Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / November 2003

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/11/25/international.adoptions/

U.S. speeding international adoption process
From Terry Frieden
CNN Washington Bureau
Tuesday, November 25, 2003 Posted: 8:50 PM EST (0150 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- To help thousands of often anguished and frustrated U.S.
families adopting children abroad, the federal government announced Tuesday
that it is accelerating the process of providing citizenship documents to newly
adopted children arriving in the United States with their new families.

The process will now be completed in about 45 days rather than the 12-18 months
it often took previously, officials from the Department of Homeland Security
said.

U.S. bureaucratic delays are among the obstacles often faced by prospective
adoptive parents who go abroad in search of children to bring home and care
for, and by parents who adopted while living overseas.

Because some nations still present particular difficulties to parents seeking
international adoptions, according to officials from the State Department and
Homeland Security's Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the United
States is pressing for wider international approval of the Hague Convention on
Protection of Children.

The United States, which signed the convention in 1994 but has not ratified it,
is in the process of accrediting adoption agencies for the first time.

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At a news conference in Washington, officials from the two federal agencies
said the United States is adopting new regulations to fully implement the Child
Citizenship Act passed by Congress to simplify the citizenship process for
children of U.S. parents who return home after an adoption overseas.

Until that law was passed, those children were considered "lawful permanent
residents" or "green card holders" who needed to apply for citizenship. Now
they are considered citizens when they arrive at a U.S. port of entry.

"Those adoptive parents, in order to have their child begin their life in the
United States, are always concerned about having evidence that in fact the
child is a citizen of the United States," said Joe Cuddihy of Citizenship and
Immigration Services. "That may involve the issuance of a Social Security card,
the issuance of a U.S. passport. It may involve school records.

"We think this new program will, in fact, make it easier and encourage other
families to adopt internationally," Cuddihy said.

The private National Council for Adoption welcomed the change.

"The former policy of automatically issuing green cards while requiring parents
to apply for certificates of citizenship made for a slow process and caused
frustrating delays in parents' ability to prove their children's citizenship,"
the council said.

Federal government interest in the issue has increased in recent years as the
numbers of international adoptions and problems associated with those efforts
have risen.

In fiscal year 2002, the most recent year for which records are available,
there were more than 21,000 U.S. adoptions of children from abroad. Nearly
10,000 "immigrant orphans" came from Asia, nearly 8,000 came from Europe and
more than 2,000 came from Guatemala. By contrast, only about 300 came from all
of Africa, 260 from the Caribbean, 71 from Mexico and six from Canada.

Stuart Patt of the State Department's Office of Children's Issues in the Bureau
of Consular Affairs said the government encourages overseas adoptions so long
as there are protections.

"We think they're good for the children who need homes, for the families who
want to adopt the children, and overall it does a lot to further international
relations," Patt said. "But it's important that there be some clear and
consistent procedures and safeguards to prevent the trafficking and selling of
babies."

The officials said interested parents should expect a process that often takes
18 months or more from the time they first contact a reputable adoption agency
to the time an international adoption can be completed. The application process
and normal fees generally add up to less than $1,000, but the amount varies,
and officials note that depending on location and circumstances, costs for
adopting from overseas may run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown