Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity

There was another quarterly ASP (Adoption Service Provider) meeting at the US Embassy in HaNoi this week. Ethica has posted their notes on the meeting on their website. The Embassy provided updates and information on the current I600 wait and ‘blocked’ provinces, the new fingerprinting process, the current situation with the expiration of [...]

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JCICS is calling for a campaign by agencies, adoptive parents, prospective adoptive parents, advocates and all of those who have an interest in international adoption in Vietnam to join the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Co-Chairs and sign their letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice in support of their recommendations for the continuation of adoptions [...]

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From Ethica:
According to CIS, On April 1, 2008 an internal USCIS field memo was inadvertently given to the public regarding a new policy requiring DNA testing for known birth families. CIS maintains this memo was not forwarded to adoption service providers. However, some adoptive families were alerted to the new requirement upon receipt of their [...]

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It’s Friday evening, April 4th. Four full days after the new DNA regulation apparently went into effect. Three full days after the USCIS internal memo was unofficially posted on the internet and we were assured (per the memo) that an official announcement would be published “soon.” And yet, there is no information about this new regulation [...]

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It is a difficult time for prospective adoptive parents hoping to adopt from Vietnam. Things have been somewhat turbulent for months and now the US - VN Agreement is about to expire and there are questions about whether it will be re-signed in time to prevent a defacto shutdown of adoptions. People are asking for [...]

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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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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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Today the first batch of families have received their I600 approvals under the new system of filing prior to travel. These families received approval approximately 3 weeks from when their applications were filed which is an excellent turn-around time. We should proceed with caution, however, when presuming that things will continue on this time table [...]

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10/25/07: The USCIS Update has been posted to their website. This update is very similar to the information posted below, with this additional clarification:
USCIS will forward all Form I-600s received in domestic USCIS field offices on or after October 29, 2007 to its Ho Chi Minh City office.After November 16, 2007, USCIS will not expedite [...]

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[Edited 10/24 to Add: Please see the Clarification from the US embassy for details on the new process. I600s will NOT be mailed to your local USCIS office, but ONLY to the USCIS in Ho Chi Minh City.]
In the near future the Embassy plans to shift from in-country I-600 processing to  filing of the I-600 Petition [...]

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