Families Across Borders | law, policy, news and views
Intercountry Adoption Developments in the US
The US State Department has released its Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption for Fiscal Year 2012, showing that visas were issued for a total of 8668 children, down from a total of 9,319 for FY 2011. The most frequently represented countries of origin are China (2,967 children), Ethiopia (1,568), Russia (748), South Korea (627), Ukraine (395), [...]
Russia Bans US Adoptions
The unfolding drama surrounding intercountry adoption in Russia is the biggest international family law story of the year, with events now posing a crisis for many US families whose adoptions had already been approved. The State Department posts updates on their web page at www.adoption.state.gov, including an alert on December 28 announcing that President Vladimir Putin had signed [...]
State Department Issues 2012 Hague Compliance Report
Following its mandate to report annually to Congress, the Office of Children’s Issues (OCI) in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs has issued its 2012 “Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.” In addition, OCI has posted statistics for calendar year 2011 on new incoming [...]
Adoptions from Vietnam Still on Hold
Although the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention came into force in Vietnam on February 1, 2012, US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the US State Department have announced that they will not resume processing of intercountry adoptions there until Vietnam has a fully Hague-compliant adoption system in place. See the Adoption Alert posted on the State [...]
Updates from the State Department
These come by way of the ABA FAmily Law Section’s International Law Committee: * There are some position changes affecting the Hague Convention Attorney Network. Patricia Hoff continues as the legal assistance coordinator. Beth Cooper recently became Incoming Abductions Branch Chief in the Office of Children¹s Issues. * Look for major changes to the U.S. State [...]
New Bilateral Adoption Agreement for Russia and the US
After more than a year of negotiations, the United States and Russia signed a bilateral agreement to strengthen procedural safeguards in adoptions on July 13, 2011. The new framework “will largely eliminate independent adoptions from Russia” and will improve post-adoption reporting and monitoring. There was this announcement from the State Department which links to a series of [...]
ACPIL Meeting on Abduction Convention Protocol
In preparation for the Special Commission meeting in June 2011 to review operation of the Hague Abduction Convention, the Office of Private International Law of the U.S. State Department has scheduled public meeting of the Advisory Committee on International Law for Friday, March 4, 2011, from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm in Room 1107 of the Harry S. Truman [...]
State Department Releases 2010 Adoption Report
The State Department has released its annual adoption report for Fiscal Year 2010. The report shows a total of 11,059 incoming intercountry adoptions, based on the number of visas issued in both Hague and non-Hague cases. This compares with a total of 12,753 in fiscal year 2009, and 22,990 at the high point in fiscal year 2004. [...]
Investigating Adoptions in Vietnam
Looking behind the current U.S. moratorium on adoption from Vietnam, Foreign Policy has published Anatomy of an Adoption Crisis by E.J. Graff, describing her investigation into why U.S.officials decided there was no alternative to suspending adoptions from Vietnam. The report was based on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, which are now posted on [...]
United States Signs the Child Protection Convention
On October 22, the U.S. Ambassador to The Hague signed the 1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Cooperation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children. Here’s an announcement of the signing from the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, and here’s a link to the text of the Convention [...]
