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Foreign Adoption Getting Harder

Could be boon for thousands in US foster care

By Jess Kilby, Newser User

Posted Aug 14, 2008 3:44 PM CDT

(Newser) – Heightened awareness of child trafficking and improving economies abroad are making it harder for Americans to adopt foreign kids. US officials are taking a closer look at visa applications and discouraging adoptions from countries that don’t comply with a new international adoption agreement, USA Today reports. At the same time, China, Russia, and South Korea have begun encouraging more domestic adoptions.

Child welfare advocates say the new agreement will protect children as well as adoptive and birth parents. It may also be a boon to adoption-eligible kids currently living in American foster care—129,000 in 2006—as well as to orphans in Africa and disabled children abroad. Critics complain that the State Department has unfairly rejected or delayed proposed adoptions from Vietnam and Guatemala under the new guidelines.

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Americans are finding it more difficult to adopt foreign children as economies improve in countries like China and Russia. (Shutterstock)

Child welfare advocates say the shifting adoption climate might encourage Americans to seek out orphans from African nations like Ethiopia and Liberia. (Shutterstock)

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His room is done. We have everything—diapers, clothes. - Kristina Frick, who is waiting for a visa to adopt a child in Vietnam, a move the country approved in November

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Foreign Adoption Getting Harder