DOS Adoption Notice - Nepal Relinquishment Cases

Nepal

January 19, 2012

Notice: U.S. Department of State Continues to Recommend Against Adopting from Nepal

On August 6, 2010, the U. S. Department of State and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) suspended processing of new adoption cases from Nepal involving children claimed to have been found abandoned, because documents presented in support of the abandonment of these children in Nepal were unreliable. Cases involving relinquishment by known birth parent(s) were not affected by the suspension.

Recently, the Government of Nepal informed the U.S. Department of State that there may be a small number of children who will be found eligible for intercountry adoption by the Government of Nepal as relinquishment cases in 2012. The U.S. Department of State continues to strongly recommend that prospective adoptive parents refrain from adopting children from Nepal due to grave concerns about the reliability of Nepal’s adoption system and credible reports that children have been stolen from birth parents, who did not intend to irrevocably relinquish parental rights as required by INA 101(b)(1)(F). We also strongly urge adoption service providers not to accept new applications for adoption from Nepal.

Due to the concerns regarding reliability of Nepal's adoption system, any future relinquishment cases received by the Embassy in Kathmandu will require complex investigations which may include birth parent interviews and DNA testing. Although we have not yet received these cases, and cannot estimate the amount of time for any investigation, we caution that they may require significant time and expenses that would likely raise the overall costs for prospective adoptive parents.

The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu continues to encourage the Government of Nepal to work with the international community, including the Hague Permanent Bureau, to implement the Hague Adoption Convention and reform its adoption process to protect children and families.

We will continue to keep you updated through adoption.state.gov as additional information is received. This link will also provide additional information and past adoption notices and alerts on the detailed concerns found in Nepal adoptions.

http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=notices&alert_notice_file=nepal_4

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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