The Office of Children’s Issues released a notice today regarding a meeting on January 25th with a delegation from the China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) in Washington, D.C. .
A January 2017 NGO law enacted in China is impacting adoptions, even though that was not the original intent of the law. Some of the effects of the law include:
- “Suspension of the One-to-One Partnership program, the hosting program, and the Journey of Hope program.”
- “ASPs are now required to register with the Chinese government by submitting credentials for approval to the Ministry of Public Security. According to CCCWA, currently, no U.S. ASPs are registered under the NGO law to conduct intercountry adoption work under a One-to-One partnership arrangement, although two ASPs are approved for other child welfare or charitable work not related to adoption.”
- “Because of the lack of NGO authorization specifically for intercountry adoption partnerships, at this time no U.S. ASP may have direct contact with orphanages.” In other words, agencies now need to go through the CCCWA in order to communicate with an orphanage. This obviously will result in delays for agencies communicating with families about specific children.
- The restriction in direct communication also means that under most circumstances agencies would not need to have Foreign Supervised Provider Agreements. (A very contentious point in the new fee schedule rancor).
- An end to waivers for families hoping to adopt who do not meet all of China’s requirements. “CCCWA confirmed that effective January 2018, CCCWA has determined that it will no longer approve any waivers for prospective adoptive parents who do not meet China’s eligibility criteria for adopting.”
- CCCWA has clarified that adopting parents should not make a donation to their child’s orphanage until after the adoption is finalized. “It has been clarified that the amount and method of submitting a voluntary donation should be left to the adoptive parents, and donations should not be made until after the adoption is registered in the province. Per the notice, CCCWA may take action against any ASP in which it believes the agency, or its representatives, have pressured families to make donations.”
- There was also discussion about the issue of parents having to bring large sums of cash for the donation and the desire to set up a wire-transfer system instead. (Apparently some provinces use wire-transfer, and others still require cash. The goal is to have wire-transfer available for all PAPs).
- A reminder of the importance of post-placement reports. If the placing agency is no longer in business, families need to submit their reports through another licensed agency. Instructions for how to do this were included in the notice.
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