What?? I can't believe this is back, especially since they "cancelled" the last one! I'm just sick about what this could mean :(

Thanks Kevin for keeping us informed. We are all worried and check this site often knowing it will keep us up to date.

Kevinm

"By March 1st" does this mean registered by Feb 28th or at the COB of March 1st.. it can be taken either way..

This may be a stupid question, but who exactly is possibly imposing the March 1 deadline for POAs? We have a referral but our POA is not back from Guatemalan Consulate in Chicago yet, so I am starting to panic!

I just went to the U.S. Department of State web site and there is a new date on the statement that has been there for a week. The new date is "Monday, February 26th. There is, however, no mention of the Protocolo announcement for March 1st. How can they not have that information yet? Why is it not posted yet? Maybe it will show up today. Here we go again.
jd

I'm afraid I have no details on anything involving a deadline for POAs to be registered so I don't want to speculate on it. I was merely trying to address what the main rumor is and that we have not been able to substantiate it.

Kevin
Guatadopt.com

ADA-
Can you add any insight to all of this? I am hoping that the likelyhood of a cancellation is high. God Bless. CC

Does anyone know what this announcement means??

Guatemala, Domingo 25 of February 2007, 15:14 hrs

CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLICA OF GUATEMALA
Fifth Legislature, 2004 - 2008

News bulletin

President of the commission of the Minor and Familia, deputy Jorge Luis Ortega Towers, gave to knows
Synopsis: President of the commission of the Minor and Familia, deputy Jorge Luis Ortega Towers, presented that the members of the room of work issued favorable ruling to the initiative of "Law of Adoptions", whose objective is to regulate the procedures judicial, notarial and administrative. (Author: Héctor Solis in name of Office of Public Relations, 2/Septiembre/2005, 17:02)

"Within the analysis and consultations made by the members of the commission of the Minor and the Family, the arguments of the diverse sectors of the society were listened to that, in one or another form, are involved in the protection of the minor one, and for such reason changes to the proposal of original Law took place, with the objective to introduce improvements to them in the recognition of the right nouns of the children and children", the president of the room of work expressed.

He added that the new Law of Adoptions, equals the condition of biological son to the one of an adoptive son, not establishing differences in the matter of connection or of succession. In addition, the General Office of the judge advocate general of the Nation, PGN, will be the governing being that it will have to his position to establish the controls and measures to guarantee several aspects, among them: to provide a support adapted to the biological family of the boy, so that this one can assume its responsibilities towards him; to fail this measurement, to make sure that the young girl or will be adopted by the suitable people.

"the General Office of the judge advocate general of the Nation, will be a technical institution whose function will be limited previous the administrative proceeding to initiate the judicial proceeding of adoption or the notarial diligences of voluntary jurisdiction; also, the adopted young girl either, will not lose the Guatemalan nationality nor the inherent rights to her when she has been given in international adoption, having in addition, to acquire the inherent nationality and rights to her in the receiving country ", indicated the Ortega parliamentarian Towers.

She added that the lack of control of the performances that precede to the adoption has allowed the illegal traffic of children, giving rise to an inadequate selection of the adoptantes, when considering his economic capacity like fundamental over the superior interest of the minor ones.

Written up by Public Héctor Solis, Relations.

Hi,
I was wondering who is invited this time. As Guatadopt has a copy of the invite does that mean attorneys are going to this meeting?
Mary

Here we go again. I am getting a corrected POA after being kicked out of PGN. It's stuck in the Chicago consulate. They are taking so long to get things done! I sure hope this doesn't hurt my case.

Lisa

I am new to the Guatemala Adoption Process; what is a POA? Also, how worried should new prospective adoptive parents be?

Lisa

How long has your POA been at the Chicago consulate? We received ou referral 2/2/07 and our POA was sent to Chicago 2/7. We were told average time was 1-3 weeks.

Would anyone say that if you just completed the home study and was approved, to not go with Guatemala at this time due to the turmoil and chaos surrounding the country and relations on inter country adoption. I also checked out Vietnam, and they are not any more stable right now than Guatemala,(they appear to have more problems than Guatemala) is there any country that is stable enough to adopt from?? Does anyone know?? We just went through a painful IVF experience, lost pregnancy due to ectopic, not too sure we can handle this.

Hi, They are running about 2 weeks right now. I have a friend in CA that went and waited for hers, so that's where my frustration comes in. Not to mention being KO PGN for something like this. Hope yours comes quickly.

Lisa

Chicago Consulate -

They are not moving very quickly, I'm afraid. I've been waiting nearly a month for our POA. They took 4 weeks for our dossier in December.

Kris :(

Thank you Kevin for keeping us updated! I am so close to receiving a refferal its sad! I am waiting for my agency to give me the green light to get my documents authenticated & we already received our approval from CIS. I emailed my agency to see if they knew of anything regarding this but I have yet to hear back. I will continue to keep all of you in my thoughts & prayers!

Kris,

I would call and ask about your document. When I called they were working on documents they received on 2/5. I called last Thursday.

Lisa

To NINA,
I can say that China is regarded as being a very stable program. It is a long wait, but very predictable. Good luck to you. (We are also hoping to adopt from GUA).

Nina,
We have been through the same thing you have and understand completely. With that being said we received an email from our agency tonight stating that if you have not sent your dossier to the Guatemala don't and persue other country's. They advise us of this because they are expecting lengthy delays for completing adoptions in Guatemala. Hope this helps.
Scott and Carmen

The reason for the protocolo? This appeared in the Washington Post a few weeks ago.: "Guatemala must improve its procedures for adoptions by American parents or the U.S. will no longer provide visas for the babies, a State Department official said Thursday."

"Assistant Secretary of Consular Affairs Maura Harty told reporters that the improvements need to be made before the U.S. ratifies the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions later this year."

The consulate in Chicago took about 4-1/2 weeks for someone I know.

Nina - To answer your question honestly, Guatemala is probably not a good fit for you right now - the system is under scrutiny by the DOS (they are warning people away from it) and it was already scheduled to shut down this year anyway by the US government (for Hague non-compliance).

My husband and I started our most recent Guat adoption a year ago (paper ready). And we just came out of PGN yesterday. The handwriting has been on the wall about all this for some time now. I know it's not what anybody wants to hear, but when the DOS is warning people away, what more is there to say?

It's just wouldn't be right to say "don't worry, this will all blow over." I was one of the unfortunate ones for whom the Hague was a very real nightmare four years ago. My sons did finally come home, but we were in PGN when the halt occurred. People are being told so long as they have a referral or POA that they'll be fine. That's just very unlikely given past performance. We had been in process six months and we weren't grandfathered. Nor were others who had had referrals for months...

Ultimately you have to do what you believe is right to do - but if it were me I would be looking elsewhere right now. :(

I hope for the sake of all those who have recently accepted referrals that whatever changes are made will be handled better than last time.

LISA -

Thank you. They told my agency that the person to talk to "wasn't in". I have the tracking numbers, so I know they have my document, and it has not yet been mailed back. But, thank you.

Kris

Based on past experiences, does anyone know what this would mean to those of us currently in the PGN?

I believe alot has changed and they have learned from the past. The ADA is prepared to pounce if this is put into effect! I think, hope, everything will be dealt with alot differently than last time there was a complete shut down. I am expecting delays, but praying my daughter makes it home soon. CC

The ADA webpage says this protocol would suspend all adoptions, even those in progress... THIS IS scaring me!!!!!!

thanks to everyone for their help and honest answers. I asked my agency the same questions and have not heard from them. I have not given them their fee yet, as our homestudy was just completed and I really wanted to hear some honest answers before we end up throwing money away. I can not thank all of you enough, I think it is time we begin searching other possibilities, again thank you to everyone and hope things work out for all those in the process right now, God willing the children will be taken care of and come home soon.

With respect to the Chicago consulate, the person to ask for is Jorge Archila (you can get the direct number from their website). Make sure that you send the documents with a US ExpressPost return envelope, as they will no longer return documents via FedEx, DHL or UPS (actually, Mr. Archila had told me a few months ago they would do it, but only if they happened to be getting something would they actually hand the package to the person, so that could be the source of delays as well).

Can anyone tell me what is ADA, and what it the website I should look at in reference to the Protocal? Thank you

Lisa,

I got word today from my agency that they received our POA from Chicago but they had to send it back because it was done incorrectly!!! Here we go again!!!!

ADA is Association of Defenders of Adoption, a Guatemalan organization formed by adoption professionbals, hogar directors and adoptive parents, who refuse to let adoptions to be closed down by the government. The presidentof ADA is Enrique Urizar, vice president is Susana Luarca and treasurer is Feliciano Carrillo. The ADA website was set up some time ago by Kelly, but it is until recently that we began posting relevant information to the present situation. Only general questions will be answered on that site. Infornation about specific problems cannot be given by us. The link is www.adaguatemala.org.
Susana Luarca

I would like to chime in on the issue of whether folks should proceed to try to adopt from Guatemala if they do not yet have a referral, etc.

A friend of mine started adopting from China months before I started adopting from Guatemala. I adopted two infants who came home in March 2006. My friend is in China right now picking up his daughter! The wait times are so long for China now! The end result is that his daughter and my child are the same exact age, yet mine have been home with me almost a year...

I don't mean to discourage anyone from adopting from China or elsewhere, but to give perspective. It's possible that adoptions from Guatemala will face more scrutiny but not be altogether halted, so would you be in any better shape if you went with a country that has a much longer wait?

This is SO hard, and my heart goes out to everyone who may be affected. I hope that Guatemala is able to improve the adoption system to protect everyone involved, yet not harm the waiting children or adoptive parents...

Any news if the meeting took place today as scheduled? We are days away from receiving our referral and need some hopeful news today.

Thanks