Those of you with an adoption in process in Haiti are hopefully more informed than I am. Nonetheless I want to update general readers on developments and pass along the contact information the State Department has set up for U.S. citizens with an adoption currently in process from Haiti.
Last month, the United States issued immigration visas for dozens of children who had been in the adoption process before the January 12 earthquake, and approved “humanitarian parole” for nearly 1000 more.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has set up a special e-mail box to receive scanned documentation on pending Haitian adoptee orphans.
That maibox is haitianadoptions@dhs.gov.
If you have already sent information to askci@state.gov (the address I shared in my last blog), it will be sent to CIS on your behalf.
Communications should be formatted as follows (note that if you are adopting more than one child, separate emails should be sent for each child):
Subject line: LAST NAME, First Name of adopting parent, USCIS case number and NVC case number if available
Include: the child’s name, date of birth, gender, current location of the child in Haiti and any contact information for their current location, and a recent photograph of the child.
In addition, the following documents may be useful to USCIS:
–Full and final Haitian adoption decree
–GOH Custody Grant to prospective adoptive parents for emigration and adoption OR
–Secondary evidence of either the adoption or custody decree
–Proof of travel by the adoptive parents to visit the child
–Photos of the child and prospective adoptive parents together
–ASP “Acceptance of Referral” letter signed by adopting parents
–IBESR approval
–Legal relinquishment or award of custody to Haitian orphanage
–Secondary evidence of the above, for example copies of adoption-related correspondence (including email) and documentation of communication with your adoption service provider.
Note that attachments should be limited to 10 megabytes per email message. If necessary, split your communication into more than one email message and indicate in the subject line the total number of emails and the number this message is: “Email 1 of 3”.
Please see these related blogs:
More Updates on Relief for Haiti: