On February 17, 2004, the American Citizens Services unit of the Consular Section, U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, with participation of the National Adoption Center of Ukraine (NAC), organized and conducted a seminar for adoption facilitators/translators who work with American prospective adoptive parents. Embassy and NAC officials briefed seminar participants on current adoption requirements and recommendations and soliciting feedback from the facilitators in a Q/A session.
The Consul General, MaryKay Carlson, stressed that assisting American citizens, including those who adopt in Ukraine, is among the U.S. Embassy's top priorities. She said the Consular Section is always willing to meet with representatives of U.S. adoption agencies, as well as their Ukrainian coordinators. At the same time, we encourage American citizens to comply with local law when adopting internationally. To that end, we support adherence to the NAC's dossier requirements and appointment policy.
The Embassy hears complaints from American citizens about the lack of transparency in fees charged and services provided by facilitators/translators during the adoption process. We reiterated that facilitators should provide their American clients with detailed information about their fees and other anticipated expenses, preferably before the American parents begin travel to Ukraine. We stressed that facilitators/translators are also responsible for ensuring that parents receive a complete and accurate medical history of the adopted child(ren) prior to the court hearing. We cautioned the audience about creating false expectations, specifically regarding processing time, age/health conditions of available children, and fees. We noted, for example, that even though many parents appear to think the Ukrainian adoption process can easily be completed within two weeks, the average time is over three weeks. Complicated cases take longer.
The Consular Section encouraged adoption facilitators/translators to provide us with their points of contact - an informal registration system. When we have a facilitator's contact information on file, we can more easily assist American citizens during their adoption process in Ukraine - especially in urgent or emergency situations. In addition, providing us with an e-mail address allows us to update facilitators on new requirements, procedures, or changes in law, such as those anticipated during the transition of immigrant visa processing from Warsaw to Kyiv over the next few months.
In addition, we expressed our concern about the poor quality of some translations of documents prepared for the I-604 interview final immigrant visa interview. As these documents are also used by the families for other purposes, such as applying for a U.S. passport for the adopted child(ren), it is critical that the translations be accurate. We warned the facilitators present that the Embassy would stop accepting translations from agencies/private translators who develop a pattern of poorly prepared translations. We reminded the audience that we keep a record of Americans' feedback on facilitators' services and of our experience with each facilitator/translator as well.
The Director of the National Adoption Center (NAC), Evgeniya Chernyshova, then briefed the group on recent adoption developments, especially with regard to several provisions of the new Family Code of Ukraine and Adoption Decree #1377, which became effective January 1, 2004.
The NAC director confirmed information the Embassy had already released on its website - that the NAC was now strictly enforcing the requirement that the standard medical form be used for all medical reports submitted by prospective parents as a part of their dossier. The Director stated that if the family's dossier is already registered with the NAC, the new medical form will be required at the time of their scheduled interview.
The NAC director confirmed that, thanks to continuing Embassy efforts, the NAC does not require a separate U.S. federal criminal check on prospective parents. Rather, the NAC will continue to accept police records issued at the state level.
The NAC director also stated that provisions of the new Family Code and Adoption Decree prohibit release of key information concerning families' registration numbers and appointment dates to third parties, including those granted power of attorney. According to Ms. Chernyshova, two important notification letters - A) acknowledgment of receipt of dossier with registration number, and B) notice of appointment date - must be relayed directly to the prospective adoptive parents only. No intermediaries. (To assist American families, the Embassy volunteered to provide the NAC with English translations of these two standard letters. In addition, the Embassy suggested that families be allowed the option of submitting prepaid DHL/FedEx envelopes with their dossier, in order to expedite communication with the NAC.) The Director also stressed that each family should designate only one person with power of attorney (that is, one facilitator) to communicate with the NAC on adoption matters other than the two letters mentioned above.
Ms. Chernyshova reminded the audience that, by law, the NAC now has 20 working days to register receipt of a dossier at the center. (This is a change from the ten-day period stipulated under the old decree.) If an adoption dossier is not complete, it will not be kept at the NAC. Instead, the dossier will either be returned to the family's facilitator or mailed directly back to the family (if no one has inquired about the status within one month). The NAC advised facilitators to check the NAC bulletin board on a regular basis for a list of incomplete dossiers. If a dossier is incomplete, the 20-working-day timeframe will start again from the time of re-submission of the completed file. The NAC will only remove a completed dossier from its registry under three conditions: once the adoption in Ukraine is completed; at the written request of the family; or when the dossier expires (Adoption Decree, article 26).
Ms. Chernyshova expressed concern about unreasonably high expectations of the families coming to adopt in Ukraine. The Director stated that only two percent (2%) of all children available for international adoption in Ukraine are very young and completely healthy. The Director emphasized that the Adoption Decree provides for possible pre-adoption medical examinations, which can be performed at any state or municipal medical institution in the presence of the orphanage representative.
The NAC stressed that according to Ukrainian law, siblings cannot be separated by adoption. Currently, applications of all children available for adoption contain information about their siblings. If a family learns about a sibling of their already adopted child and would like to verify this information in order to consider a second adoption, they may inquire in writing to the NAC. If the information is confirmed, they may submit their dossier to the NAC to proceed with the second adoption. She also mentioned that those families who would like to adopt children older than ten years of age are given priority.
Finally, Ms. Chernyshova mentioned that, according to the new Family Code of Ukraine (Article 213), if several candidates wish to adopt the same child, preference will be given first to a Ukrainian citizen, second to foreign couples who are married, and finally to foreign single parents. The NAC promised to prepare an official explanation of this policy, which will be translated by the Embassy, distributed, and posted on our website as soon as it is available.