Hague Convention Countries

PEAR has been receiving requests from PAPs, APs and the general public as to which countries are "Convention" countries under the new US regulations. According to the DOS website, "[a] Convention country means a country that is a party to the Hague Adoption Convention and with which the Convention is in force with respect to the United States. DOS will post a list of those Convention countries on its website. A list of countries that are currently parties to the Hague Adoption Convention is provided on the website of the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law: http://www.hcch.net/."

(source: http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/intercountry/intercountry_3824)

Since the DOS has not yet published the list of countries, families, agencies and other interested parties will need to do a bit of research. To find out the most current list of countries subject to the new requiremnts as of April 1, 2008, please visit:

http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?act=conventions.status&cid=69

Adoptions from any country in either the member or non-member list with a date under the column "EIF" will be subject to the new requirements as of April 1, 2008. (source DOS website above and Ethica http://www.ethicanet.org/)

As of today, March 6, 2008 these are the countries meeting the above qualifications:

Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Brazil
Bolivia
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Canada
Chile
China, People's Republic of
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Guatemala
Guinea
Hungary
Iceland
India
Israel
Italy
Kenya
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Mali
Malta
Mauritius
Mexico
Moldova, Republic of
Mongolia
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Turkey
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United States of America
Uruguay
Venezuela