Important Update from USCIS re visa processing

I'm posting this for all my friends (and friends I haven't met yet:-) who are still in process in case they haven't seen it yet...

Dear Stakeholder-

A USCIS team of four officers arrived in Ethiopia and began working
at Embassy Addis Ababa on November 7, 2011. As of the date of this
notice, the team has received 63 "not clearly approvable"
cases from Embassy Addis, and expects to receive at least 1 more case
before they depart on Friday, November 18, 2011. The following provides
a summary of the results of the team's review of the cases as of
November 15, 2011:

Approvals Issued: 36

Requests for Evidence Issued: 9

Notices of Intent to Deny Issued: 1

Under USCIS Team Review 9

Pending Birth Relative Interview 8

Pending Physical Transfer 1

During the team's first days in Addis, they began reviewing the
cases, and established procedures necessary for completing
adjudication and issuing notices. Embassy Addis is providing the
resources necessary for USCIS to be able to adjudicate the not clearly
approvable cases. Although the team has encountered some technological
challenges, the team has been issuing decisions and notices as soon as
they are able.

All cases that the team is able to approve before they depart from
Addis Ababa will stay with the Consular Section in Embassy Addis Ababa,
for immediate scheduling of immigrant visa processing. Families that
receive an approval notice will be contacted directly by the U.S.
Embassy within three business days. We strongly recommend that
families wait to be contacted regarding an immigrant visa interview
before making travel arrangements. Cases that require a Request for
Evidence or a Notice of Intent to Deny will be sent to the USCIS Rome
District Office for further processing.

Each family that received a Request for Evidence or a Notice of Intent
to Deny should carefully read the instructions regarding where to send
additional evidence to avoid delays in processing that could be caused
by sending the evidence to the incorrect USCIS Office. USCIS has
decided to utilize additional resources at the Rome District Office in
the ongoing processing of some of the affected cases in an effort to
ensure that they are processed to completion as quickly as possible.

In the coming weeks, USCIS and DOS will schedule another stakeholder
call to provide a briefing on the team's work in Addis Ababa, and
an update on how processing will proceed going forward for any new
cases identified by Embassy Addis Ababa as not clearly approvable.

Kind Regards,

Office of Public Engagement

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

www.uscis.gov <http://www.uscis.gov/>



November 16, 2011
Notice: Procedure for Processing Adoption Cases
This notice provides supplemental information to the adoption notice
of October 7, 2011, adding additional details on the process
applicable to orphan petitions filed with a U.S. Embassy Consular
Section overseas. While the description has been tailored to answer
inquiries specific to Ethiopia, the steps described in this
explanation apply to all non-Hague countries. This notice only
describes the process for Forms I-600 filed with U.S. Embassy Addis
Ababa. For processing information on cases filed domestically with
USCIS through the National Benefits Center (NBC), please refer to the
USCIS website at www.uscis.gov.

Once adoptive parents are in possession of the final adoption decree
from the Federal First Instance Court, approval letters from the
Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, the child's birth
certificate and Ethiopian passport, and all other required Form I-600
supporting documentation, they (or their authorized agent) may file
Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, with
the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa if they have met the physical
presence requirements for filing a Form I-600 petition overseas.

Upon receipt of the Form I-600 and accompanying documentation, the U.S.
Embassy begins the Form I-604, Determination on Child for Adoption,
orphan status investigation – the process to determine if the child
meets the definition of an orphan under U.S. immigration law. The time
frame for completion of the Form I-604 determination depends on the
circumstances of each case, but can take up to several weeks or
months. During this time, additional information or documentation may
be requested by the U.S. Embassy for cases with insufficient or
deficient supporting evidence to determine orphan status.

In certain cases it may be necessary to interview the child's
Ethiopian birth parent(s) or guardian, or the individual who found an
abandoned child, to resolve errors or discrepancies discovered in the
case file. The U.S. Embassy conducts such interviews for cases in
which the consular officer deems interview(s) necessary to make a
determination on the child's orphan status. Birth relative and
other interviews are often an integral part of the Form I-604
determination.

The U.S. Embassy must then determine whether the case is clearly
approvable. If a case is clearly approvable, the U.S. Embassy approves
the Form I-600 petition and issues an immigrant visa. If there are
questions regarding the child's orphan status or the information is
insufficient to make a determination, federal regulation requires that
the U.S. Embassy forwards the case as "not clearly approvable"
to the USCIS Field Office in Nairobi, Kenya, for further processing.
When this occurs, the U.S. Embassy sends out a transfer notice to the
petitioners when the case is physically forwarded to USCIS Nairobi, and
provides contact information for further questions.

Upon receipt of a petition identified as "not clearly
approvable," the USCIS Nairobi Field Office notifies the
parent(s) that the case has been received and issues requests for
additional evidence and other notices, if necessary. Upon review of
all available evidence including any response to a Request for
Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny, USCIS issues a decision and
notify the petitioners. For details of the USCIS process, please
visit USCIS' Ethiopia Q&A page
<http://www.uscis. gov/portal/ site/uscis/ menuitem. 5af9bb95919f35e6 6f61417\
6543f6d1a/?vgnextoi d=7c82d1f2465ae2 10VgnVCM10000008 2ca60aRCRD& vgnextchan\
nel=ecab18a1f8b7321 0VgnVCM100000082 ca60aRCRD> .

If the case is approved, USCIS Nairobi returns the case to the U.S. Embassy for visa
processing. http://adoption. state.gov/ country_informat ion/country_ specific_ alerts_no\
tices.php?alert_ notice_type= notices&alert_ notice_file= ethiopia_ 13
<http://adoption. state.gov/ country_informat ion/country_ specific_ alerts_n\
otices.php?alert_ notice_type= notices&alert_ notice_file= ethiopia_ 13>

Appropriate response to slowdown...?

As you may or may not have heard as of right now, Ethiopian adoptions will be slowing way down.  How much of a slowdown...how long of a slowdown...for what purpose a slowdown...these all remain to be seen.

Below is the US State Department Notice

 Government of Ethiopia Plans Major Slow-Down in Adoption Processing

Citing the need to work on quality and focus on more important strategic issues, the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA)  will reduce to a maximum of five the number of adoption cases it processes per day, effective March 10, 2011.  Under Ethiopian adoption procedures, MOWCYA approves every match between prospective adoptive parents and an Ethiopian child before that case can be forwarded for a court hearing.  The U.S. Embassy is working with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies to learn more about this change in procedures.  We will continue to share information as it becomes available.

Given MOWCYA's current caseload, the U.S. Embassy anticipates that this change could result in an overall decline in case processing of some 90 percent.  If this change is implemented as proposed, we expect, that parents who have begun the process of adopting from Ethiopia but have not yet been matched with a child could experience significant delays.  It is not clear if this change in procedures would have any significant impact on cases in which MOWCYA has already approved matches. 

Prospective adoptive parents should remain in close contact with their adoption service provider to obtain updates on individual cases.

The Embassy's Adoptions Unit can be reached at consadoptionaddis@state.gov.

Please continue to monitor http://adoption.state.gov/ for updated information as it becomes available.

Of course we will be extremely upset if B's adoption is caught up in this and heartbroken if it is not able to be completed at all; however, some of the response by American adoptive and potential adoptive families, adoption agencies, and advocacy groups has been, in our opinion, very unhelpful and inappropriate!

Instead of stomping our feet, sticking our heads in the sand, pretending it is ok for PAPs to request healthy infant girls as young as possible and acting suprised when that creates stresses and corruption in the system, let's stop acting like citizens of the developed world who think we have a right for some reason to the children of a less developed country and let's actually consider the entire issue!

We know that the Ethiopian system is not perfect.  We know that many of the inconsistencies begin at the local kebele level and during the relinquishment process.  These are exacerbated by Ethiopians' perceptions of the adoption process, their government, and their cultural and political system. they are further exacerbated by the American (and really the whole developed world) adoption process and demand for healthy infants as young as possible, preferably girls, and the amount of money the system generates in the US and in Ethiopia. 

Adoption can be a wonderful solution for a child and a family, but make no mistake about it, adoption is a business for many people in Ethiopia, in the US, and around the world.

I don't know what the solutions are.  I think a great place to start would be more, and more thoroughly trained, social workers at the local level in Ethiopia, more transparency in the entire process in Ethiopia and in the US, real and effective action on the part of the US government to close US-based agencies/facilitators that are known "bad operators" in Ethiopia and in the US, and a requirement for US agencies to not cater to PAP's demands for healthy infant girls as young as possible!

Of these four steps, I think the only one that would require any significant resources and collaboration by the Ethiopian government would be local social workers.  The rest may not be popular, but they would be effective, would have little to no cost to implement, and are entirely appropriate for the US to implement.

I don't think it is appropriate for the US to tell Ethiopia how to run it's court system, government, or adoption process. Perhaps, we as Americans should take a hard look at our own system of adoption and fostercare before we do that!  One of the major reasons prospective adoptive families turn to international adoption is because of how difficult it is to adopt through US fostercare, particularly to adopt children who are younger (by younger I mean under 6, and especially under 4).

Children are funneled through our fostercare system, growing up without a stable family environment or any sort of permanence.  Parental rights are finally terminated in cases of unfit parents, but that usually doesn't happen until the child is in late elementary school or is a pre-teen or teen and has many issues brought about by their complex background.  The child is then in a much more difficult place to be adopted and to bond to a new, permanent family. Domestic infant adoptions in the US can certainly be positive, but are often what most people would consider "baby selling" in Ethiopian adoptions (birth mother receives benefit/financial gain like medical care, living expenses, etc. and the facilitator/attorney/placing agency receives exhorbitant fees...). 

We have exponentially more resources than Ethiopia, yet America's system of caring for our children is very, very broken!

I hope with all my heart that the situation is Ethiopia is resolved and we will still pass court to adopt B before the court closure this summer.  More than that, I hope that the system is somehow changed for the better.

Someone posted on an Ethiopian adoption board today that "the system must be changed b/c it is unacceptable that even one child is trafficked".  Another person posted that "it is unacceptable that even one child dies because of this radical slowdown of adoptions".  I agree with both statements, but I also recognize that inorder to benefit the most number of children and Ethiopian families, the answer may not be so black and white.  I also recognize that adoption is not the solution to the economic, social, or other needs of the vast majority of Ethiopian children and families in desperate situations. The most beneficial solution may be for Ethiopia to work for the greater good by devoting all of its resources and energy into benefitting the much, much, much larger group of desperate children and families who are not benefitted by adoption.

My prayer is that God will somehow work in this tangled and imperfect system, moving governments, influencing people, and transforming the entire process.  I have no idea what the answer is, but I know that God does, and I know that he loves each and every child, mother, father, and family who is impacted.  He knows every hair that falls from their head, every hurt, every need, every situation, and He reigns over it all.  I don't understand it, but I do have faith in Him! 

We are not signing any radical petitions demanding that Ethiopia/MOWA return to processing a higher volume of cases, and quite disagree with that approach. But we did fill out the survey below in the hope that knowing the number of children who are matched with families and will be stuck in the system will be useful data for policy makers in the US and in Ethiopia.

Ethica response and survey

March 9, 2011