Ukrainian Adoption

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Comment by MamaPoRuski on March 29, 2012 at 12:42pm

I know many people have adopted children who are close to the age of 16, and have recently helped some friends through their process.  This is what the US Embassy in Kyiv sent them describing the ways you can adopt a child who is about to turn 16 years old. (After they turn 16 they can only be adopted as part of a sibling group with their younger siblings)  Hope this is helpful to others who may wish to pursue teenagers!

n order to be able to adopt a child who is over 16 y.o., the situation must fall under one of the three scenarios below:

1. The parents filed an I-600 prior to the child's 16th birthday. 
This USCIS notification about your I-600 filing will be necessary to confirm your eligibility of adopting the child who is over 16 y.o.
During the process of adoption in Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities normally ask us for a written confirmation that a 16 y.o. child will be able to receive the visa and immigrate. In order to do so, we need to see the confirmation of your I-600 filing from the USCIS.

After you complete the Ukrainian part of the adoption, you will need to work out the way to send adoption court decree and the rest of the documents to the USCIS so that they can approve your I-600 petition. We will only be able to process the immigrant visa for your adopted child after USCIS notifies us about your I-600 approval for this child and sends us a copy of the approved petition.

2. If you adopt the siblings with one child younger than 16 years old, you will also be able to adopt the other sibling who is over 16.

3. According to a 2010 amendment to the USCIS Adjudicator's Field Manual (AFM 21.5 (d)(3)(a)), adopting parents may adopt the child after the 16th birthday provided both of the following requirements are met:
(1) The Form I-600A itself was filed after the child's 15th birthday but before the child's 16th birthday (or, if applicable, after the child's 17th birthday but before the child's 18th) birthday); and
(2) The Form I-600 is filed not more than 180 days after initial approval of the Form I-600A.  
 
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Comment by MamaPoRuski on January 17, 2012 at 9:16pm

Updating the blog roll with 2012 SDA appointments. Let me know if you have any to add! Thanks!

Comment by MamaPoRuski on October 1, 2011 at 8:56am

Checking in to see if we have new visitors/members! I am updating the FALL adoption blog roll. Let me know if you have one to add! Thanks!

Comment by Yuri Safonov on July 14, 2011 at 3:17pm

The law was published today!!!! It means that adoptive couples that are waiting for appointment dates will be able to find out their dates and travel to Ukraine this summer. And if you are waiting to submit adoption dossier to the SDA it can be done!

 

Comment by MamaPoRuski on July 9, 2011 at 9:56am

My understanding is that the special needs classification goes to children under the age of 5 because under the new laws, foreign citizens cannot adopt healthy children under the age of 5.  So if your child is over the age of 5 they are still available for adoption even if they do not have a qualifying disability/special need.  If you are filing for a specific child I would check with your facilitator as they are the ones who go to the SDA/government agencies almost daily to see what the updates are.

Comment by Jenny Monier on July 9, 2011 at 9:07am

Hi everyone,

Below is information I received from Reece's Rainbow regarding the special needs adoptions:

 As promised, we are sharing the official list of what will be considered "special needs" under Ukraine's new law. The law was signed by Ukraine's president on June 7th.
PLEASE NOTE: 
1.) This law has NOT went into effect yet
2.) The law will take effect one month AFTER it is published. It has not yet been published. Once it is "in effect", it will take approximately 3 additional months for all the rules and regulations to be developed and implemented. At this point, the SDA has NO IDEA how things will work under this law. 
3.) ALL FAMILIES IN PROCESS will be contacted privately about this information and how it will/will not affect your commitment. 
4.) IF A SPECIFIC SPECIAL NEED IS NOT INCLUDED HERE: we have been told what is being done to add to the list and again, all families in process that this effects will be contacted privately about what they need to do.
5.) As with everything in Ukraine, this is the FIRST list. We DO expect more special needs to be added to the list. However, now that something has been signed into law, we wanted to share the information that we have ASAP.

Here is the list:

C 00 – C 97 – malignant neoplasms 

Q 64.1 – Exstrophy of urinary bladder

Q 71.0 – Congenital complete absence of upper limb(s)

Q71.1 – Congenital absence of upper arm and forearm with hand present

Q71.2 – Congenital absence of both forearm and hand

Q71.3 – Congenital absence of hand and finger(s)

Q 72.0 – Congenital complete absence of lower limb(s)

Q72.1 – Congenital absence of thigh and lower leg with foot present

Q72.2 – Congenital absence of both lower leg and foot

Q72.3 – Congenital absence of foot and toe(s)

Q 73.0 – Congenital absence of unspecified limb(s)

Q 11  - Anophthalmos, microphthalmos and macrophthalmos

Q 16.0 – Congenital absence of (ear) auricle

Q 16.1 – Congenital absence, atresia and stricture of auditory canal (external). Atresia or 

   stricture of osseous meatus

Q 74.3 – Arthrogryposis multiplex congenital

Q 77 – Osteochondrodysplasia with defects of growth of tubular bones and spine

Q 90 – Down's syndrome

Q 91 – Edwards' syndrome and Patau's syndrome

B 21.3 – HIV disease resulting in other malignant neoplasms of lymphoid, haematopoietic and 

   related tissue

B 21.7 – HIV disease resulting in multiple malignant neoplasms

E 10 – Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Comment by Lacey B on July 9, 2011 at 6:31am

Are older children considered special needs, or is this only referring to children with health issues?

Comment by Jenny Monier on July 8, 2011 at 9:05pm

I received word this evening that the UA Parliment voted to keep adoption of special needs children going through this temporary closure.  This news came forth officially through Reece's Rainbow and confirmed.

I have details if anyone is interested.

Comment by MamaPoRuski on July 8, 2011 at 6:39pm

Most of you have seen this from the FRUA group, but thought I'd repost it.  I talked with a family today who had hoped to travel soon, their facilitator told them maybe one more month after the new agency opens:

Adoption Alert, Ukrainian Family Code Amendments and temporary suspension on adoptions to take effect on July 11, 2011 

The Ukrainian State Department on Adoptions (SDA) informed the US Embassy this morning that beginning July 11 SDA will no longer have the authority to process adoption cases. This will likely result in a temporary suspension of adoptions from Ukraine. The Ministry of Social Policy will take over as the new adoption authority in Ukraine, but does not yet have Cabinet approval to create a staff and begin processing cases. The Ministry does not yet know when they will be able to resume adoption processing. The amendments to the Ukrainian Family Code mentioned in the previous adoption alert will also go into effect on July 11. 

We will ask the Ukrainian government to resume adoptions as quickly as possible. We will also continue to encourage the Ministry of Social Policy to protect adoptions where U.S. prospective adoptive parents have already been approved by the SDA to adopt a particular child.

According to SDA, there are now 139 U.S. families registered with the SDA, some of them already in-country. We will be following new developments closely to understand how it will affect the families currently in process and will be posting relevant updates. In that respect. we recommend that all American families that are currently in Ukraine or have appointments with SDA during the next few weeks send their contact information to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine’s Adoption Unit at: kyivadoptions@state.gov. Families should contact their local adoption service provider for further updates and details. 
###

As we receive more information we will get this information to FURA families. Keep checking www.frua.orgfor the latest information.

Best Regards,
Jan Wondra
National Vice Chair, and Liaison to the U.S. Dept. of State,
National Board of Directors
Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption
vicechair@frua.org

Comment by Jenny Monier on July 7, 2011 at 9:12am

Also, has anyone heard any recent information regarding the closure?  We are praying that it is short and sweet!:)

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