This is taken directly from the website for the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare in Nepal. This is the government department that processes the adoption dossiers. The posted this notice on 2/4/10.
The notice tells us a couple things.
1) The Ministry is focused on matching the 2009 dossiers. They have told our agency, and other agencies, that their goal is to make all matches by the end of March. (This probably won't happen since there are at least 400 dossiers, but it still is great that they've set this as a goal because it does mean it will happen sooner than later.)
2) If we had not gotten on the 2009 list (we were originally approved for the 2010 list, but our agency suddenly had an opening for the 2010 list on 11/30/09, and contacted us), our dossier would just be sitting on the desk of our case manager at our agency, and would have not have been sent to Nepal until 4/15/2010. WOW.
Investigation, Recommendation and Monitoring Committee
This is to inform all the concerned Embassies/ Diplomatic Missions/Adoption Agencies and Adoptive Parents to take the following notes:
For the year 2010, application should be submitted from 15 April, 2010 to 15 July, 2010.
Application should be submitted enclosing therewith a checklist of 5 major documents such as Guarantee Letter, Consent Letter, Home Study Report, Medical Report and Character Certificate.
Application without valid and complete documents shall not be entertained.
Application exceeding the quota shall not be entertained.
If it is found that the Agency has, upon receiving allocated quota, submitted an application for further quota, the Ministry shall take necessary action against such Agency.
The following is an e-mail a fellow Nepal prospective adoptive parent received on 2/4/10 from the US Embassy in Nepal. This e-mail tells us a couple things:
1) By virtue of the US Embassy meeting with The Ministry, the US Embassy cares very-much that US dossiers on the wait list are processed.
1) The US Embassy heard straight from The Ministry that The Ministry would like to complete all dossiers by the end of March. This is SUCH good news because for so long, it seemed like agencies and embassies were not hearing the same thing from The Ministry.
2) The USA continues to be completely committed to confirming the orphan status of all matches made to US citizens.
We have met with the Ministry and they did inform us that they plan to complete processing of all dossiers by the end of March. However, we do not know if this is a realistic goal, given the large number of cases waiting for processing.
We would like to remind American prospective adoptive parents that the US Embassy is by law to conduct an orphan investigation (I-604) to verify the child's orphan status prior to the issuance of an IR-3 or IR-4 immigrant visa. Depending on the circumstances of a case, this investigation may take up to several months to complete. Adoptive parents should therefore carefully consider whether to file their Form I-600 Petition to Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative with the Department of Homeland Security, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in the U.S. or at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, as the Embassy’s I-604 investigation cannot begin until the I-600 has been filed and the documents have been reviewed by a consular officer.
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