Sierra LeoneThe Central Authority will no longer
accept any applications from non-citizen single persons, and will only
accept applications from non-citizen couples for the adoption of special
needs children. Married couples where one spouse is a citizen of Lithuania will continue to be able to adopt under the previous rules. Families currently registered with the Lithuanian Central Authority will not be
effected by the new rules. | Foreign families may apply only for adoption of children with special needs |  |
Suspension of Huminska's Anioly, Inc. lifted
The Council on Accreditation (COA) has announced that effective April 13, 2012 it has terminated the suspension of the Hague accreditation of Huminska's Anioly, Inc. that was imposed effective March 6, 2012. Huminska's Anioly, Inc. completed its corrective action plan to COA’s satisfaction and COA has determined that Huminska's Anioly, Inc. is now in substantial compliance with applicable U.S. accreditation standards. Huminska's Anioly, Inc. may resume providing adoption services in Hague Adoption Convention cases as of April 13, 2012.
If you have further questions, please contact LaTina Woolen, the Accrediting Entity Liaison, who may be reached at (202) 663-3119 or at WoolenLA@state.gov in the Office of Children’s Issues.
RomaniaThe Romanian Office for Adoptions announced that its new adoption law went into effect on April 7, 2012. The new law allows for intercountry adoptions of Romanian children by relatives of the fourth degree of kinship, the spouse of the child’s natural parent, and Romanian citizens who are habitually resident abroad.
Please be aware that the U.S. law implementing the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Convention), the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 (IAA), requires prospective adoptive parents to be U.S. citizens in order to be eligible to apply for intercountry adoption using U.S. procedures. This means that Romanian citizens legally residing in the United States will be able to adopt from Romania only if they or their spouses are also U.S. citizens.
Moreover, the U.S. Hague Adoption Convention accreditation regulations (22 CFR 96) provide that in each Convention adoption case, an accredited agency, a temporarily accredited agency, or an approved person will be identified and act as the primary provider. More information on the role of U.S. accredited ASPs and the role of U.S. accrediting entities is available on the Department’s adoption website, adoption.state.gov.
The Department of State has provided information to the Romanian Office for Adoption about the U.S. requirement for a primary provider to serve in each Convention adoption, explaining the critical monitoring and oversight role of U.S. accrediting entities in ensuring that ASPs remain in substantial compliance with the IAA and the Convention. We look forward to the opportunity to expand our cooperation with Romania as Convention partner countries.
KazakhstanThe Ministry of Education and Science, the Central Authority of Kazakhstan, has confirmed that the governmental decree approving its new policies to process intercountry adoptions and accredit adoption agencies in Kazakhstan goes into effect on Thursday, April 5, 2012.
The Government of Kazakhstan will begin accepting applications for accreditation from potential adoption service providers on April 9, 2012, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Information on the new accreditation process and the new adoption procedures will be available on the Central Authority's website shortly.
A blog post was recently made public by Brian Stuy of Research China which addresses some of the issues contained in our Ethics Alert on China's Special Needs Adoptions http://pear-now.blogspot.com/2012/03/pear-ethics-alert-china-special-needs.html. We received similar stories and information from both adoptive families and adoption service providers before publishing our alert.
