DOS Adoption Notice: Nepal

Nepal Adoption Notice

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Office of Children’s Issues
______________________________________________________

September 29, 2009

On January 1, 2009, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) announced procedures for processing adoptions pursuant to the Government of Nepal’s (GON) new “Terms and Conditions” for adoptions. The initial announcement stated that only 10 applications will be processed from each Embassy, Mission, or approved Agency in 2009. The GON provided copies of the new requirements, to all approved agencies.

According to Nepali officials, the new requirements apply to all intercountry adoptions. There is NO provision to permit prospective adoptive families who had already begun an adoption to be “grandfathered” under the previous Nepali regulation. All but one of the prospective adoptive parents matched with children under the previous system relinquished the match so the children could be available for adoption under Nepal’s new Terms and Conditions. Some of these children have since been matched with new prospective adoptive parents.

On September 2, 2009, the Nepali Prime Minister appointed a new minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare. This minister has authority to sign final adoption decrees. Since then, under its new “Terms and Conditions,” the GON has granted adoptions to U.S. families in four cases. As a result, these families have now approached the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu to complete their processing under U.S. law. The GON has also indicated that they will likely process several more adoption cases for U.S. families in October and that approximately two dozen additional case referrals have been sent to U.S. families. The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu continues to meet with GON officials and is working with the Office of Children’s Issues to provide timely public updates.

As part of required processing for orphan adoption cases, the Embassy conducts a thorough investigation of each case. Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that the investigation process may take several months, which could mean that prospective adoptive parents who travel to Nepal before the investigation is completed will need to spend a significant amount of time in country.

http://adoption.state.gov/news/nepal.html

News Article on Adoption in Nepal - 3 Nepali kids set to land in US

3 Nepali kids set to land in US

http://www.kantipur online.com/ kolnews.php? nid=213888

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 9 - After a gap of one and half years three Nepali children are all set to land in the U.S with their new adoptive parents. This was made possible for three orphaned girls —Anita Himali, Anisha Sai and Santi Sai — after the government approved their documents related to inter-country adoption.

The adoptive mothers are Bonnie Lee Donohue of Wisconsin, Michelle Kyla Blanchard-Roma of Louisiana and Dr. Teryl Rae Elam of Alaska.

Donohue, who is a general manager in the food service sector, has been matched with three-year-old Himali, Blanchard-Roma, who is a reputed Louisiana-based attorney, has been matched with two-year-old Anisha, and reputed Alaska-based physician, Elam has been matched with nearly one-year-old Santi.

The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) has informed the Nepali representatives of the US adoption agency about the decision, calling the adopting mothers to take their daughters as per their convenience, according to officials at MWCSW.

This will be the first batch of Nepali children to go abroad with their new parents after seven months of adoption process.

At least 18 dossiers, on which almost all the necessary paperwork for the adoption is complete, are also awaiting final approval from the MWCSW. Over 100 dossiers of children, who are already gone through matching process (in which adoptive parents are paired with orphans), are also pending due to a delay in arranging a meeting of the recommendation committee. The recommendation committee, comprising representatives from ministries of home, law and MWCSW, will make the final decision.

The committee selects children in accordance with the adoptive parents’ preferences. Likewise, applications of over 300 prospective foreign parents are under the scrutiny of MWCSW.

Earlier, the ministry had put the process on hold for one-and-a-half- years and started the process with new rules for adoption in January. This time, the prospective parents have to deal with registered adoption agencies from their home country or Nepal-based embassies. Earlier, they directly dealt with orphanages. As there was no fixed adoption fee, parents often ended up paying huge amounts for the baby of their choice.

The adoption fee for each child has been fixed at US$ 8,000 — which means that adoptive parents will not get overcharged. From the adoption fee US$ 5,000 will go to the orphanages and US$ 3,000 to the state coffers. The ministry has already collected over Rs. 15 million from the fee, part of which will be used to monitor the overall adoption process.

Posted on: 2009-09-09 00:36:36 (Server Time)

http://www.kantipur online.com/ kolnews.php? nid=213888