Status of Vietnam adoptions

Vietnam adoption is in flux. Many agencies involved with VN adoptions met at a summit in Washington, D.C., with about 30 agencies in attendance.

Some of the following issues were discussed:

A record number of Noids (notice of intent to deny) have been issued by the US Embassy. Noids are issued when a child does not meet the USCIS (US Customs and Immigration) criteria ranging from something minor, such as a paperwork error to something more serious such as when the means of referral is questionable. Evidently, Noids were issued to 4 agencies involved in the Northern region of VN. The US gov't went randomly into villages to investigate which caused a political uproar in VN and tensions between the two countries.

An employee of the US Embassy in VN is not pro-adoption and is impeding the process for families undergoing adoptions there. Many agencies have reported problems working with this person.

There is always the possibility that VN will shut down adoptions - although the State Department and VN gov't have both said they don't want this to happen. The process is unpredictable.

Referral wait times: VN does not have a centralized system or way to monitor how many families are waiting for a referral. Most agencies tell families that the wait is 12-18 months or longer from the time the dossier is submitted. In fact, some agencies are no longer accepting applications. Many families switched to Vietnam from China adoptions because of lengthy wait times (now at three years). VN can not accommodate all of these new families and now there is a back log.

Some agencies are engaging in bidding wars over kids. The agencies at the Summit agreed to come up with common stands of practice to prevent this from happening.

Referrals from Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) have slowed due to a "six month rule" that some orphanages are using and others are not, since it is seen as a guiding principle rather than an official rule. This seems to apply to children under 18 months of age.

More paperwork needs to be completed prior to arriving in VN in the form of I-600, so any potential problems are known about before travel. It used to be that you could travel to VN and then complete this form in country. This is a new change and some families traveled to VN without this form which led to long stays in VN.


Our agency is looking to work with an orphanage in another city in addition to HCMC.

We believe our agency is ethical and honest. We are interested in adopting a child who has been abandoned or left without parents--certainly not taking a wanted child from anyone. It's discouraging that the process is taking longer, but hopefully the adoptions will improve in the next few months.

Sources (not in APA format):

http://vietnam.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/what-exactly-is-a-noid

International Children's Alliance email from December 11, 2007.