Some updates but not really

Here's a summary of an email from our agency executive director, Jennifer Kelman...

Press Release From US State Department:

For those not familiar, the Memorandum of Understanding on Intercountry Adoptions was signed by the US and Vietnam on June 21, 2005 as a beginning step towards an intercountry adoption program that would meet international standards such as those established by the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions. The convention contains a number of protections and safeguards for the ethical placement of children. The agreement entered into force on September 1, 2005. There is a deadline of March 1, 2008 for the US and Department of Intercountry Adoptions in Vietnam to reach an agreement regarding the renewal of the MOU. It is evident that the US Department of State and Vietnam Department of Intercountry Adoptions are negotiating this agreement now. We hope that the expected press release will shed some more light on the status of these negotiations.

A copy of the agreement can be found here:
http://travel.state.gov/pdf/vn_final_agreement.pdf

Adopted Children Immigrant Visa Unit at U.S. Embassy in Hanoi revamps website

The Embassy recently launched a newly revised version of their website for the Adopted Children Immigrant Visa Unit (ACIVU). The ACIVU is responsible for processing all the adoption cases that pass through the Embassy. You can visit their new site here - http://hanoi.usembassy.gov/orphan_visas.html. They have added a great deal of information about the process, the requirements, and updates on the status of the program.

Meeting at Embassy for Adoption Service Providers on Thursday, January 24^th

On Thursday, January 24^th the staff at the U.S. Embassy held their quarterly meeting with Adoption Service Providers. The meeting was hosted by Mary Ann Russell of USCIS and Eric Alexander of the Department of State. The majority of the discussion focused around the new I-600 process. USCIS is continuing to streamline their process for handling the I-600s. Here are the highlights from the discussion:

· The estimated time frame for processing the I-600 applications is still 60 days. However, CIS warned that it could be longer due to the high number of applications. In additions, CIS is doing an increasing number of investigations, which is time-consuming and takes their staff out of the office for a time.

· When determining if a child meets CIS’ legal definition as an orphan, CIS staff must complete a form called the I-604. (This is a standard part of adoptions from any country in the world. You can find the form here - http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/uploads/images/Oq45THmvcwMSU0Ntx_Hf-w/i-604_pdf__for_visas_37.pdf.) The I-604 can be completed based on the paperwork submitted with the I-600, through telephone interviews with relevant parties, or through on-site visits within Vietnam. If CIS is not able to gather the information needed then they cannot complete the I-604 and, as a result, cannot issue the preapproval.

· CIS is changing slightly the process for notifying families when the preapproval is issued. Thus far, CIS in HCMC has been notifying families directly. From this time forward, CIS will notify the Adopted Children Immigrant Visa Unit (ACIVU) of the Embassy in Hanoi. Embassy staff will then send one email to the family notifying the family of the approval. The email will include the letter of approval from USCIS, as well as an invitation to travel from the Embassy. The Embassy is strongly recommending that families do not travel to Vietnam before receiving this email.

· CIS clarified that when the I-600 is submitted, the family’s CIS approval and fingerprints should be valid for at least another 60 days.

· The USCIS office in HCMC has been receiving a tremendous number of phone calls from adoptive families. Many families have urgent issues and personal concerns and are requesting special consideration. This has been taking them away from their work of processing the I-600 applications. The ACIVU’s new website has additional information about the I-600 processing and it can be found here - http://hanoi.usembassy.gov/preadoption.html. It is important to note that the website says, “For security reasons, USCIS is not able to inform petitioners of the status of their case between the time the receipt e-mail is issued and the time that a decision is made on the case.” The Embassy has also indicated that, “In the rare event that a case requires more than 60 days to process, petitioners will receive an e-mail apprising them of the outstanding issues in their case.”

JCICS Standards of Practice (SOPs)

The timeline for the release of the Standards of Practice from the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) has been updated. For those not familiar with JCICS, their website is http://www.jcics.org/. ICA is an active member organization of JCICS. They now expect to release the SOPs on January 27^th. JCICS staff have been actively advocating with DIA, USCIS, and the Department of State regarding the state of the bilateral agreement or MOU and the contents of the Standards of Practice from JCICS.

Log in date for China!

We are now officially logged in as a couple waiting for adoption from China. Our date is December 12, 2007. Which still means we are three years away from adopting our little girl, but at least the process is in place. People are still waiting for little girls with log in dates from as long ago as 2005!

No new news on the Vietnam front, it looks to be a long process of waiting and waiting ahead. So we are focusing our efforts on house hunting, starting in Arlington, Va, where cheap homes start at half a million dollars. Our lease runs until July, so we hope to find something by then. So our weekends are filled with home searches. I think we found our real estate agent, a helpful man that is giving us advice on what to look for on the outside as well as in the basement.

Homes are wicked expensive, even the ones near busy roads but some of the houses we've looked at have reduced their prices further. It's an overwhelming process and feels like much more of a commitment than marriage, plastic surgery or a tattoo. We've just started and a friend of mine looked at more than 100 houses before she found her cute little bungalow. Every house seems to have something wrong with it, like a weirdly configured kitchen, or one with a refrigerator that was literally on an angle (interesting). Tiny, tiny rooms or major roads next door, really right outside your front door or as it says in the listing...."convenient to major highways". I'm a sucker for a cute front porch. The house I've liked the best is still a breath-taking $605,000 with need for a major kitchen renovation. And I'm not just talking granite counter tops, it means pulling out walls. All of this, to take our minds off of the fact that we don't have a little one yet. But if we can find a house, we can fix it up and be ready when we finally get Milo.