Adopted daughter stuck in Vietnam
Awaiting Eden’s return
By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer
Navy wife Jewell McRoberts of Seaside is leaving for Washington, D.C., today with her three children to do battle with the State Department and bring the family’s fourth child home. …
Jewell McRoberts said she has an appointment to meet with Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday, and she hopes to meet other California congressional representatives to untangle what she and her husband believe is a bureaucratic logjam.
They hoped Eden would be with them for Christmas, then for New Year’s Day. Other families involved in Vietnam adoptions have seen their children get visas, and Eden received approval Wednesday for a visa from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, but it hasn’t been issued by the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi.
“The USCIS and State (Department) seem to be at war with each other,” Jewell McRoberts said. …
The embassy has contended its investigation of the adoption showed discrepancies in the account of the “baby finder” who located the abandoned babies, and the report by the provincial field investigator, McRoberts said. Based on the alleged discrepancies, the visa was denied.
5 Responses
The link didn’t work for me, so maybe this was explained in the article. But I don’t understand how CIS can approve the visa but the Embassy deny it? Which organization ultimately has authority to issue a visa?
Hi Alix, Sorry about the link, I went in and fixed it, so hopefully it will work now.
I’m not really clear on what is happening in this case… it was my understanding with the new I600 process that the CIS in HCMC does the initial approval of the paperwork and then sends it on to DOS in Hanoi for the investigation… so perhaps that was true in their case, that CIS gave their initial “approval” and then it got passed to DOS where they found problems during the investigation? I don’t know, that’s only a guess.
The Pho for Four blog has an eye-opening description of the I-600 process at http://www.goodhappenings.com/WordPress/?p=297
It illustrates the utter lack of cooperation between the DOS & CIS and the complete lack of concern the DOS, especially, seems to have for both the adoptive families and the children.
It’s very disturbing, especially when you stop & remember that we, the taxpayers, are paying to fund this whole beaurocratic nightmare. I have nothing against the CIS & DOS doing a thorough investigation but it seems to me that many of beaurocrats involved have their own reasons for dragging their feet and making things as complicated as possible and that it has nothing whatsoever to do with the welfare of the children involved.
Does anyone know if any of the NOIDs issued recently have actually stuck? I read that the PLAN ones were just overturned. I am not naive enough to think that trafficking might not be happening. But I am frustrated that the DoS cannot actually prove charges in any of these cases, yet they are still threatening to close adoptions. Does this make sense? Shouldn’t we have some actual proof of wrongdoing before shutting down the whole system? If they can’t even prove one case, then how do we know what is really going on? Why are they punishing all agencies and their PAPs (and the orphans) instead of just working to root out the bad ones? I don’t think they are doing anything to improve transparency or ethical adoptions, but they are doing MUCH to hurt adoptions in general in VN.
According to this excellent article getting a NOID to stick is virtually impossible. That does not mean they have no proof of wrong-doing. In fact, there can be significant proof of wrong-doing that isn’t connected to an agency or a specific case and that, along, can set into motion some serious action on the part of the government. I believe that is a big part of what we are seeing here.
I felt that same initial twinge of frustration and futility when I had read some people proclaiming on mailing lists that it was so great and that hopefully all the NOIDs would be overturned. I really hope it was a misspeak and that the poster actually meant “all wrongful NOIDs”. Because are we really hopeful that even corrupt adoptions will be allowed to proceed? Doesn’t that speak counter to a goal for ethical and transparency adoption?
But still, even an overturned NOID is important because it sends the message to agencies that they can not get away with functioning in unethical ways, they will be caught. It will be very expensive and very costly to their reputation. Even if, four months later, all children are granted visas, I imagine it will have sent a powerful message to those agencies.