Re-Filing for the Free I-600A Extension
On May 22nd, the USCIS office in Washington DC held a conference call with all international adoption agencies previously working in Vietnam. The call was prompted by USCIS concern, as the office continues to see families filing for their initial I-600A petitions for Vietnam while the country is closed to international adoption.
Children’s Hope International is not currently accepting applications for adoption from Vietnam. During this moratorium, families are also not encouraged to file for an initial I-600A.
The USCIS has continued to see close to 40 new I-600A applications filed throughout the US for adoptions from Vietnam, per month, including those families filing for free extensions. As families wait for Vietnam to reopen, filing extensions without cost is recommended by Children’s Hope. During the Vietnam moratorium, however, all renewals will now be approved in the local USCIS office but not sent to the National Visa Center or cabled to the country of Vietnam. Your extension will remain in your local office until Vietnam reopens or the extension expires.
Current State of US / Vietnam Adoption Moratorium and Its Immediate Future
During this call, Michelle Bond and Gerry Fuller of the Department of State (DOS) recapped Vietnam’s current moratorium. The US did not renew the agreement with Vietnam at its expiration due to evident corruption and the inability to confirm the accuracy and transparency of each orphaned child’s submitted information. It is the Department of State’s hope that Vietnam will implement procedural and regulatory changes for a transparent process.
Negotiations between the US and Vietnam continue, however at this time Vietnam has not yet made these procedural and regulatory changes. Both sides are committed to adoptions in Vietnam. International adoptions from Vietnam could reopen if 1) Vietnam ascends to The Hague, which would require structural changes and political movement or 2) another interim agreement between the two countries is signed. Dr. Long, Director of the Department of International Adoptions of Vietnam, has been succeeded in office. The new director is currently reviewing Dr. Long's briefs and is seeking to understand the current circumstances and future goals.
The Department of State is not requiring Vietnam to implement a central adoption authority, if an interim agreement is signed. The DOS, although interested in a transparent process for Vietnam adoptions, is not issuing specific procedural requests. A DOS letter has requested a meeting in late July or August with the new director of Vietnam’s DIA in Hanoi with US staff. They hope this meeting will take place in late July or some time in August. The timing of this meeting is delayed to late summer due to staff turnover in the US embassy.
The USCIS and US Department of State do not have a timeline or anticipated date for international adoptions to resume in Vietnam.
Although no timeline estimations can be made, Children’s Hope does not expect international adoptions from Vietnam to reopen in year 2009.
Program Director Nicky Losse is answering any family question and looks forward to discussing your adoption. Please email Nicky at Nicky.Losse@ChildrensHope.net or call during her office hours on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 314-812-1742.
We continue to pray for all the children that continue to be abandoned in Vietnam that do not have a forever family.
2008 Statistics for CHI Vietnam Program
For the year 2008, 54 children were placed with 51 forever families. In January 2009, our last family matched with a child completed their adoption. Congratulations to this family!
The Children’s Hope Vietnam Program has 84 current application families and 151 families on the dossier waiting list. Many Children’s Hope families have decided to wait for the Vietnam program to reopen and many are pursuing concurrent adoptions either domestically or internationally and are also waiting on the Vietnam list.
The Moser Family
Joanna Moser turned five years old last month. Happy birthday, Joanna!
Greg and Shar Moser began their adoption process for Joanna just prior to the Vietnam moratorium of 2003, during which the country closed to international adoptions. Joanna's referral was given when the country opened on a limited basis for Special Needs adoptions. However, due to the low number of adoptions that were processed during the time, the couple waited until May 29, 2006 before they received "the call" to prepare for their international flight in early June. Later that year, a total of 60 Vietnam adoptions were completed for CHI families.
In a 2007 Children's Hope newsletter, Shar says, "May 2006 became a very difficult time for me, as I continued to watch from a distance our daughter grow from an infant to toddler. During a study of the Book of Daniel, I was reminded that God has everything under control." What a blessing that during the hardest time for Shar, God provided his comfort to her; and that very month, a release from Joanna's long wait.
Joanna and her six siblings give the Mosers great joy. A big happy Father's Day from Children's Hope to the father of seven, Greg Moser!
