The DOS has issued a new statement. To provide some clarity, this would be relevant ONLY for those cases where the agency did not apply for or was denied Hague accredidation AND for whatever reason your case will not be able to be completed under the old notarial system (abandonment cases, cases not registered with CNA, etc).
I wiill conjecture that this is a positive thing for those in these precarious case situations. The fact that DOS is saying this leads me to believe/hope that a resolution is imminent in Guatemala agreeing to recognize those referals and process the cases under the new law. I have no inside info that this is the case, just sharing what it means to me.
The DOS statement canbe found here or click on more to read it.
Notice Concerning Transfer of Pending Convention Cases to Accredited/Approved ASPs
Adoption service providers (ASPs) that have been denied accreditation or approval may have pending adoption cases that are now, or will likely become, Convention cases before they can be brought to a conclusion. Such ASPs are urged to transfer any such cases expeditiously to an accredited, temporarily accredited or approved ASP.
ASPs that have been denied accreditation or approval should activate their plans for transferring pending Convention cases to accredited, temporarily accredited, or approved ASPs in a timely and transparent manner, including refunding fees to prospective adoptive parents for services not yet provided. (All ASPs that applied for accreditation or approval provided a plan pursuant to 22 CFR 96.33(e) for transferring cases in the event an agency cannot see them to completion. Applicants for temporary accreditation were to have such a plan pursuant to 22 CFR 96.104(k).) Whether a transferred case may proceed on the same track it was on prior to the transfer to an accredited, temporarily accredited or approved ASP will depend largely on the facts of the case, the requirements of the country of origin and the regulations of the state in which the new ASP is located.
Hi Kevin,
Several of us are not sure how to take this. I thought it didnt matter if the agency was accredited or not as these cases were grandfathered in.
And if Iam off here and the agency had to be accredited and was not does this apply to only those cases that the agency wasnt accredited..Iam confused
And what if we are not dealing with an agency at all and are dealing with the attorney directly.And we were not registered and are transition cases, abandonments, etc.
Maybe Iam just not reading this clearly. Any thoughts?
Kevin, if we are out of pgn awaiting b/c and pink and our agency was denied accrediation this does not affect us right? just checking thanks
Posted by: na at August 8, 2008 07:46 PMto clarify, if we have a non-accredited agency but have been registered with CNA, etc. are we okay?
Posted by: eric at August 8, 2008 10:13 PMFolks,
Please read what I wrote. This announcement would mean something only to a very few "abnormal" cases where the original relinquishment adoption can not be completed under the grandfathered system.
You need no accreditted agency (or no agency at all) to complete a normal adoption where the birthmom has bee interviewed, case was submitted to CNA, etc etc. This is only relevant to anyone who believes their case will need to be completed under the new law.
Hope that helps,
Kevin
Guatadot.com
So, if your birthmother interview does not or cannot take place then your case will need to be completed under the new CNA laws?
Posted by: Sally Rowe at August 9, 2008 10:38 AMThe notoriously inaccurate Guatemalan press reported yesterday that unless certain conditions were met by the end of August, 1000 plus pending cases would put up for reprocessing for new parents.
Posted by: Carlisle Johnson at August 9, 2008 12:18 PMKevin - Could you please clarify under which new law? I'm guessing it only applies if you have to go under new laws for *both* Guatemala and the US?
If you are new law Guatemala and old law US (grandfathered by I-600A filed before 4/1/08 - before Hague went into effect in US - provided the resulting I-171H is still valid and not expired), this announcement should NOT apply, correct?
Thank you for your help and for all that you and the rest of the Guatadopt team do for all of us!
Regards, S
Posted by: S at August 9, 2008 04:42 PMKevin,
Still struggling to understand here. I will give you the basics on our case (there are several of us out here with similar timelines who are wondering):
*Relinquishment-2005
*Abandonment began-2006
*Not registered with CNA (no CofA in time)
*CofA 2008
*Filled out form through you way back when regarding abandonment cases
*Agency NOT Hague accredited
Do we fit??
I would be curious to know about other people in the same situation that were not registered with the CA by the deadline. We are under the old system in US (I 600 filed in February 2008) and will have to wait for the new laws in Guatemala since we did not get our case registered in time.
Our agency is hague accredited. But just wondering if anyone is in our situation.
Posted by: stacey at August 10, 2008 09:11 PMDid anyone's foster care shootup to $525?? What is causing this? Sharon
Posted by: Sharon at August 11, 2008 09:11 AMStacy,
there is a group of us with abandonment cases that were not able to be registered with CA b/c of awaiting paperwork from the Guat court system. We have a sub Yahoo group to discuss information since we will all be transition cases - old law US, new law Guat. We have been working with CNA and DOS for a transition process with good results. The group is weareneverginvingup -you can contact the moderator to see if this would help in your case
Posted by: Marian at August 11, 2008 01:05 PMSharon,
Foster care cost: I don't like hearing you paying so much!
The way I see it is this: a certain amount needs to cover formula/food, diapers and clothing for the children and a stipend for the foster mother, some money for doctors and medical care, but where is the rest of the money going? The older the children get, the fewer doctor visits they have, so that cost is going down, not up.
I think that the attorneys are collecting a monthly stipend for themselves to keep going with no new adoptions coming in. That is what I have heard.
I understand that they need to make a living, and that the cases are on-going and needing more time than they were originally paid to do, so maybe that is all right.
In thinking about it, their costs are going up, too, with the birth mother interviews and having to do searches and bring birth mothers in from wherever.
The costs are not going to be charged to the individual families like we would do here in the States. Instead, they are charging everyone more to cover the extra costs.
Is that fair?
I guess that's what each waiting parent needs to decide.
Posted by: Sheryl at August 12, 2008 09:50 AMSharon,
Our foster care is now $450/month because our case has gone longer than average. The possibility of this monthly amount was clearly stated in the contract we signed with our agency. Hope this helps.
Posted by: Cindy at August 12, 2008 05:33 PMSharon,
No as far as we know it hasn't. Ours is still $250.00/mo. I would question the agency your working with and always ask for receipts. Sorry to hear about that.
Teri
Kevin and others: This might be a generic statement from DOS to deal with transition cases, once a family's I-600A expires and they have not filed an I-600 and are adopting from a Hague country. We are trying to get clarification for those cases. The I-600A is good for 18 months and there is one free renewal of the I-600A for another 18 months before the family has to file an I-800(I believe) which is the Hague CIS document. Then homestudies must conform to Hague guidelines and the family's petition has to be represented by a Hague approved agency.
IF this statement from DOS is referring to Guatemala and the impending deadline for cases without birthmother interviews being transferred into the CNA and becoming Hague cases, this is NOT in my opinion a good thing at all. The CNA has not released its regulations for intercountry adoption, they have not indicated whether they'll work with any Hague accredited agency or only a few of the many etc. etc. There is also no plan for the child's care or how long they would take to adjudicate the cases, again complicated if DOS considers them to be Hague cases and subject to the Hague rules, not the I-600A rules. This means that DOS is not protecting the legal adoption process of U.S. citizens and is putting another obstacle in the way of those cases being completed. I truly hope this is not the case and that it is referring to cases which might not complete by the time the family's I-600A expires.
It is urgent that we try to get help in urging the Guatemalan government to follow the law and not suspend adoptions in process which were supposed to be grandfathered because they have not met a new requirement arbitrarily decided on by the CNA and PGN.
Hannah Wallace, FOA
Posted by: Hannah Wallace at August 12, 2008 10:13 PMAmen Hannah!
Who do we call?