Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity

Ethica posted their response to the DOS Statement on their website, to read it in full, click here. In part, the statement reads:
Ethica commends the Department for its openness about the process and the possibility of delays. We urge families who have not yet begun the process to seriously consider options in other countries. Parents [...]

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The State Department today posted their anticipated statement on adoptions from Vietnam.
Emphasizing their commitment to “continuing intercountry adoptions from Vietnam if possible” the statement warns,
In view of the processing time required in Vietnam from placement to the Giving and Receiving Ceremony, an adoption process begun now cannot be completed before the current Agreement expires. We do [...]

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Word is trickling out about the meeting at the Hanoi Embassy this past Thursday. Some agencies are sharing a summary of the meeting with their clients and Tad at Adoption Buzz has a good comprehensive summary posted. If you have any information from your agency, please feel free to share in our comments section. (Also [...]

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Many of us have questions about the new I600 process - what it involves and the way applications are being processed. Some of these questions are actually answered on the US Pre-approval of Adoption page on the recently renovated Embassy website. While we are all capable of going to the site and reading the information, sometimes [...]

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JCICS has modified their update about the forthcoming Standards of Practice to say that they will be available for review “around January 27th” ; the statement previously said they would be made public around the 20th. The projected date for signatory ASP compliance to the new standards remains July 30, 2008.

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The US Embassy in Hanoi’s quarterly meeting on adoption issues in Vietnam is this Thursday, January 24th. For a number of reasons, this is a very important meeting. As we mentioned in the previous announcement, according to the invitation, there will be “a wide-ranging discussion of current issues in Vietnamese adoptions as well as visa [...]

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On Sunday night Dateline NBC’s feature, To Catch a Baby Broker profiled shocking cases of corruption in Guatemalan adoption. The cases of kidnapping, unreported medical issues and unavailable children being referred for adoption showed the worst kinds of adoption-related corruption. It would be easy to dismiss these reports as extremely rare and only happening in Guatemala. But [...]

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Local woman’s effort to adopt orphan stalls
By Brian Morelli
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Brendler officially adopted Madison, who turns 1 today, through what is called a Vietnamese “Giving and Receiving Ceremony” on Oct. 26, 2007. Pre-approved for the adoption by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before Brendler left Oct. 24, the U.S. State Department has refused to [...]

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Ethica sent out the following news release on Thursday, January 17th:
Ethica has been active in advocating for clarification on the current situation in Vietnam and on new guidelines introduced to curb troubling activities. We have confirmed the following:
- The Vietnamese Department of International Adoptions has stated that agreements allowing unlicensed agencies to place children through [...]

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Recently we learned that some families/agencies seem to be experiencing problems with a few of the provinces insisting that families complete their Giving/Receiving ceremonies immediately upon final provincial approval (like within 7 days of notification). Apparently when the agencies inform the provinces that families need to wait on I600 approval from the Embassy, these provinces respond [...]

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