Friday, March 23, 2007

Region Once Closed in Kazakhstan Now Open

The Kazakhstan Ministry of Education along with the Department of Education of Almaty City are allowing the Almaty region to re-open to international adoption. For over a year, the Almaty region has been closed to Americans adopting from Kazakhstan as a restrictive effort imposed to enforce timely post-placement report submittal from American agencies. Some European agencies were able to proceed with adoptions in that region during the closure.

Because Children’s Hope met post-placement deadlines as required, we expect to have more families receiving travel dates for that region soon.

Friday, March 2, 2007

New Requirements for Prospective Parents for Waiting Child

The question: Do we need to meet new CCAA requirements to consider a Waiting Child?

The answer: In the fall of 2006, the CCAA communicated personally to our Beijing staff that the CCAA feels that families adopting waiting children should meet an even higher standard to parent a child with special needs. The CCAA has requested that CHI submit families that are fully prepared to parent a child with special needs and do not have any personal issues that would hinder their ability to parent such a child. At the end of October 2006 when the CCAA sent CHI the November list of waiting children, the CCAA Waiting Children's unit and the CCAA Department 1 requested that CHI not submit letters of intent (LOI) for China waiting children from families with any major issues. (No criminal background, mental issues such as depression or bipolar and/or major medical issues). Parent's age for a waiting child is still 30 to 55.