more than 45 years.

The applicant shall provide her civil status certificate. Unmarried applicants shall provide certification for being single and non-homosexual; divorced applicants shall provide the divorce certificate of the last marriage; and widowed applicants shall provide the death certificate of their ex-spouse.

The reason of being single and attitude towards marriage. Applicants shall have clear indication of willingness to appoint male figures as role models for the adopted child, and welcome male friends to join family gatherings.

Applicants shall have received inter-country adoption training and training specifically for special needs child adoption so as to understand fully the physical and psychological needs of special needs children.

Detailed nurturing and rehabilitation plan. Applicants shall be qualified personally and socially for caring special needs children and have wide social and family supporting network which can provide assistance any time.

Guardians appointed by the applicants shall provide written statement as consent to act as the guardian of the adopted child. X. If the applicant has a stable relationship and lives with a male partner, t he requirements of couple applicants shall be applied.

Applicants shall be healthy both physically and mentally according to the requirements by CCAA for prospective adoptive couples.

Applicants shall be law abiding with no criminal records, and have good moral quality and conduct The family annual income shall reach $10,000 per family member, including the prospective adoptee and the family net assets value should reach $100,000.

The applicant shall have good medical insurance which can cover the medical expense of the adopted child.

Applicants shall be experienced in child caring or be occupied in child-related fields, such as doctor, nurse, teacher, child psychological counselor, etc. It’s best that the applicants have already had successful experience in caring for special needs children.

The number of children in the applicant’s family under the age of 18 years shall be no more than two, and the youngest one should have reached the age of 6 years old.

Applicants shall be fully prepared for adopting a special focus child.

Social workers shall provide the following information fully and timely in the home study reports besides family visit interviews: Adoption motive. The decision to adopt a special focus child shall be well-considered. Applicants shall be capable of caring for a special need child and be responsible for the well-being of the child

Adoption laws vary among countries.  A child must qualify for adoption under the laws of his or her country of origin in order to be adopted.  Each country has different requirements for children to be eligible for adoption.  You can learn more about specific countries’ eligibility requirements for children in our Country Information pages.
 
Additionally, children being adopted abroad must be found eligible to immigrate under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) in order to reside in the United States.  Because adoption laws vary from country to country, it is possible to adopt a child abroad who does not qualify for immigration under U.S. law; such children cannot immigrate to the United States. 
 
The federal agency responsible for determining whether a child is eligible to immigrate to the United States in accordance with the INA is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  U.S. law sets different eligibility requirements for adopted children living in Hague Adoption Convention countries (view country list) and those living in non-Convention countries.  Children in Convention countries must meet the INA definition of a Convention adoptee; children in non-Convention countries must meet the INA definition of an orphan.
 
Convention Adoptees (Convention Countries)
 
Children being adopted from a Convention country must qualify as a Convention adoptee in order to immigrate to the United States.  USCIS determines whether a particular child meets the definition of a Convention adoptee.  To apply to USCIS for this determination, you use the following form:

1. I-800 – Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative
2. I-800 application instructions

Form I-800 and the required supporting documents are required for USCIS to determine that a child is eligible for classification as a Convention adoptee.  In order to file From I-800 with USCIS, you must have an approved, valid Form I-800A (Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country).  See our eligibility requirements for prospective adoptive parents for more information about filing Form I-800A. 
 
There are five primary elements to the Convention adoptee classification.  In addition to other applicable requirements, all of the following must be true for a child to be eligible for the Convention adoptee classification:
 
1.      The child is under the age of 16 at the time the I-800 is filed on his or her behalf (taking into account special rules on filing dates for children aged 15-16), is unmarried, and lives in a Convention country;
 
2.      The child will be adopted by a married U.S. citizen and spouse jointly, or by an unmarried U.S. citizen at least 25 years of age, habitually resident in the United States, whom USCIS has found suitable and eligible to adopt (Form I-800A approval) with the intent of creating a legal parent-child relationship.  Note that at this stage the child must not have been adopted yet, unless that adoption has been voided by the country of origin.  (USCIS, in September 2008 FAQs on its website, offered guidance on cases in which the adoption cannot be voided in the country of origin.);
 
3.      The child’s birth parents (or parent if the child has a sole or surviving parent), or other legal custodian, individuals, or entities whose consent is necessary for adoption, freely gave their written irrevocable consent to the termination of their legal relationship with the child and to the child’s emigration and adoption;
 
4.      If the child has two living birthparents who were the last legal custodians who signed the irrevocable consent to adoption, they are determined to be incapable of providing proper care for the child; and
 
5.      The child has been adopted or will be adopted in the United States or in the Convention country in accordance with the rules and procedures elaborated in the Hague Adoption Convention and the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 (IAA), including that accredited adoption service providers were used when required, and there is no indication of improper inducement, fraud, misrepresentation, or prohibited contact associated with the case.
 
Orphan Status (Non-Convention Countries)
 
Children being adopted from non-Convention countries must meet the definition of an orphan as defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) before they can immigrate to the United States.  USCIS determines whether a particular child meets the definition of an orphan.  To apply to USCIS for this determination, you use the following form:
 
I-600 – Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative
 
I-600 application instructions
 
 
 
Form I-600, along with its supporting documents, are required for USCIS to determine that a child is eligible for classification as an orphan.  In order to file Form I-600 with USCIS, you should submit Form I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) first.  You may submit both forms at the same time, or you may already have an approved, valid Form I-600A when you file Form I-600.  See our eligibility requirements for prospective adoptive parents for more information about filing Form I-600A.
 
According to the INA, a child must meet the following two conditions in order to be considered an orphan:

1. The child must have no parents; or
2. The child has a sole or surviving parent who is unable to care for the child and has, in writing, irrevocably released the child for emigration and adoption.

In some countries it is possible to adopt a child who is not an “orphan” as defined by U.S. immigration law.  Whether a child qualifies as an orphan for the U.S. is determined by reference to U.S. laws and regulations, and not by foreign law that may identify a child as orphaned.  In general, a child would be considered to have no parents if both are determined to have died, disappeared, deserted, abandoned or have been lost or separated from the child.  Abandonment requires that the birth parents give up all parental rights, obligations and claims to the child, as well as all control over and possession of the child (without transferring these rights to any specific person).  Under U.S. law, children may not be abandoned, relinquished, or released to a specific prospective adoptive parent for adoption.
 
There are three primary elements to the orphan classification.  In addition to other applicable requirements, all of the following must be true for a child to be eligible for the orphan classification:

• The child must be under the age of 16 at the time an I-600 petition is filed on his or her behalf with USCIS or a consular officer (a child adopted at age 16 or 17 will also qualify, provided he or she is a birth sibling of a child adopted, or who will be adopted, under the age of 16 by the same adopting parents).
• The adopting parents must have completed a full and final adoption of the child or must have legal custody of the child for purposes of emigration and adoption in the U.S.; and
• The child has been or will be adopted by a married U.S. citizen and spouse jointly, or by an unmarried U.S. citizen at least 25 years of age, with the intent of forming a bona fide parent/child relationship. 
   

If an I-600A has already been approved, the adopting parent may file an I-600 for one child without any additional fee.  However, if parents are adopting two or more biologically unrelated children, there will be a $670.00 fee for the second child (this fee is waived for siblings).
 
The following documentation must be presented in order for an I-600 petition to be approved:
 
Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative;
The child’s birth certificate;
 
A final decree of adoption, if the orphan has been adopted abroad, or proof of legal custody for purposes of emigration and adoption;
Proof of “orphan” status per definition above (e.g., evidence of abandonment, written relinquishment, death certificates, etc. depending on the circumstances);
 
Proof that the pre-adoption requirements, if any, of the state of the orphan’s proposed residence have been met, if the orphan is to be adopted in the United States;
 
Proof that the adopting parents have seen the child prior to or during adoption proceedings.
 
IMPORTANT:  Parents are urged to seek advice about the possibility that an adopted child might not be considered an orphan and therefore would not be able to accompany his or her adopting parents to the United States.  Immigration attorneys, reputable adoption agencies involved in international adoption, USCIS, and Department of State officials all have information that will assist you in addressing this serious concern.
 
Children in Conflict Areas or Natural Disasters
 
The Department of State receives inquiries from American citizens concerned about the plight of children in war zones and in countries afflicted by natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis.  Our office shares this concern for children in conflict areas and we understand that some Americans want to respond by offering to open their homes and adopting these children in need.
 
It can be extremely difficult in such circumstances to determine whether children who appear to be orphans truly are eligible for adoption.  Children may be temporarily separated from their parents or other family members during a conflict or natural disaster, and their parents may be looking for them.  It is not uncommon in a hostile situation for parents to send their children out of the area, or for families to become separated during an evacuation.  Even when it can be demonstrated that children are indeed orphaned or abandoned, they are often taken in by other relatives.
 
During times of crisis, it can also be exceptionally difficult to fulfill the legal requirements for adoption of both the U.S. and the child’s country of origin.  This is especially true when civil authority breaks down.  It can also be very difficult to gather documents necessary to fulfill the legal requirements of U.S. immigration law.  There are still ways in which U.S. citizens can help the children in areas of conflict or natural disaster.  For example, individuals who wish to assist can make a financial contribution to an established NGO working in that country.

http://www.adoption.state.gov/about/how/childeligibility.html

On November 23, 2010 USCIS will increase its fees for all immigration filings.  The fees for I-600a/I-600 and I-800a/I-800 will increase to $720.  Biometrics (fingerprinting) will increase to $85.  For detailed information regarding the increase, please visit USCIS’s website by clicking here: http://bit.ly/bl1gaq

July 28, 2010

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 adoption in Vietnam. No such announcement is expected in
the near future.

In June 2010, the Vietnamese legislature passed a new adoption law
scheduled to take effect January 2011. Vietnamese officials are now
drafting regulations and procedures to implement this new law and
achieve Vietnam’s stated goal of acceding to the Hague Convention on
Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry
Adoption (the Convention).
Vietnamese law requires that in order for adoptions to resume from
Vietnam, either a new bilateral agreement must be in place between the
United States and Vietnam, or Vietnam must accede to the Convention.

The United States recognizes these 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.

Most importantly, the Government of Vietnam must draft, finalize, and
promulgate regulations and standards that, among other things, will
establish procedures to:

* Accredit and regulate U.S. adoption service providers to perform
adoption-related work in Vietnam;

* Establish adoption fees and procedures for monitoring their
collection;

* Clarify procedures for reporting and reviewing donations that may be
made to orphanage and child welfare
organizations by organizations or individuals engaged in intercountry
adoption to ensure that such donations do not influence placements,
procedures, or approvals;

* Evaluate the suitability of prospective adoptive parents; and

* Ensure that all required efforts for domestic placement have been
fully met before a child is considered for
intercountry adoption.

Under U.S. law, if/when Vietnam becomes a party to the Convention, the
United States Central Authority (USCA) must be able to certify that
procedures leading to the adoption of a child in Vietnam would conform
to the standards established by the Convention and the U.S. Intercountry
Adoption Act (IAA). The USCA may not determine whether such a
certification can be made until
Vietnam has completed the accession process. For these reasons,
prospective adoptive parents are warned not to enter into any agreement,
implied or stated, regarding the prospective adoption of a child in
Vietnam until such a time as the USCA determines that Vietnam’s process
complies with the Convention and IAA, and USCIS has announced that I-800
petitions for Vietnamese children are being accepted for processing.

The USCA cautions adoption service providers that they should not offer
or appear to offer adoption services in Vietnam (other than for those
transition cases still being processed under the former regulations)
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. That determination cannot be made in relation to Vietnam
until after its accession to the Convention.

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. Although the Government of Vietnam
has proposed a timeline for completing the regulations and making a
formal request to be recognized as a Convention partner, 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.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs

Office of Children’s Issues
April 16, 2010

The Department of State has received no information to confirm a suspension of adoptions from Russia to the United States.  Our Embassy in Moscow and other Department of State officials are talking with Russian officials to clarify this issue.

The Department of State is sending a high-level inter-agency team to Russia this weekend to meet with senior Russian officials, including officials from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Justice.  The U.S. delegation will emphasize the importance of this issue to the United States, and will discuss our mutual concerns about how to better protect the welfare and rights of children and all parties involved in intercountry adoptions.

Many thousands of Russian children have found loving, safe and permanent homes in the United States through intercountry adoption.   Families in the United States have adopted more than 50,000 children from Russia.
If you have completed an adoption in Russia and have an immigrant visa appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow:

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is continuing to schedule and issue immigrant visas for adopted children using normal processing procedures.  Contact the Embassy at MoscowConsularR@state.gov to schedule an appointment.  Please also stay in close touch with your adoption service provider.

If you have a court appointment to finalize your child’s adoption in Russia:

Many adoption cases are continuing to move forward in the courts.  We have heard of cases in which a court appointment has been postponed.  If your court appointment is postponed by the court, please provide this information to us by email at RussiaAdoption@state.gov and MoscowConsularR@state.gov. We will work with the Russian authorities to try to resolve any problems.

If you do not have a court date yet to finalize an adoption in Russia, but are in the process of adopting from Russia:

Please stay in close contact with your adoption service provider, and check the adoption.state.gov website regularly for current information about intercountry adoption from Russia.

The Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues has established a special e-mail box for inquiries or comments about adoptions from
Russia.  Prospective adoptive parents with concerns about adoptions from Russia may send their questions to RussiaAdoption@state.gov.

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

MOSCOW — Russia would like to stop giving away its babies.

Within days or weeks, it will probably lift the suspension on adoptions by Americans that it formally announced Thursday. But eventually, as a senior Kremlin official said, the government needs to find a way to ensure that all Russia’s children stay in Russia. After all, how can a country with a shrinking population so readily surrender its very own to foreigners?

“We must, as much as possible, keep our children in our country, and keep them safe here,” said the official, Pavel A. Astakhov.

As the new children’s ombudsman in Russia, Mr. Astakhov has helped shape the government plan to tighten rules on adoptions, put in place after the uproar surrounding a 7-year-old boy who was sent back to Russia by himself last week by a Tennessee woman who adopted him last year.

A celebrity lawyer and television personality, he has used his flair for the spotlight to make certain that the plight of the boy and other Russian children who have been mistreated abroad remains in the public eye. The cases are a prickly subject here, not just because the children have been taken away and abused, but also because the country has been unable to do anything about it.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Astakhov emphasized that he did not favor a permanent adoption ban, acknowledging that there were simply not enough Russian families who want to adopt children. But he suggested that more restrictions, combined with strenuous efforts to help Russian parents and to encourage adoptions inside the country, would sharply reduce the number of children sent abroad.

He added that it was “big business” for adoption agencies to find foreign adoptive parents, contending that Russian families were sometimes overlooked because it was far more profitable to offer children abroad.

“I see many mistakes, abuses, disinformation concerning children,” he said. “But that’s our domestic problem.”

Yet, cutting the number of adoptions of Russian children by foreigners will not be easy. Many of the roughly 750,000 children in Russia that officials say have either no parents or parents who have lost custody are housed in a sprawling system of orphanages.

There is a stigma attached to adoption in Russia that makes many here more reluctant to adopt than most foreigners are, and the foster care system is rudimentary. As a result, experts worry that children will pile up in orphanages without the safety valve of foreign adoptions. But some also expressed the hope that the attention now being focused on the issue would help break down Russians’ resistance.

The suspension was announced Thursday by a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman. The State Department in Washington said it had not yet been formally notified, but Mr. Astakhov said all adoptions were now halted.

An American delegation is planning to hold talks in Moscow next week, and Mr. Astakhov said he was optimistic that new rules could be devised.

“For nearly 20 years, there has been adoption by Americans of Russian children, but until now, there has been no agreement,” he said. “That is just wrong. We seem to have arrived at that moment when we need to prove that we know how to agree on not only nuclear missiles and atomic bombs, but also on the needs of children.”

Mr. Astakhov said both potential parents and adoption agencies should be scrutinized more closely.

Russia was the third leading source of adoptive children in the United States in 2009, with 1,586, after China and Ethiopia, officials said. But that figure had been decreasing in recent years, in part because of concerns about fetal alcohol syndrome and other health issues.

More than 250 American families are nearing the end of the process of adopting Russian children, and those cases will be held up until the new rules are approved, Russian officials said. In addition, as many as 3,500 Russian children are in some stage of the adoption process with 3,000 American families, according to the Joint Council on International Children’s Services.

Russian officials acknowledge that the vast majority of adoptions have turned out well in recent decades. But 14 Russian children adopted by Americans have died of abuse since 1996, Russian officials said last year.

In the United States, parents who are trying to adopt Russian children reacted with deep disappointment to the suspension. “I don’t know what Russia is thinking about the impact on these children,” said Sue Gainor, chairwoman of Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption. “They’ve said, ‘One of our children has been mistreated, therefore we need to take these draconian measures.’ They are not thinking about the thousands of children waiting and languishing in orphanages.”

Mr. Astakhov, 43, is an unlikely child welfare crusader. Before being appointed by President Dmitri A. Medvedev, he was one of Russia’s leading private lawyers, and he does not have a child welfare background.

If the case of the 7-year-old boy, born Artyom Savelyev, has turned into a media circus, Mr. Astakhov seems to be playing the role of ringmaster. He has been a constant presence on television, and was even shown gently interviewing the boy himself.

It is a familiar medium for him. He is the host of a popular television program, “Hour of Judgment,” in which he adjudicates the kinds of cases often heard on “Judge Judy” in the United States. (He is still allowed to work on the show even though he is a federal employee, he said.)

He said it was proper for him to engage the news media, adding that showing the boy on television attracted potential parents who might consider adopting him.

“We have an understanding with the president, who appointed me, that our work must attract maximum publicity,” he said. “We must talk about what we are doing, and about these outrages.”

Mr. Astakhov has an unusual perspective on Russian-American relations, having attended both an institute of the K.G.B. and the University of Pittsburgh.

He has not shied away from focusing on abuses in Russia, pointing out that Russian children adopted by Russians have come to harm far more often than Russian children in the United States.

Mr. Astakhov said he realized that Americans seeking to adopt Russians would be upset. But he said changes were needed. “Adoptions will continue,” he said. “We only want guarantees for the lives and the safety of our children abroad. Because we are giving to American families the most precious thing for us: our children.”

Sarah Kershaw contributed reporting from New York.

By Jeneen Interlandi

Despite sensational headlines about Haitian orphans, children adopted from
developing nations can thrive in the United States. I know, from personal
experience.

Earthquakes in Haiti and Chile have left thousands of children orphaned and
revived debates over the value of international adoption. In the weeks since
a group of American missionaries were arrested on charges of
child-trafficking, Haiti’s orphans have continued to trickle across her
borders. More than 300 Haitian children have been adopted by families in
France, and the State Department estimates that nearly 2,000 will have been
placed with U.S. families by month’s end. Thanks to enhanced scrutiny by
both Haitian and U.S. officials in the wake of the missionary debacle, it
appears that the vast majority of those adoptions will be of legitimate
orphans and not child-trafficking victims.

That won’t silence critics, who argue that taking orphaned children from
their birth countries and raising them elsewhere robs those nations of their
most valuable resource and leaves the adoptees with a hopelessly fractured
ethnic identity, only to satisfy the capricious whims of wealthy Westerners.
(The contentious term cultural genocide is sometimes employed.) Opponents of
international adoption routinely point to the abundance of orphans here in
the U.S. where they claim it is both easier and cheaper to adopt. From
there, they typically question the motives of “eager white Americans” who
would endeavor “to adopt children that look nothing like them,”-as if every
would-be parent who sought to adopt overseas were somehow trying to be
Angelina Jolie. There are some persistent myths behind that argument that
need dispelling. But first, a quick story:

My own parents suffered through a string of miscarriages and failed attempts
to adopt in the U.S. before fetching my older sister, twin brother, and I
from a dilapidated orphanage in Medellín, Colombia. It was the late 1970s,
and we were infants-two of us premature and very sick. They nursed us back
to health, brought us to a working-class suburb of New Jersey and promptly
went about the business of raising us. Among the many things they took pains
to instill (like work ethic, faith in God, and a healthy appreciation for
good lasagna), a sense of Colombian-ness was not included. Nor was it to be
acquired elsewhere: together my siblings and I made up about half the town’s
Colombian population.

But if we lacked a clear blueprint for our ethnic identities, we still had
plenty of other parameters from which to forge our sense of selves: we were
blue-collar kids from Jersey. We grew up amongst the mostly Irish- and
Italian-American children of nurses, plumbers, and store clerks. Like them,
we indulged in all the rituals of our particular American upbringing. And
like most internationally adopted children, we turned out just fine.

To be sure, there are some significant and seemingly unclosable gaps in our
cultural identities. I remember eagerly befriending two Colombian kids that
moved to our town in junior high, only to find out that we had nothing
special in common. “I’m Colombian too,” I exclaimed to one of them, a girl
the same age as me. She smiled and started speaking in Spanish. I furrowed
my brow to show that I didn’t understand. “Where are you from?” she asked in
English. “Medellín,” I said. “No,” she said, laughing. “You definitely
aren’t.”

In later years my twin brother (who is darker than my sister and I) would
occasionally be subject to racial profiling. And, as we belatedly
discovered, all three of us would have to go through the complicated and
lengthy process of naturalization before we could obtain driver’s licenses
(or register to vote or apply for financial aid for college). We were
immigrants and minorities-but only sometimes. The same was true of our
Italian experience. I know more about Palermo and my father’s upbringing in
1950s Bensonhurst than I ever will about Medellín, but I feel as dishonest
calling myself Italian or Italian-American as I do calling myself Colombian.
That’s OK by me. My loss of ethnic heritage has been more than compensated
for in the multitude of opportunities afforded by my adoption. Besides, I
kind of like being a cultural chameleon (Colombian by birth, Sicilian by
adoption, and American by upbringing). It makes me unique.

I won’t pretend my experience is the same as it would be if I were black or
Asian, or even a darker shade of Hispanic, and I’m not trying to say that
race doesn’t matter at all. But race and ethnicity shouldn’t be the foremost
concerns of adoptive parents, foreign governments, or society at large. The
primary consideration should be the welfare of the children in question.
Where will they have the best chance at happy, fulfilling lives? How best
can the global community ensure their health and safety?

Within the U.S., the federal government has long since determined that while
race and ethnicity merit consideration, they should not be the deciding
factors in any adoption. That’s because numerous studies show that
transracial and transcultural adoptees don’t face any higher risks of
psychological problems or identity issues than domestic, same-ethnicity
adoptees. As uncomfortable as it makes some people to acknowledge, white
parents are capable of raising emotionally healthy black, Asian, and
Hispanic children. And that’s no less true when the child comes from another
country.

Those who argue that prospective parents should “just adopt in the U.S.”
don’t understand the motivations of most adoptive parents. If would-be
adopters were acting out of some profound sense of charity, then reasonable
people could debate the merits of alleviating greater suffering abroad vs.
considerably less suffering closer to home. (In Colombia in 1977, children
who weren’t adopted by the age of 9 or 10 were turned out onto the street:
girls mostly became prostitutes, boys joined the guerrilla armies or found
work in the coca fields. By contrast, American orphans of the same
generation were guaranteed food, shelter, and some form of education until
they turned 18.)

But the fact is, most adoptive parents are like mine: they are unable to
conceive but desperately want to experience parenthood-in all its
permutations. That means they want babies. In the U.S., 60 percent of
eligible orphans are more than 5 years old. Several critics have argued that
the supply of Third-World infants is not a natural occurrence but a response
to the demand of adoption markets in the West. This is only partly true:
yes, Western demand motivates child-traffickers. But even after child
trafficking is taken out of the equation, there are still many more infants
to adopt abroad than there are in the U.S. (6.6 million compared with less
than 60,000, based on an analysis of data from Unicef and the United States
Department of Health and Human Services). International adoption is
expensive (up to $40,000 in many cases) and takes a long time (one to three
years on average)-long enough to consider all of the challenges and
complexities that raising a child of different cultural or ethnic heritage
will entail. It’s not a process one enters into lightly.

In fact, most parents choose international adoption only after being
repeatedly stymied by U.S. adoption protocols-from birth parents that change
their minds at the last minute, to stringent and sometimes arbitrary
requirements on the part of domestic adoption agencies. Speaking of which,
it is patently false that the high-profile choices of a few celebrities have
triggered an international adoption boom. In fact, in the U.S. especially,
international adoption rates have plummeted-from about 25,000 in 2004 to
less than 13,000 in 2009. Today, they are at an all time low, thanks to the
greater availability of contraception, a global crackdown on
child-trafficking, and better economic conditions in places like Russia and
China, the birthplace of many internationally adopted orphans.

These days, internationally adoptive parents often go to great lengths to
preserve their adoptive children’s sense of cultural heritage-a big change
since I was adopted from Colombia. According to one Harvard survey, 15
percent of transracially adoptive parents move to more ethnically diverse
neighborhoods after adopting, to enhance their child’s exposure to other
people of the same ethnicity. Many parents take corresponding language and
cooking lessons and many more immerse themselves in the diaspora communities
of their children’s birth countries. Some also participate, with their
children, in “homeland tours” offered by international adoption agencies.

At the same time, adult adoptees from Korea, China, and elsewhere have
formed national organizations to facilitate homeland visits and lobby for
dual citizenship, among other things. There is no reason to think that
Haitian orphans won’t do the same. To be sure, they will face barriers to
forging coherent racial and ethnic identities-almost all internationally and
interracially adopted children do. But those barriers won’t be
insurmountable and they won’t necessarily be devastating. In the end, what
matters most is not where a child is from, but whether or not that child is
well loved and well cared for by a responsible family-regardless of race or
nationality.

Originally appeared at http://www.newsweek.com/id/234343