News Home Adoptees Get Citizenship Quicker - November 27, 2003 Children adopted overseas will receive citizenship papers within 45 days of their arrival in America, rather than waiting as long as 18 months. Rules announced Tuesday will remove a major bureaucratic hurdle for parents. Although the 2000 Child Citizenship Act made all foreign-born children U.S. citizens at the time of their adoption, parents still had to submit an application for citizenship documents and wait months for it to be processed. Proof of citizenship is required for a Social Security number, which the child needs to be claimed as a dependent for income tax purposes, obtain government medical benefits, enroll in school and be issued a U.S. passport. The U.S. Citizenship and immigration Services agency announced the change, which will take effect in January. Advocates praised the program. "It's a much needed improvement," said Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption. Americans adopted 21,100 children from other countries during the 12 months ending Sept. 30 of last year, government statistics show. The most foreign-born children came from China (6,062), Russia (4,904), Guatemala (2,361), Korea (1,713) and Ukraine (1,093). The State Department is completing rules to certify agencies specializing in foreign adoptions, required under a treaty about 190 countries signed. Countries agree to follow certain regulations on international adoptions, such as making sure the child to be adopted is an orphan or abandoned by parents and that adults wishing to adopt have been checked out by their home countries. China Resumes Foreign Adoption Process! - June 24, 2003 As a result of WHO lifting their travel advisory to Bejing, China has announced that they will resume the foreign adoption process. The foreign adoption process in China had been frozen for a little over one month due to the concerns surrounding the spread of SARS. The following excerpt is taken directly from the CCAA website: A Public Notice about Resumption of Normal Adoptive Formalities of Travelling to China Seeing that the World Health Organization formally announced that it lifted its travel advice to China, and removed China from the list of areas with recent local transmission of SARS epidemic, the China Center of Adoption Affairs (the CCAA) decided to resume the normal adoptive formalities of travelling to China after giving a report to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and getting its approval. Hereby the related matters will be posted as the following: From June 24, 2003, the CCAA will restart to mail the Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopters and the relative materials to the foreign adopters. Up to the date when the Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopters is signed and mailed, if the physical examination report of the adoptee does not reach its expiry of 6 months, the CCAA will not renew the report additionally. From June 24, 2003, the CCAA will resume the issuing and posting of the Notice of Coming to China for Adoption to foreign adopters, the period of validity of the letter will be 3 months as before. Those ones issued and posted before May 15, 2003 will be considered as valid for 6 months with no new letter being produced. The foreign adopters need to contact the adoption registry in advance before they travel to China to do their adoption registration. After the date being ascertained through consultation will the adopters travel to complete their adoption. The CCAA would like to apologize to the involved foreign adopters for any inconvenience that was caused by the previous postponement of the adoptive formalities of travelling, and to express our gratitude to all the foreign governments, embassies and consulates in China, the foreign adoptive organizations and foreign adopters who have given us great understanding and assistance to our work. WHO Lifts Travel Recommendation for Beijing - June 24, 2003 The World Health Organization (WHO) is removing its advice that people should postpone all but essential travel to Beijing, China. The Chinese capital was the last area in the world to which this advice still applied. The travel recommendation was issued on 23 April in order to contain the international spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Beijing has also been removed from the list of areas with recent local transmission of SARS. China Freezes Adoption Process - May 15, 2003 China froze its adoption process today, announcing that until SARS is under control, the country's adoption bureau won't match parents and children and won't issue notices permitting parents already matched to pick up their babies. The following excerpt is taken directly from the CCAA website: In view of the epidemic situation of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which is currently spreading in some countries and regions, the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) would like to make the following notice on some related matters during the period for the prevention of SARs, hoping to avoid cross infection that might be caused by a flow of people, and to guarantee the health and safety of life for the parties of adoptive relations and the other related parties: From May 15, 2003, the CCAA postpone the mailing of the Letter of Seeking Confirmation for Adopters and the relevant documents of the adoptees to the foreign adopters. From May 15, 2003, the CCAA postpone the signing and issuing of the Notice of Coming to China for Adoption for the foreign adopters (including those for whom the Letter of Seeking Confirmation for Adopters has been sent by the CCAA with the feedback information be returned). The validity period of the Notice of Coming to China for Adoption which was signed and issued before this date will be prolonged to 6 months from 3 months with no Notice of Coming to China for Adoption be necessarily renewed. The foreign adopters who have already received the Notice of Coming to China for Adoption should try their best to put off their schedule of traveling to China to do the adoption registration. In case that the settled travel schedule cannot be changed, the adoption organization involved should contact the local adoption registry office in advance, and help the adopters to travel after the reservation be made. For the foreigners working in China, who have already submitted their adoption application documents, the cases will be processing as usual. The receiving of the application documents of the adopters and the other relevant work keep on going as usual in the CCAA. The time for the signing and issuing of the Notice of Coming to China for Adoption and the mailing of the Letter of Seeking Confirmation for Adopters will be fixed in a due course in light of the situation for the control of the epidemic of SARs. The CCAA will make a timing publication on its web-site, please keep an eye on it. The web-site of the CCAA is www.china-ccaa.org. The China Center of Adoption Affairs Travel Warning - April 16, 2003 This Travel Warning is being revised to inform U.S. citizens of updated requirements of the government of China for anyone exhibiting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS-like symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of State continue to recommend U.S. citizens consider deferring non-essential travel to China because of SARS concerns. This supersedes the Travel Warning of April 10, 2003. [more] Travel Warning - April 10, 2003 This Travel Warning is being revised to recommend that U.S. citizens consider deferring non-essential travel to China because of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) concerns and to inform them of the Chinese government’s current requirements for anyone exhibiting SARS-like symptoms. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning of April 3, 2003. Important Notice on Adoption Visa Processing in China - April 9, 2003 To All Adopting Parents and Adoption Agencies from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou: Effective immediately, the Adoption Unit at the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, China will require only one parent, the American citizen petitioner, to appear in person to complete processing of the immigrant visa for the adopted orphan. Your new child and other family members do not need to travel to Guangzhou. We are implementing this temporary policy to address the concerns of some families regarding the SARS outbreak in China. We urge all adopting families to read the current Department of State Travel Warning for China at www.travel.state.gov and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Guidelines for International Adoptees and Their Families at www.cdc.gov.ncidod/sars/adoption. The American Consulate General in Guangzhou gives the highest priority to the adoption community. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Interim Guidelines about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) for International Adoptees and Their Families - April 1, 2003 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put up a special website for families traveling for international adoption. Be sure to check this page for the very latest information. Health Alert for Traveling Families - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) March 17, 2003 The United States Centers for Disease Control has issued an immediate alert for travelers to the U.S. from Hong Kong, Guangdong Province, and Hanoi. A severe and dangerous lung disease has been observed in these areas and in a few people who have traveled in these areas. The disease is called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (abbreviated SARS). At this time, the cause of the disease has not yet been identified. The disease is not highly contagious, cases appear to have been restricted to hospital workers caring for patients and immediate family members of the patients. Changes at the INS - March 1, 2003 Effective March 1, 2003, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has changed its name to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS). It's now part of the new federal Department of Homeland Security. Along with the name change, the BCIS has made some other changes that affect parents adopting internationally: Application fees for immigration forms, which were temporarily reduced during January and February 2003, have been restored to their previous amounts. The correct fees are as follows: I-600/I-600A - $460 I-824 - $140 N-643 - $145 Fingerprinting fees remain at $50 per adult.   BCIS has a new enforcement policy regarding FBI fingerprint clearances: These clearances are valid for 15 months, whereas I-600A approvals are valid for 18 months. Therefore it's possible for your fingerprint clearance to expire while your I-600A is still valid. In the past, INS routinely ignored the discrepancy, but in a memo dated Feb. 14, the BCIS declared that it will no longer do so. If your adoption is still in process and your fingerprints were taken more than 15 months ago, you will have to get a new fingerprint clearance in order to complete your adoption. You need to contact your local BCIS office to check the status of your fingerprint clearance and schedule another fingerprint appointment if necessary. Make sure your fingerprint clearance is up to date before you travel overseas. Having to be re-fingerprinted in a foreign country could delay your adoption.   The BCIS has a new Web site at http://www.immigration.gov U.S. State Department Issues Worldwide Caution - February 6, 2003 The U.S. State Department issues a worldwide caution for Americans traveling abroad. If you'll be traveling to another country to complete your adoption, you'll want to read the caution and follow the advice it gives. You can also keep track of any other travel warnings the State Department may issue. CCAA Lifts Formal Quota for Couples A recently posted item on the CCAA website announces that the formal quota for couples adopting from China has been lifted. However, agencies are strongly encouraged by CCAA not to greatly increase the number of applications. The quota for single parents remains but has been raised from the current 5% to 8%. An age limit for single parents of 50 is also established. Applications for special needs children and children over 6 will receive special rapid processing. In addition, CCAA is reducing their fees for these applications. Finally, agencies are given firm dates to submit post-placement reports for all children adopted in 2002. Back If you would like to share your comments or questions with us, please e-mail us.