New International Adoption Procedures Take Effect April 1

New international adoption procedures take effect April 1, 2008 when the recently ratified Hague Convention for Intercountry Adoption (HCIA) goes into force in the United States and other member countries.

The Convention is designed to better protect the best interests of the children who are adopted, their birth families, and the adoptive parents. By imposing adoption practice standards, its goals are to prevent the abduction, exploitation, sale, and trafficking of children.

As of February 26, 2008, 75 countries have become parties to the Hague Adoption Convention.

Adoptions between Hague and non-Hague countries are not prohibited by the HCIA.

The major changes to the way inter-country adoptions are processed under the HCIA are:

• Designation of a central authority for the regulation of inter-country adoption
• Requirements for agency adoption accreditation;
• Transparency of agency budgets and fee schedule policy; including accounting audits; and
• Professional standards of practice including supervision guidelines, and the training of agency employees, board members, and prospective adopting parents in HCIA requirements.

In the United States, the Department of State (DOS) is designated as the “Central Authority” under the HCIA and the Intercountry Adoption Act (IAA), which implements the HCIA in the United States. DOS is responsible for ensuring HCIA and IAA requirements are followed.

U.S. adoption service providers must be accredited to handle HCIA adoption cases. DOS provides a list of approved agencies in the United States.

DOS will maintain a centralized registry to track all adoption cases and to receive complaints and comments about accredited adoption service providers involved in HCIA cases.

DOS has also beefed up its information about adoption practices in various countries, including posting warnings as information is received.

USCIS has issued interim regulations governing the adoption process in light of the HCIA and IAA. The interim regulations are in effect, and are being published for public comment for issuance of the final rule. The comment period has been extended to May 27, 2008.

USCIS has established a special unit to process all HCIA adoption applications and petitions at its USCIS National Benefits Center. The special unit will also provide customer service support to prospective adoptive parents who have filed Form I-800A or Form I-800 for inter-country adoptions.

Prospective adoptive parents can download the forms and filing instructions and Hague Adoption Convention Fact Sheet, available on the the USCIS site.

Americans adopted more than 19,000 foreign-born children in 2007 – more than all the other countries of the world combined, according to CNN.