NYHOMESTUDY BLOG

July 25, 2007

We advise American prospective adoptive parents to be aware of possible delays in issuance of Ukrainian passports to Ukrainian adoptive children. On June 26, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that a new foreign passport had been introduced as well as a new centralized procedure for issuing passports. According to the Ministry, regional
passport offices will act as data gathering points and a central office in Kyiv will print and issue all passports. The old passport books are no longer in production and will no longer be provided to local passport issuing offices. Currently valid passports will remain valid until their expiration date.

The Consular Section has received reports that some Ukrainians who apply for new passports may face delays and shortages. Many regional passport offices report that the new passport blanks have not yet been distributed to them; therefore all passport applications are being directed through Kyiv, causing a significant backlog. The Kyiv office
and the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs have predicted wait times for processing passport applications to be ten days, but we understand that the process is taking significantly longer for some parents. Some parents have reported that wait times are exceeding one month.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed us that arrangements are being made to issue passports using the old style books to adopted children at regional passport offices if these offices have remaining stocks of the old passport books; however, old passport blanks will not necessarily be available.

The Consular Section is working with Ukrainian authorities to clarify the Ukrainians’ procedures for issuing the new passport, and in an effort to avoid extensive delays in passport issuance for Ukrainian adoptive children. The U.S. Embassy will continue to accept old-style passports issued to adopted children.

We will continue to keep the U.S. adoption community informed as we receive information from the Government of Ukraine.

This is an official
CDC Health Advisory
Distributed via Health Alert Network

Note: We at NY Home Study are sending this notice to you, (the reader) in the belief that this information may be of interest to you.