Protecting Haitian orphans for adoption
In light of the Haitian disaster and to protect the Haitian orphans from possible illegal adoptions the USCIS announced that, beginning April 1, 2010, USCIS is centralizing processing and adjudication of all new orphan (Non-Hague) petitions with the agency’s specialized adoptions team at the National Benefits Center (NBC) in Missouri. One adoptive parent must be a US citizen. Adoptive parents must be between 30 and 49 years of age. The parent must be 21 years older than the adoptive child. While there are still many children in need of permanent adoptive homes, today’s domestic adoptions no longer involve traditional orphanages. Instead, U.S. orphanages have been replaced with an improved foster care system and private adoption agencies like American Adoptions.