[Edited 10/24 to Add: Please see the Clarification from the US embassy for details on the new process. I600s will NOT be mailed to your local USCIS office, but ONLY to the USCIS in Ho Chi Minh City.]
In the near future the Embassy plans to shift from in-country I-600 processing to filing of the I-600 Petition to Classify Orphan as Immediate Relative prior to travel. Time lines are uncertain. I’ve heard all kinds of rumors from “in a month” to “sometime in 2008” but it does seem that the Embassy is heading in this direction. It also seems that the Embassy is stating a 60 day investigation time for each I600 petition. I’ve attempted to contact the Embassy with a variety of questions about these changes but have been unable to receive a reply.
The way things currently work is that a family flies into Vietnam, receives their child at the Giving & Receiving ceremony and only then submits the I-600 – Petition to Classify Orphan as Immediate Relative and undergo their I-604 “Request for and Report on Overseas Orphan Investigation Interview. It is at this step of the process that the Embassy takes a look at the paperwork for your family and your new child and scrutinizes it for errors, omissions and other red flags that might indicate that your child is not, in fact, an orphan by US standards.
Most I-600 petitions are processed in Vietnam without incident. A few are held up for further investigation which leaves families in Vietnam for much longer than the anticipated 2-3 weeks. It is a scary scenario when a parent is left to worry for days or weeks that their child may be denied an entry visa into the US, leaving the family essentially “stuck” with their legally adopted child in Vietnam unable to return home with that child. Very very few visas are, in actuality, denied. But the delay in Vietnam is scary as well as financially and emotionally costly for families and for agencies. The very few families who are issued NOIDs (Notice of Intent to Deny) are forced to make a very difficult decision to abandon their newly adopted child and return home or to stick it out in Vietnam and fight the NOID. This is definitely the worst case scenario for parents although it has been a necessary step for the Embassy to ensure that our country’s own standards for what constitutes an orphan are met.
The US allows for I-600 processing in another way, however. A family can file the I-600 petition while still in the US prior to the adoption of their child and the I-604 investigation can occur at this time rather than after the Giving & Receiving. It is probable that this is the way that the Embassy will request all Vietnam adoption petitions be filed in the near future.
How is this different? How will things change?
It remains to be seen how this might impact adoption time lines. In theory, it should not impact time lines for ethical agencies who are already moving carefully. The 60 day investigative period should run side by side with the normal processing of the dossiers in Vietnam after referral. States should be able to process I-600 petitions in the time between referral and travel without causing further delays.
Once in Vietnam, families would still need to attend the G&R ceremony and then apply for the child’s new passport which tends to be the most timely of all the in-country steps since expediting is not allowed. The families would attend only the visa interview.
However, as we’ve seen time and time again, theory and practice do not always see eye to eye. It remains to be seen whether this 60 day investigative period is a maximum or a minimum or even just a rough goal of the USCIS. It is also possible that processing delays in some states may push back the travel for some individuals as they wait for their petitions to be cleared. And of course there is always the possibility that the petition would not clear right away or at all and may require further field investigation on the part of the USCIS. It is also possible that this step may slow down and force more accountability and due diligence on the part of a few of the more unethical agencies. They would not be able to push families through more quickly than our country can approve cases. And they would be forced to make sure that child dossiers are, indeed, complete and free of “red flags” at referral instead of passing along soft referrals and pushing families to travel before cases are even cleared – an action that seems to be happening with alarming frequency.
One of the biggest benefits, as far as I can tell, is the decreased likelihood that a problem would occur for families already in Vietnam who have already completed the Giving & Receiving ceremony. Since the child would already be cleared as an orphan by our government, the likelihood of delays related to investigations or NOIDs would be reduced significantly. It would not be entirely eliminated because shady things can and do happen between referral and travel including such things as baby-switching and paperwork reassignment. The current wording of the I-600 petition allows for investigations at any point in the process prior to Visa approval. But if the USCIS truly dedicates 60 days to really looking through paperwork and noting some of the more common discrepancies (falsification, altered dates, suspicion surrounding abandonment or relinquishment, lack of proper orphan notification in newspapers/radio, etc) that are currently causing investigations, it would certain cut way down on in-country investigations which is good for everyone involved.
This is also a potentially better thing for the US government which in turn is beneficial for children. If there are questions about a case, they can be fully investigated without the sometimes strong political pressures applied when a family is stranded in Vietnam, legally parents to the child in question. Although there is no doubt that families whose referrals are being investigated may be likely to apply political pressure in order to speed up their I-600 processing and, therefore, travel, I am hopeful that the Embassy will be more capable of fully investigating agencies that are acting unethically and files that are being processed on children obtained through illegal or unethical means.
On the other hand, processing in this way loses a certain level of accountability in my opinion. Instead of a handful of USCIS workers who are physically located in Vietnam and accurately aware of the corruption and problems occurring with a few key players, we will be dealing with almost 100 different USCIS offices that frequently only have one dedicated orphan petition processor who is frequently pretty backed up processing I-600a and I-600 petitions for other countries. Is it likely that these workers will know enough or care enough to spot some of the common red flags common to Vietnam adoptions and act on them? Will they go through the extra hassle of sending these petitions to Vietnam for field investigations? Or will they just become paper-pushers with no real connection to the process?
What do you think? Do you think the move toward processing I-600 petitions prior to travel is in the best interest of children? Do you think it will help to curb corruption or make it worse? How do you think it will affect time lines?
10 Responses
Hmmmmm….
As much as I want to say that this will make the situation better, I am inclined to think otherwise. I am concerned that by moving this process around USCIS is simply making their job easier, and the agencies who have been doing a good job and being as ethical as possible will continue to do so, but the agencies that are shady will be able to get away with it much easier.
To my mind, the best way to get rid of corruption in Vietnamese adoption is to get rid of corrupt agencies. If the corrupt agencies are the ones who are being issued the NOIDS(which at this point seems to be the case) then they will get bad publicity and not be able to continue in business.
Where are the checks and balances with the new way of filing?
This comment really doesn’t have to do with ethics, but more the the “workings” of our own government. At the Chicago USCIS office, all I600 applications submitted to them are processed with the child receiving an IR-4 visa, regardless of whether all the other IR-3 visa stipulations have been met or not. It’s why we processed our I600 in country before it was our agency’s policy to do so. Consequently, if this comes to pass and the Chicago USCIS doesn’t change its procedure, it leaves large families in Illinois between a rock and a hard place. In the great state of Illinois (said with my tongue firmly in my cheek), a family must qualify for a foster care license if an internationaly adopted child comes home on an IR-4 visa. But, the state also says that the maximum number of children living in a home is 6, with 8 being a possibility with a waiver. So, any more children than 6 (or 8, if you went through the waiver process) and those children must come home on an IR-3 visa or the state will not approve it. Vietnam is one of the few countries without a family size restriction, but for those of us in Illinois, the new I600 requirements sound as though yet another country will be unavailable to larger families.
I think you may be mistaken about one point. According to the instructions, the I604 investigation/interview always occurs in the foreign country, and it is required for every case. So even if a stateside agency decides to approve an I600 without checking the paperwork or submitting I604 to the foreign embassy, the embassy will still have to complete I604 before a visa can be issued.
This is how I understand it as well, Ben. I’m unclear how this might affect adoptions, though. Does this mean some families will have a separate I-604 interview (as is current the norm) or will that be done as part of the visa interview? Or will it be done sometime between I600 and travel? I think if the Embassy is calling for a mandatory 60 day investigation that the *intent* will be to complete all I-604 interviews prior to travel but I guess it remains to be seen.
I think I’m totally missing something here. I guess I thought that the investigation part and approval of the I-600 was all still going to take place in Vietnam, by the people employed at the US Embassy and US Consulate in Vietnam. Logistically how would it work for someone at USCIS in Ohio or Kansas or any other state to investigate the paperwork?? Again, I probably don’t understand enough of the process to see how this would work.
My family has just gotten home from Vietnam with our daughter and while we were there three families were issued NOIDs and had to leave their children in foster care while they come home to appeal the NOID. They are devastated and I am sure that they would have much rather waited longer in the States than to go through this heartbreak.
I think I’m wondering what JennB is wondering… couldn’t the USCIS officials in VN could process the I-600 (instead of having it done in the US)? That would keep it in the hands of those that better know how to investigate, and would keep a dedicated team on the VN I-600s rather than them getting lost in the stack of all of the other I-600as and I-600s being processed in the US. I really like the idea of having the I-600 cleared/approved before travel to Vietnam, but am not confident in USCIS ability to process these in a timely manner while families are waiting to travel. If they DO move to this as a standard, and the I-600’s are processed in by the US offices, then they need to commit to a set timeframe in which they will complete their I-600 clearances so that families are not kept in limbo.
JennyB and Amy – I think this would be a sound way of handling things. I600 is filed, sent to Vietnam for investigation and given 60 days for approval or denial. That way the same team who has always worked on I600s would continue, it would not increase the workload for stateside USCIS offices that much, etc. I hope this is how its done.
I feel that filing stateside would lead to infants being institutionalized for longer periods of time. In many states it would take months to obtain an I-600. I checked with my state, and it would take 3-5 months.
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