Russia: USDOS Adoption Notice – Processing Time for Adoptions Increased
February 22, 2012 From the US Department of State: Russia February 21, 2012 Notice: Processing Time for Adoptions Increased On January 1, 2012, the Russian Family Code was amended so that presiding...
View ArticleAdoption Organizations Support President’s Proposal to Extend the Adoption...
February 29, 2012 Joint Council is pleased to announce that we have joined forces with a vast group of adoption organizations to support the President’s proposal to extend the Adoption Tax Credit. A...
View ArticleRussia: USDOS Adoption Notice – Regional Suspensions on Adoption Processing...
March 5, 2012 From the US Department of State: March 01, 2012 The Department of State has received reports that local departments of education and some judges in Russia have instituted a de facto...
View ArticleAdoptees deported by US
March 6, 2012 From The Korea Times: Until 2001, when Korean children were sent to the U.S. for overseas adoption, it was their adoptive parents’ responsibility to naturalize them as U.S. citizens…...
View ArticleSenegal: USDOS Adoption Alert – Suspension of New Applications to Adopt
March 6, 2012 From the US Department of State: Senegal March 05, 2012 Alert: Suspension of New Applications to Adopt The Government of Senegal has announced that it is temporarily suspending all new...
View ArticleDemocratic Republic of Congo: USDOS Adoption Notice – Release of Adopted...
March 8, 2012 From the US Department of State: Democratic Republic of Congo March 5, 2012 Notice: Release of Adopted Children from Orphanages Prospective adoptive parents considering adopting in the...
View ArticleAdverse Action taken by Council on Accreditation towards Huminska’s Anioly, Inc.
March 8, 2012 From the US Department of State: On March 2, 2012, the Council on Accreditation (COA) made the decision to temporarily suspend Huminska’s Anioly, Inc. for failing to maintain substantial...
View ArticleIndia: USDOS Adoption Notice – CARA Lifts Temporary Suspension of Acceptance...
March 9, 2012 From the US Department of State: March 7, 2012 This is an update to our notice dated October 5, 2011 announcing a temporary suspension on the acceptance of new intercountry adoption cases...
View ArticleRussia: Putin Urges Limiting Foreign Adoption of Russian Kids
March 9, 2012 From RIA Novosti: The adoption of Russian children by foreign families should become a “rare exception,” prime minister and president-elect Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. “We should...
View ArticleAdoption Notice: Cambodia
The Office of Children’s Issues wishes to provide a further update for U.S. citizens interested in intercountry adoptions with Cambodia. The Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International...
View ArticleJoint Council Position Openings!
Joint Council is pleased to announce three exciting position openings for the 2012 year! This is a great opportunity for individuals, college students, or graduate students to gain hands on experience...
View ArticleBhutan: USDOS Adoption Alert – Notice on Suspension of all Intercountry...
March 26, 2012 From the US Department of State: March 23, 2012 Effective January 1, 2012, the Government of Bhutan temporarily suspended all intercountry adoptions pending approval of a new adoption...
View ArticleAdoption Alert: Government of Laos Announces Suspension of Intercountry Adoption
March 30, 2012 The Office of the Government of Laos announced on February 20, 2012, that the authorization to allow foreigners to adopt Lao children is suspended until appropriate regulations and...
View ArticleKorean Ministry of Health & Welfare’s Special Act on Adoption to come into...
March 31, 2012 From the Korean Ministry of Health & Welfare: Subject: The careful deliberation before child adoption and family court permit system is being introduced. Adopted child will be given...
View ArticleKazakhstan: USDOS Adoption Notice – Approval of New Hague Convention Adoption...
From the US Department of State: April 5, 2012 The Ministry of Education and Science, the Central Authority of Kazakhstan, has confirmed that the governmental decree approving its new policies to...
View ArticleAdoption Notice: Romania
Adoption Notice: Romania New Adoption Law in Effect April 11, 2012 The Romanian Office for Adoptions announced that its new adoption law went into effect on April 7, 2012. The new law allows for...
View ArticleGuatemala: President to speed up 350 US adoptions
From Politico: Guatemala’s president says he’s willing to speed up 350 adoptions by U.S. couples that were in process before his Central American nation suspended adoptions by foreigners in 2007...
View ArticleNotice: Approval of the Agreement between the United States of America and...
Notice: Approval of the Agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation Regarding Cooperation in Adoption of Children On July 10, 2012 the Russian Duma approved the...
View ArticleNotice: Adoptions from South Africa to Begin With Approval of U.S. Adoption...
Notice: Adoptions from South Africa to Begin With Approval of U.S. Adoption Service Providers On June 6, 2012, the Department of State’s Special Advisor for Children’s Issues, Susan Jacobs, and U.S....
View ArticleSave the Adoption Tax Credit
Adoption Tax Credit Working Group- Save the Adoption Tax Credit Save The Adoption Tax Credit is one of the most urgent and important initiatives Joint Council will make in 2012. We are actively...
View ArticleThe National Action Plan on Children In Adversity
The National Action Plan on Children in Adversity (NAP) seeks to ensure that all children grow up within protective family care and free from violence, deprivation or danger. As supporters of the NAP,...
View ArticleMost Vulnerable Casualty of DC Tax Battle May Be Orphans, Foster Kids
Amid talk of the “fiscal cliff” and how much wealthier Americans should pay the government, not much attention has been paid to the most vulnerable class of tax code casualties: orphans and foster kids...
View ArticleSpecial Needs section added to OrphanNutrition.org!
Joint Council, along with our partners Mead Johnson Nutrition Foundation and SPOON Foundation, launched OrphanNutrition.org, a website serving as an international portal of resources for the global...
View ArticleDepartment of State announces Agreement between U.S. and Russia regarding...
Department of State (DOS) announced today that the Agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation Regarding Cooperation in Adoption of Children will enter into force on Nov....
View ArticleCBS to air 14th Annual “A Home for the Holidays”
On Wednesday, December 19th, CBS will air the 14th annual “A Home for the Holidays.” This powerful special shares stories of foster care adoption and features performances from some of America’s top...
View ArticlePotential Russian Ban of Intercountry Adoption to the United States
Russian Parliament Proposes Ban in Retaliation for the Magnitsky Act As of December 19, 2012, legislation was brought before the Russian Parliament to ban intercountry adoptions from the United...
View ArticleAdoption Alert: Russia
Please see the below alert from the Dept of State, Office of Children’s Issues regarding intercountry adoptions from Russia. Please note that it requests prospective adoptive parents adopting from...
View ArticleAdoption Alert: Russia Update from Dept of State
On December 31, 2012 the U.S. Dept of State, Office of Children’s Issues released the following alert regarding the Ban on Intercountry Adoptions to the United States. The update can be found on their...
View ArticleCongress Passes Universal Accreditation
All Adoption Service Providers Required to be Hague Accredited For the past 5 years Joint Council has championed the concept of universal accreditation and have implemented a policy to that end for...
View ArticleCongress Passes Adoption Tax Credit!
On January 1st, the US House of Representatives passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act (full text) which includes a permanent extension of the adoption tax credit and was signed into law on the 2nd....
View ArticleAdoption Alert: Russia Update from the Dept of State
On January 3, 2013 the U.S. Dept of State, Office of Children’s Issues released the following alert regarding the Ban on Intercountry Adoptions to the United States. The update can be found on their...
View ArticleWatch: U.S. Ambassador Jacobs on Russian Adoption Ban
Christiane Amanpour interviews U.S. Ambassador Susan Jacobs, Special Advisor to the Secretary for Children’s Issues at the State Department, on the recent Russian ban on intercountry adoption to the...
View ArticleRussia May Lift Adoption Ban for Specific Adoption Cases
Uncertainty Continues for Children and Families Joint Council can confirm that the Government of Russia will honor the bilateral treaty signed by both countries during all of 2013. The Government of...
View ArticleConfused by the Adoption Tax Credit?
Adoption Tax Credit Working Group Publishes FAQ To Help With Your Adoption The Adoption Tax Credit, recently signed into law by President Obama is rather complex and can also be confusing. Given these...
View ArticlePromoting The Hague Convention Isn’t Enough – Advocates Send Letter To Sec....
Hague Convention Compliance Determinations The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has rightly encouraged all countries to become partners in the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. The Convention,...
View ArticleA Lost Boy Finds His Calling (video)
Some phrases are shop worn cliches. And sometimes they represent the truth. We hope you will agree; Izidor Ruckel’s story is a ‘must see’. Click here to watch.
View ArticleHaiti Complies with the Hague Convention
Based on today’s conference call with the Department of State (DOS) it appears that DOS will approve Hague adoptions from Haiti. We applaud Haiti’s efforts to implement the Convention in a way that...
View ArticleU.S. Department of Justice Announces Indictment
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that four current and former employees of International Adoption Guides Inc. (IAG), an adoption services provider, have been indicted by a grand jury...
View ArticleBrazil Accepts Adoption Service Provider Applications for Authorization
The Autoridade Central Administrativa Federal of the Secretaria de Direitos Humanos (ACAF), the Brazilian Central Authority for the Hague Adoption Convention, officially announced last week that it...
View ArticleReports of Child-Buying Operations in Nigeria
Over the past several months, Nigerian media outlets have reported on government raids and closures of alleged child-buying operations posing as orphanages or homes for unwed mothers. Prospective...
View ArticleRequest for information about medically critical cases pending in the...
The Department of State continues to engage the Direction Générale de Migration (DGM) concerning the issuance of exit permits for adopted children affected by the DRC’s exit permit suspension. The DGM...
View ArticleDirection Générale de Migration to Review Grandfathered Cases
In a June 6th meeting, the Congolese Direction Générale de Migration (DGM) informed the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa that the DGM would be willing to conduct a review of the documents for the children...
View ArticleUAA Transition Case Guidance and Example Cases
This notice provides a link to new UAA transition case guidance for cases begun before the effective date of the UAA – July 14, 2014 – and completed on or after the effective date. Topics include...
View ArticleBenin Announces Temporary Suspension of Intercountry Adoption Applications
Benin informed the State Department that, as of May 22, it has temporarily suspended acceptance of new applications for intercountry adoptions as the Benin government prepares to implement the Hague...
View ArticleSeptember Webinar: Tired of Timeouts
Join us for our September webinar, Tired of Timeouts: Discipline, Attachment and the Adopted Child, on September 4th at 7PM Central. Traditional discipline methods can be ineffective and even...
View ArticleReminder on proper Pre-Adoption Immigration Review (PAIR) processing order
The Department of State reminds adoption service providers (ASPs) and prospective adoptive parents that the entire PAIR process must be completed in every case BEFORE the adoption petition is filed at...
View ArticleVisa Delay Updates from Department of State
Progress has been made and most of the backlog of nonimmigrant visas have been processed. There are very few delays on immigrant visas, adoption cases, and emergency nonimmigrant visa cases. Department...
View ArticleU.S. Secretary of State Meeting with DRC President
On August 4, Secretary of State John Kerry met with DRC President Joseph Kabila to stress the urgency of lifting the suspension on the issuance of exit permits for Congolese adopted children....
View ArticleAdoption Alert: Vietnam
“Vietnam Authorizes U.S. Adoption Service Providers – Intercountry Adoptions from Vietnam to the United States through a Special Adoption Program May Commence on September 16, 2014. September 12, 2014...
View ArticleWe Need Your Stories
Every year, the Adoption Tax Credit helps many families with the expenses that often come with adoption. A family recently shared their story with us: “My wife and I adopted our first child, a girl,...
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