Panic!

A double whammy of bad news on the adoption front. On March 5th, the Department of State released a statement that the Embassy will now implement an investigation before a visa can be granted, and this could delay the process of the adoption by several weeks to months. We went through this process when we adopted Ephraim from Vietnam and waiting for that approval email from the U.S. Embassy was nerve wracking.

Now there are rumors that Ethiopia is going to start requiring two trips effective TODAY. The first trip will be for court and the second trip will be for the visa and to bring the child home. Two trips is bad enough, but added to that, many families have had their court dates delayed up to four times. The new dates are sometimes as much as a month later, so that would mean returning home and then returning for the re-scheduled date! YIKES!!

Here's the official statement from the Department of State:

The Department of State shares families’ concerns about recent media reports alleging direct recruitment of children from birth parents by adoption service providers or their employees. In response to these reports, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has implemented some changes to adoption visa processing. Adoptive parents should be aware that an I-604 (Determination on Child for Adoption, sometimes referred to as “orphan investigation”) must be completed in connection with every I-600 application. Depending on the circumstances of the case, this investigation may take up to several weeks or even months to complete. Therefore, adoptive parents should not plan to travel to Ethiopia until they have confirmed with their adoption agency that their visa interview appointment has been confirmed.

Adoption agencies submit case paperwork to the U.S. Embassy for review before the Embassy schedules the immigrant visa appointment. In some cases the I-604 determination could take several weeks or more from the time a case is submitted to the U.S. Embassy to the scheduling of a visa interview appointment. We understand that in such cases this will result in a longer period before parents are able to bring their adopted children to the U.S. However, this additional scrutiny is required to ensure that the adoption is legal under both U.S. and Ethiopian law. The U.S. Embassy will work with adoptive parents and their adoption agency to ensure that each case is processed in the most expeditious manner possible in accordance laws and regulations. Families should continue to work through their agency to schedule immigrant visa appointments and answer questions regarding pending cases.