February 2, 2012. Vietnam Continued. As we reported yesterday, immediately after the Hague Convention on International Adoption became effective in Vietnam, the Department of State declared Vietnam a Hague non-compliant country which bars U.S. citizens from bringing back to the United States children adopted from Vietnam. This is a devastating development for the children who will remain unparented. It is also puzzling in that DOS has been advising Vietnam on Hague procedures for the last three years. We would therefore request that DOS specify exactly what deficiencies in Vietnam's procedures and practices caused this determination. We would further suggest that DOS and USAID consider using some of the funds appropriated by Congress last year for best family practices be used for the technical assistance Vietnam may require.

February 1, 2012. U.S. Department of State Declares Vietnam Not Hague Compliant. The Department of State announced today that it had determined that Vietnam, which is a Hague-effective country as of today, does not meet the criteria necessary to meet Hague Convention standards. In DOS's words: "...Vietnam does not yet have a fully Hague compliant process in place. We continue to caution adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents that, to ensure that adoptions from Vietnam will be compliant with the Convention, important steps must still take place before intercountry adoptions between the United States and Vietnam resume. Adoption Service Providers should not initiate or claim to initiate, adoption programs in Vietnam until they receive notification from the Department of State that it has resumed adoptions in Vietnam." More Information.

January 31, 2012. Newt Gingrich Proposes Fertility Clinics' Ethics Commission. While campaigning in Florida, Newt Gingrich suggested that the federal government create a study commission to consider the ethics of fertility clinics which work in the field of in vitro fertilization. Gingrich said that it was not that he was against IVF but "...If you have in vitro fertilization, you are creating life; and therefore, we should look seriously at what should the rules should be for clinics that do that, because they are creating life." During the Bush administration federal grants were made for embryo adoption programs. More Information.

January 30, 2012. Former Foster Youth Discusses Cutbacks in Care for Foster Children. Derrick Riggins is a former foster youth who has accomplished much, including being chosen to be CCAI 2011 Foster Youth Inter. His words should have great resonance to all of us. Here is Derrick's interview concerning Florida's debate to cut funding for children in foster care programs. Click here.

January 26, 2012. Government and Other Notices: USCIS Invites Interested Persons to a Teleconference on Grandfathering of Non-Hague Adoption Cases. PAPS in the China program and others with I-600As in Hague countries - as well as stakeholders - should read the attached notice from USCIS.

USCIS invites interested parties to participate in a national stakeholder teleconference on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 @ 2:00 PM EDT. The purpose of this engagement is to discuss changes to the process of "grandfathering" certain adoption cases as orphan cases when the U.S. and another country become Hague partners. The call will focus particularly on cases for Chinese and Guatemalan children as these are the countries from which there are currently "grandfathered" cases.

The U.S. became a Hague Adoption Convention partner with China and Guatemala on April 1, 2008. At that time, there were many U.S. families in the process of adopting children from China and Guatemala under the orphan process. USCIS allowed those U.S. families' cases to be "grandfathered" under the non-Hague process so that they could process their cases to completion as orphan cases. As the second "grandfathered" Form I-600A approvals for many of these cases are now beginning to expire, USCIS has developed an alternative approach that we believe will preserve the standing of the cases in the most effective and appropriate way.

Please join us on this conference call to discuss the options for families that are still in the adoptions process with "grandfathered" cases, specifically involving China and Guatemala.

During the session, USCIS will explain how we plan to proceed for the remaining grandfathered cases from these two countries and address questions and comments from participants.

To Participate in the Session

Any interested parties may participate in this event by telephone. All participants must respond to this invitation. Please contact the Office of Public Engagement at public.engagement@dhs.gov by Monday January 30, 2012 referencing "Adoption" in the subject line of your email. Please also include your full name and the organization you represent, if any, in the body of the email.

To Join the Call

On the day of the engagement please use the information below to join the session by phone. We recommend calling in 10 minutes prior to the start of the teleconference.

Call-in Number: 1-888-989-6491
Overseas Toll Number: 1-415-228-3902
Passcode: Adoption

January 24, 2012. All Adoption Is Becoming Open Adoption. DNA testing, social networking and the internet have revolutionized adoption. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post today have articles on aspects of this enormous change. The New York Times article focuses on DNA testing as recounts the stories of U.S domestic adoptees who find birth families by using private DNA search companies. The Washington Post looks at internationally adopted teenagers who have reconnected with birth families in Eastern Europe. Our Annual Adoption Law and Policy Conference, linked to at the top of this page, will devote a session to this topic. More information.

Ninth Annual Adoption Conference

Friday, March 2, 2012
New York Law School
185 West Broadway in Tribeca
New York City

We are pleased to announce that the ninth annual Adoption Law and Policy Conference will be held at New York Law School on Friday, March 2, 2012. This year's title will be "International Adoption: The Evolving Terrain". As always, continuing legal education credit will be offered.* This year's conference is cosponsored by the Center for Adoption Policy, the Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and Families, and Harvard Law School's Child Advocacy Program.

The conference will be held at New York Law School (185 West Broadway in Tribeca). For directions to the Law School, click here. For information on hotels and parking in the area, click here.

* New York Law School is certified by the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board as an Accredited Provider of continuing legal education in the State of New York. The number of hours and details for this CLE program will be announced in the spring.

Register Now!

January 19, 2012. Government and Other Notices. The Department of State has reported that on December 26, 2011 the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed a new Family and Marriage Code into law. Kazakhstan previously acceded to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Government approval of accreditation of adoption agencies and the processeing of international adoptions now will depend on the Kazakh government acceptance of the Ministry of Education proposals on specific rules and regulations and DOS's determination as to whether the new Kazakh standards meet Hague Convention requirements. More Information.

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