The State Department Office of Children’s Issues posted a notice today detailing the first steps in a Limited Intercountry Adoption Program. The limits apply both to the children who will qualify for adoption, as well as the U.S. agencies to be licensed.
Only children with special needs, over the age of five, or who are in biological sibling groups of two or more will be included in this program.
According to the Decree written and adopted in 2011 by Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice, the definition of Special Needs will include:
children with cleft lip and cleft palate, children who are blinded with one or two eyes; mutism, deaf; dumb; children with curved arms or legs, children with missing fingers, hands, foot (feet), toes, children infected with HIV; children with heart diseases; children with navel, groin, belly hernia; children without an anus or sexual organ; children with blood disease; children with diseases requiring life-long treatment; children with other disabilities or dangerous disease which restricting the chances of adoption.
The Ministry of Justice will be limiting the number of licensed U.S. agencies (aka “Adoption Service Providers or “ASPs) to only two. Agencies applying for a license must meet the following criteria:
1. Three (3) or more consecutive years of experience providing services in intercountry adoptions in Vietnam.
2. Five (5) or more consecutive years of experience providing intercountry adoption services to children with special needs, children older than five, and children in sibling groups.
3. The ASP should be authorized to operate broadly in the United States. Eligible ASPs must have offices in at least five (5) States.
Agencies have until September 22nd to submit applications.
The Decree from the Ministry of Justice also spells out a number of adoption-related fees, a step long requested by the U.S. Department of State. Among these fees are the following:
Inter-country adoption registration fee is nine million dong (9.000.000 dong)/case.
Rate of collecting expenses for settling inter-country adoption is fifty million dong (50.000.000 dong)/case.
This amount of money is not including expenses of services, traveling, accommodation, and expenditures arising in reality that adopting persons pay direct, even expenses for taking children abroad after being settled to be adopted.
The State Department Notice emphasizes that PAP’s should not take any steps towards beginning an adoption from Vietnam at this time. Do not file any forms with USCIS specifying Vietnam as the country of choice, do not sign any contracts with an agency to complete an adoption from Vietnam. We would like to underscore this warning – at this time NO agencies are licensed to work in Vietnam. Please be patient and wait for the proper procedures to be put into place, to protect yourself and to protect the viability of any future program in Vietnam.
For more information, see the Department of State website on Intercountry Adoption.
4 Responses
I’m glad to see that this program is taking its time to reopen, and that the focus is on children who truly need families. I also like that only two agencies will be working there and not the land grab it was for agencies last time. Wonderful news!
I am trying to think of what agencies actually will even qualify. What agencies that meet the other criteria still have offices in at least 5 states???
From what we can tell from pretty cursory research via their websites, the only agencies that could potentially qualify would Holt, Dillon, and maybe Children’s Hope International…
I would love to see it it be DIllon and Holt. Both do a lot of work there.