THIS POST WAS UPDATED ON 11/07 at 10:30 AM EasternÂ

Currently, in Vietnam, specifically in two provinces, there are concerns over confirmed unethical and illegal practices. According to the US Citzenship and Immigration Service, there has been at least one confirmed case of child buying. Other unsavory practices are also confirmed or suspected. Several NOIDs have been issued; a NOID is a notification from the US government that your application to bring your newly adopted child back to the USA is likely to be denied, meaning the child will return to the orphanage, or their first family if one is known, or that you would have to live in Vietnam in order to stay with your child.

The agency commonly known as PLAN currently has a family stuck in Vietnam, the USCIS has not approved them to leave as of yet. A NOID has not been issued, but the family is not being allowed to leave with their child. It will be interesting to see if this is cleared up – for the sake of the family and child, I hope so. ADOPPT is another agency that works in the troubled province of Phu Tho, and has had several adoptions that have not gone smoothly, some resulting in adoptive parents leaving Vietnam without the children they intended to adopt. World Child also has at least one client who has received a NOID. A NOID does not necessarily mean that the agency has done something illegal or unethical, but it does mean that somewhere in the adoption chain for that child, someone or some entity has done something illegal or unethical in the eyes of the USCIS. The other province with particularly suspect processes is Thai Nguyen. Some NOIDs are issued by no fault of the agency itself, but because someone on the Vietnamese side has done something wrong. Again, a NOID does not necessarily mean that an agency is unfit or unethical.

To try and stem some of this corruption, USCIS has instituted a new policy of processing the I600 before adoptive families travel to Vietnam. This will not entirely eliminate the issues at hand, but it *should* help to curtail unsavory practices. It will allow for more thorough investigations of children being adopted.

These are the same types of issues that led to a complete shutdown of adoptions from Vietnam in 2002. Will we see another shutdown of the adoption process? If these few bad agencies and Vietnamese officials continue with these disgusting practices, then we surely will.

Link to US Embassy announcement

 The continually expanding posting…

I want to point out that I do feel for these families going through this process, it must be absolutely terrifying and heartwrenching. I sincerely hope that things work out for them, and they can bring their children home with them. At the same time, I can only feel joy for these babies IF in fact the NOIDs are issued with proper reason and evidence, and these children will return to their rightful families. If these NOIDs are not overturned in the appeal process, I sincerely hope these children can find families either in Vietnam or another country. They should not be forced to live out life in an orphanage simply because some adult was unscrupulous.

I will publicly and proudly state that I support these efforts of the USCIS to stem corruption, fraud, and unethical practices in adoption, in Vietnam and elsewhere. I now understand why the new I600 filing process was so abruptly instated.

Another expansion….

A few people have mentioned that the USCIS cannot necessarily be trusted to honestly and fairly determine when a NOID is or further investigation is necessary. While it would not surprise me to learn that there is “politics” at work in some instances, I believe the vast majority of cases are evaluated in the correct manner.

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Tags: Adoption, adoption fraud, corruption, I600, USCIS, Vietnam, vietnam adoption