I read these on another adoption website and wanted to pass them along:
Just an FYI about the USA Today article. it is very misleading!!!! I received
an email from our agency which does Russian adoptions as well and they made a
big point to say that Russia has not closed its doors on adoption. Yes, it is
true that there is no agency that has accreditation but there are 11 U.S.
agencies that have special permission from the Ministry of Education to continue
adoptions. I think our agency said that there are currently a handful of
families there now on their first trip and several more traveling shortly for
their 2nd trip (court trip).
So don't believe everything you read. As usual the media is always trying to
strike a chord with someone and I don't know how many times the media has
printed or reported anything 100% truthful.
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It's really not something that happened all that quickly. Around April of last
year the Russian MOE stopped issueing reaccreditations. They made the decision
that agencies would have to provide proof of NGO status in order to be eligible
for reaccreditation - this is a reasonable request of agencies who should be in
the adoption business for humanitarian reasons not solely for making profits for
their owners. It took several months for agencies to figure out what documents
would be acceptable proof of NGO status from a Russian perspective, gather and
submit them. Once an agency submitted its NGO proof packet it took a while for
that to be reviewed and deemed acceptable by the Russian governmental bodies.
Next the agency had to submit the application for reaccreditation. Previously
agencies had to be reaccredited each year (which is why now that it is April
there are no more accredited agencies) - going forward this will only have to
happen every 5 years.
Those in process can proceed depending on a few variables. If an agency is
working in one of the few regions where indy adoptions are still permitted they
may get a child offer and go for a first trip. (The wait is long because many
families have their requests registered in a small number of indy regions). If
an agency is working in a region and prior to their accreditation expiring their
client family had made a first trip and accepted a child, then the family can
still get a court date (again this is taking a long time, but it is happening).
After a successful court then the family can bring the child home. The problem
is in regions where indy adoptions are not allowed and families have not
traveled for the first time - then nothing can happen until an agency gets
reaccredited.
The article may have been written to draw political attention to the very
frustrating situation that now exists. US agencies do not believe this is the
end of the Russian adoption program, but they would certainly like to see
movement sooner rather than later.