Ethiopia
January 25, 2013
Notice: Notes from Ambassador Jacobs' Meeting with Adoption Service Providers on December 11, 2012 in Addis Ababa
During a visit to Addis Ababa from December 8-11, 2012,
Ambassador Susan Jacobs, Special Advisor for Children’s Issues, met with
the staff of U.S.-based Adoption Service Providers (ASPs). The Office
of Children's Issues posts this notice to provide interested parties
with information discussed at the meeting on December 11, 2012.
Meetings between Embassy Addis’ Adoptions Unit and ASPs take place
several times a year and are announced to in-country representatives in
advance. This notice recaps the issues discussed.
Administrative Discussion with Embassy Addis Ababa Adoptions Unit
I-600A Validity
An adoptive family’s I-600A petition must be valid at the time
that the I-600 petition and case file are submitted to the U.S. Embassy
for review. Currently, many adoption service providers email the
embassy at
ConsAdoptionAddis@state.gov
following initial I-600A approval by the National Benefits Center in
order to confirm the case number and the expiration date of the
fingerprint approval and I-600A approval. Embassy Addis’ Adoptions Unit
requests that, at the time the adoption service provider (ASP) submits
the original I-600 and other supporting documents, that it also provide a
printed copy of the confirmation email mentioned above. Taking this
additional step will ensure that the I-600A is valid at the time of
I-600 submission, and help us avoid instances where a family might learn
their fingerprint clearances are expiring very late in the Embassy
review process.
The screening checklist linked on Embassy Addis’ website
here has been updated to reflect this new change.
Expedited processing
The Adoptions Unit will consider on a case-by-case basis
expeditious processing for children with serious medical conditions that
require urgent treatment that is unavailable in Ethiopia. Cases
involving children who have serious but stable medical conditions or who
are already undergoing treatment in Ethiopia generally do not qualify
for expeditious processing. More typical medical conditions like asthma
or stable HIV/AIDS, which are common reasons for requesting expedited
processing, would not usually qualify.
Expedited cases are not exempt from the required review of orphan
status through the Form I-604, Determination on Child for Adoption. We
encourage all agencies to inform us as early as possible about cases
involving children with serious medical conditions requiring urgent
treatment that is unavailable in Ethiopia, even at the time of
referral. The more information about the child’s medical condition we
have in advance, the faster we’ll be able to move the case through the
system.
For cases that we do expedite, it is essential that the ASP stay in
close contact with the panel physician in order to keep the adoptive
families informed of how long it will take for a child to be medically
cleared for travel. The Adoptions Unit encourages parents to direct
questions about the timing of the medical clearance to their ASPs, so it
is important that ASP staff be aware of the status of their respective
children’s panel physician clearances at all times. Doing so will
ensure that a child who is cleared for a visa does not get held up
because of unexpected delays with the medical clearance.
For some children with confirmed TB or other medical conditions that
require lengthy testing prior to issuance of the panel physician report,
the Adoptions Unit can work with the ASP to have the child examined
prior to issuance of the Ethiopian passport.
Cases from the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region (SNNPR)
The Adoptions Unit requests that ASPs provide detailed information
on the status of any cases which have been delayed for a significant
period of time (i.e. 8+ months) because of the new review process
instituted by the SNNPR Bureau of Women’s, Children’s, and Youth Affairs
(BOWCYA) office. Embassy Addis Ababa supports the efforts of SNNPR
BOWCYA to accurately document all orphaned children within the region,
and to follow the Alternative Care Guidelines outlined in an Ethiopian
Ministry of Women’s, Children’s, and Youth Affairs 2009 directive on the
subject. However, the Adoptions Unit recognizes that families adopting
from Ethiopia’s southern region have undergone an extremely lengthy and
sometimes difficult process, and so we will expedite processing of
those cases to the extent possible. As with cases that are expedited
for medical reasons, cases from SNNPR are not exempt from the required
review of orphan status through the Form I-604, Determination on Child
for Adoption.
Addis Ababa Death Certificates
For children who come from Addis Ababa and whose parents are
deceased, we still require a death certificate from the Addis Ababa
municipal government if the children’s parents died in the city. In
general, a statement from a church or an Islamic court will not be
sufficient, especially for cases from Addis Ababa where death
certificates are fairly easy to obtain. More information about which
local documents are acceptable is available on the
embassy’s website.
Key Points from Remarks by Ambassador Susan Jacobs,
Special Advisor for Children’s Issues
Standards of Practice
Adoption Service Providers continue to improve their standards of
practice, and Embassy Addis’ Adoptions Unit reports that the
documentation submitted with adopted children’s case files as part of
the I-600 petition has significantly improved over the last year.
However, it is important for ASPs to look beyond documentation and ask
what they can do to ensure ethical and transparent adoptions that are in
the best interest of the child. Ethical and transparent adoptions lead
to clearer and more easily adjudicated petitions, and are in everyone’s
best interests.
Also with respect to documentation, we encourage ASPs to work with
orphanages to ensure proper documentation of a child’s entrance into
care, including gathering information about the child’s parentage, age,
circumstances of abandonment, efforts made to locate parents or ensure
that parental or guardianship rights were appropriately relinquished,
and even a photograph of the child at the time of placement with the
orphanage, if available. Ensuring that this information is gathered at
the time of entrance into care enables your agency to ensure the
children who are placed for intercountry adoption are truly available
for adoption, and that there are no opportunities for misfeasance in the
referral process. We recognize that many ASPs work with children who
were placed in orphanages long ago, which makes it even more important
to work with those orphanages to improve standards of practice to ensure
that children are properly documented at the time they are placed for
intercountry adoption.
Similarly, while it is important to be able to acquire the necessary
documentation in any given adoption, it is more important to know how
the orphanage comes by this information and how it operates on a daily
basis. If an ASP contributes funds to an orphanage or relies on an
affiliate to operate an orphanage on its behalf, the ASP needs to know
where that money goes and ensure that it benefits the children.
Moreover, ASPs need to ensure that the documentation about a child
presented by an orphanage is a reflection of the true circumstances and
not simply a document created to satisfy a request.
Finally, on the issue of raising the standards of practice, the
Department of State is supportive of the new Intercountry Adoption
Universal Accreditation Act of 2012, a measure that will require all
U.S.-based ASPs to be Hague accredited, even when operating in countries
like Ethiopia that have not acceded to the Hague Convention. The act
will take effect July 14, 2014
Education of Parents
Ethical and transparent adoptions can only occur when birth families
are making fully informed decisions without influence from outside
parties. One of the ways ASPs can support ethical and transparent
adoptions is to ensure that relinquishing parents and relatives
understand the true meaning of intercountry adoption and the
consequences of the decision to relinquish a child.
It is also important to ensure that adoptive parents are educated and
informed about the children they are adopting. If an ASP or the
orphanage has information about a child’s medical condition or a
behavioral issue, it is essential that the adoptive family be provided
with that information. Bringing an adopted child into a new family and
culture, often while learning a new language, is extremely difficult.
Just as educating relinquishing parents is essential for the best
interests of the child, keeping adoptive parents informed must be a top
priority for every ASP. We need to give every adoptive family the tools
and information needed to succeed.
http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=notices&alert_notice_file=ethiopia_19
