A new Adoption Notice was posted on the DOS Office of Children’s Issues website today. In part it read,
U.S. citizens are not able to register a new adoption in Vietnam at this time. The Government of Vietnam has stated its intention to introduce new adoption legislation and to institute reforms in the adoption process, and has indicated that the anticipated new legislation and implementing regulations may take effect in 2011. Establishing new procedures and ensuring that they are effective will take additional time. Adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents should not seek or accept new referrals from Vietnam at this time.
Nearly all adoptions for which an official referral had been issued before September 1, 2008 have now been processed to completion. The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and Vietnamese officials are assisting families whose cases are still pending. Questions about these cases may be sent to hanoiadoptions@state.gov.
The Governments of the United States and Vietnam are seriously concerned about the inconsistencies and deficiencies that led to a mutual decision not to renew our previous bilateral agreement. Vietnamese criminal investigations and U.S. field reviews revealed evidence of child buying, including forged or altered documents, cash payment to birth mothers (for other than reasonable payments for necessary activities), coercion or deceit to induce the birth parent(s) to release children to an orphanage, and children being offered for intercountry adoption without the knowledge or consent of their birth parents. Vietnamese criminal investigations into certain intercountry adoptions are still on-going as of May 2009. [emphasis mine]
To read the full update, go here.
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