Vietnam adoption meeting highlights

On June 13th the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi hosted their quarterly meeting of adoption service providers. Here are some highlights:

· The Embassy is seeing a dramatic increase in the number of visa applications to date. They are now seeing 100 or more applications for visas each month.

· The Embassy is doing an increasing number of investigations regarding the orphan status of these children. As a result, more and more families may end up staying in Vietnam longer than 3 weeks. As part of the investigation, Embassy staff may visit the orphanage and review the paperwork there. The Embassy is asking agencies to be a liaison during these visits to help the orphanages understand why the staff are visiting and why they are asking questions.

· The Embassy indicated that they had declined to issue a visa for one child thus far. [likely b/c the child's orphan status could not be properly verified]

· In March or so the American ambassador to Vietnam sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice, the office of the (Vietnamese) President, and other government officials expressing their concerns about the current status of adoptions in Vietnam. Among other things they are concerned about the lack of transparency, the fact that Vietnam has not issued a fee schedule as required by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the American government, DIA’s inability to fully execute its responsibilities, and other things. They did not report on whether they had received a response to this letter.

· Embassy staff also mentioned that, as part of the visa interviews, they are finding that some families are asked to carry $10,000 to $15,000 in US cash. Some of these families mentioned that a portion of these funds are donations demanded by the orphanage directors. The Embassy has concerns about this [unethical] practice.

· There are two specific areas that Embassy staff have been asking about in visa interviews. First, if the family is adopting a child with special needs, Embassy staff and/or CIS staff will likely ask questions about the family’s health insurance coverage. They also asked that this be recorded in the home study. Second, some of the children born in Vietnam are born to mothers who have Hepatitis C. This often means that the child tests positive for it shortly after birth due to having the mother’s antibodies. On fewer occasions, the child actually has the Hepatitis C virus. If a child has been diagnosed with Hep C families are likely to be asked about their understanding of this disease and its impact on the child’s health.


I would just like to note, our agency prides itself in being very ethical. We are very comfortable with the choices they make, even if that means waiting longer for a child. Some of the problems mentioned above arise from unethical adoption organizations that care more about $$ and quick adoptions than the welfare of the children. Aside from the meeting minutes, our agency also informed us on the status of their program. They are working with a new orphanage where they have sent 4 dossiers. Somehow I have a feeling one of these dossiers may be ours since the timing is right, but I am just guessing. They estimate it will be 4-5 months until we get referrals from this new orphanage. On the plus side, this orphanage is located in a beautiful coastal city.