An independent voice for ethical adoption
April 2008
Warning Concerning Adoptions in Vietnam
U.S. Embassy – Hanoi
Adopted Children Immigrant Visa Unit
April 2008
… On April 25, the Government of Vietnam announced that it will allow
adoption to be completed in cases where prospective adoptive parents
have been matched with a child and received an official referral prior
to September 1, 2008. It further stated that in accordance with
Vietnamese law, the DIA will suspend the acceptance of new dossiers on
July 1, 2008. On September 1, 2008 any dossier that has not received a
referral will be closed and returned to the Adoption Service Provider.
In view of the processing time required in Vietnam from placement to
the Giving and Receiving Ceremony, an adoption process begun now cannot
be completed before the current Agreement expires.
Prospective
adoptive parents should be aware that documents relating to adoptions
in Vietnam, such as birth certificates, abandonment reports,
relinquishment agreements, and investigative reports are generally
issued by orphanage directors, local People’s Committees, Provincial
Departments and the Department for International Adoptions (DIA). The
facts asserted in these documents are not verified by the issuing
officials. Attempts by U.S. officials to verify the accuracy of these
documents have routinely uncovered evidence of fraudulent or inaccurate
information. Therefore, documents issued by the authorities listed
above, and any other documents containing information not verified by
the issuing authority, cannot be considered adequate evidence of the
facts claimed. They may be used in conjunction with primary and
contemporaneous secondary evidence, or must be independently verified
by U.S. officials in Vietnam, before they can be considered valid for
immigration purposes. Read More Here
Man Allegedly Bulked 62 Would Be Parents in Adoption Scam
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—An
arrest warrant has been issued for the Santa Barbara leader of an
alleged adoption scam that preyed on would-be parents promised children
from Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia.
Israel Sanctions Overseas Gay Adoptions
JERUSALEM, April 25 (UPI) — Israel has agreed for the first time to register an overseas adoption by a gay couple and to grant citizenship to the child, an attorney for the parents said.
NEW YORK (AP) — The slowdown affecting adoptions from China
coincides with unrelated complications in several other countries that
have been major sources of adopted children for American parents. Some
examples:
Prosecutors say Orson Mozes bilked 62 people out of thousands of dollars, some paying up to $11,000, for adoptions.
The
56-year-old defendant is charged with felony counts of taking money
under false pretenses and grand theft by use of the Internet. Mozes and
his wife Christen Brown, who wasn’t named in the arrest warrant,
operated the Adoption International Program.
Prosecutors say
the Web site posted photographs of children available for adoption and
would-be parents were told to send a $7,000 to $11,000 agency fee to
“hold” a specific child and remove the child’s picture from the site.
Mozes
vanished last June. District attorney’s office supervising investigator
Laura Cleaves says the FBI and Interpol have been asked to help find
Mozes. Article Link Here
An attorney for the parents told Haaretz the decision in effect recognizes same-sex marriages in Israel.
The
landmark case grants Israeli citizenship to an 8-year-old
Cambodian-born boy, adopted in 2000 by two men in the United States.
The men hold both U.S. and Israeli citizenship and returned to Israel
shortly after the adoption. Read More Here
Adoption Problems in Other Countries
_GUATEMALA: Irregularities and suspected fraud have
cast a cloud of uncertainty over many of the 2,900 pending U.S.
adoptions from Guatemala, which is the second-largest source of adopted
children — after China — for the United States. The State Department on
April 1 advised potential adoptive parents not to initiate new
adoptions from Guatemala.
_RUSSIA: Laws affecting adoptions by
foreigners have become stricter, while Russia has been trying to expand
domestic adoption. Last year, 2,310 Russian children were adopted by
Americans, down from a peak of 5,865 in 2004.
_VIETNAM: Renewed
U.S. concern about possible baby selling, fraud and corruption — the
same fears that led to suspension of Vietnamese adoptions from 2003 to
2005 — are again holding up visas for some babies adopted in Vietnam.
The U.S. embassy has confirmed more than a dozen problematic cases, and
Vietnamese adoption officials have said roughly 20 American families
are affected.
_KAZAKHSTAN: Officials of Kazakhstan, the
eighth-largest supplier of adopted children to the U.S. in 2007,
informed the State Department last month that it was reviewing its
adoption process and would suspend its normal handling of applications
during the review. Article Link Here
Oklahoma Adoption Review Wins Approval
The full Senate approved a measure to review current adoption law
and practices in the state of Oklahoma.
House Bill 2749, by Sen. Mike
Mazzei and Rep. Susan Winchester was approved unanimously on Monday,
bringing it one step closer to consideration by Gov. Brad Henry.
“Oklahoma
has not had an in-depth examination of our adoption laws since 1994,â€
said Mazzei, R-Tulsa. “HB 2749 creates a task force that will examine
those laws and ensure we’re doing the best job we can to encourage the
adoption of infants and children into loving homes.†Read More Here
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