Another State Department Rant - Hague

This rant is on behalf of others, as hopefully it will be resolved by the time we need to deal with it – in early 2010.

As most know the US ratified the Hague treaty on inter-country adoption in April. This has little effect on our Kazakhstan adoption as Kazakhstan is not party to the Hague, but China is. Our China agency received Hague accreditation, so we assumed there would be no problem. We are willing to take the additional required courses and we have not lived that many places (the new Hague form requires a background check from every state and country we have lived in since the age of 18).

But now the first few people who have been approved for immigration through the I800a rather than the I600a (pre-Hague) are starting to receive TA (travel approval) for China. Presumably they let their 171H expire at some point and therefore when they needed to renew approval, they had to fill out the I800a. (We also have technically let our 171H expire, by virtue of switching it to Kazakhstan to expedite that adoption). Despite having received a new valid 171H, these people are being denied US Consulate appointments and are therefore not able to travel. The US considers their adoptions to be Hague cases simply due to use of the I800a form, but China considers them pre-Hague based on the text of the Hague regarding transition cases (more correct interpretation). Apparently the only problem is one piece of paper that the US is requesting from China that states that the referral process was done according to Hague standards. While it seems that this should be something simple for China to provide, they are currently not willing. As annoying as this is, China really is in the right here based on the text of Hague that states that all adoptions begun before ratification of the Hague will continue to be processed as non-Hague adoptions. China does not care that the US has started requiring the new immigration form regardless of when the adoption actually began.

I am glad we are still far away from having to deal with this as it is bound to be resolved in the next year, right? At some point nearly all families will be traveling on an I800a despite their adoptions being started before Hague. For NSN adoptions with LID before about mid March, if people have consistently kept their 171H valid, they may still be fine. These families would have missed the opportunity for the free renewal the first time and therefore are able to use it now - for their third renewal of the I600a and are therefore able to proceed under the old rules. For later LIDs, most of us used the free renewal for our first renewal and are being told that we cannot then pay for another renewal of the I600a, but must now submit the I800a. I know the Hague is really a good thing as it helps to ensure that all adoptions are done in an ethical manner, helping to limit the chance for baby trafficking. I just wish people involved would also use common sense and realize that unreasonable hoops are preventing children from getting families, even when everyone already agrees that there are no ethical issues or questions.

I know we said we were going to make the blog private, and still will. We just have been swamped at work and not had the time to figure out how to do it yet.