Moj

Rita, as I understand it the notification goes to the agency or attorney handling the situation in Bulgaria. That is the way it has been for us and it has been painful since my attorney is very slow at times responding via e-mail. But she does eventually!

Yes, you will be notified by your agency. They get it from the Bulgarian lawyers. I just found out that the MOJ is requiring clarification on one of my documents before registering me and I got that from my agency, who got that from the lawyer, who got that from the MOJ.......

Hi everyone, Our attorney just returned from a meeting with the new vice minister that she helped organize and this is her report. I hope you find it helpful. :) It went basically well. The new VM (Minister Atanasova) is very intelligent, open-minded and cooperative official and as it sounds she is determined to make this whole structure and procedure work well. Here are the main subjects discussed and promises given: 1. VM Atanasova is NOT going to tolerate some and neglect other accredited organizations. She said she would treat all organizations the same way, which is something new and positive. She said that everyone who knew her would guarantee she was going to do what she said. 2. VM Atanasova promised that every two-three months she would call for such meetings between her and Ms.Kalauzka (the Director of International Adoptions Division), on one hand, and accredited organizations, on the other. The goal of these meetings would be to make sure the process works well, to avoid delays and negative practices and to keep everyone up-to-date on the developments in International adoptions, as well, as to eliminate any problems possible. 3. VM Atanasova said they were discussing the possibility of putting on their website information about how many families and how many children are registered with the Registers. Such an info would be very helpful in estimating the time frames. 4. VM Atanasova said that they would also put on the web an information about the children registered - how many of them healthy, how many with special needs and what kinds of such, how many with minority heritage, etc. 5. VM Atanasova stated there was no a law obliging the MOJ to give referrals to ALL organizations and that registration of the family with the Register doesn't mean they would be referred a child in a certain term. It will all depend on the child's best interest when being referred. 6. VM Atanasova stated they couldn't undertake specific referral terms as long as they will mainly depend on the type and number of children registered, as well as on the families' specific requests in their applications to the MOJ. The best estimation would be made based on the information at the MOJ's website (see #3 and 4 above) - both professionals and families will be able to make estimations about the time frames. 7. VM Atanasova said that 90% of the children registered are not considered healthy by the MOJ, having in mind they are all institutionalized which automatically makes them "different" from the children born and raised into a family. 8. As to the current number of dossiers processed, here is what Ms.Kalauzka provided us with: Since the beginning of the Division's activity till now there were 1900 dossiers processed. About 400 of them - the so called "in-between" cases (the ones stuck between the old and new laws) which are finalized. About 400 of the dossiers are going to be nullified, since they were filed in 2002 and 2003, with documents' defects which have not been straightened. That means that up today there are about 1100 waiting families. They could not give us a number of the kids registered but it is presumed that there are a lot of kids available since the new procedure hasn't been really started yet (there a few cases finalized under the new law) and since there is a "backlog" of waiting children. 9. VM Atanasova said they were going to send out to us their criteria about connecting children-families. This one is a big progress too as we will have very specific idea when pre-assessing families. 10. Siblings of children already adopted will be first referred to the family who already adopted their brother/sister. 11. The International Adoptions Committee is starting its sessions tomorrow, Nov.11th, 2004 and will have sessions every two weeks. That means literally that they are STARTING referrals. 12. On the MOJ's site there will be to statistics, such as how many children were adopted this/last year, what kind of children, etc. Of course, Minister Atanasova asked for some more patience, as she would need some technical time to implement all of the actions listed above. My humble opinion is that it is a progress and that the process will start running smoothly in the course of the next months. I think it was a nice breakthrough today. I tried to present the information given on today's meeting as realistic as possible. Bernadette Neiheiser Sense Resource Center, Inc. An international child placing agency licensed in Virginia Tel: 609-275-1759 Fax: 609-275-5888 Donation web site: [url]www.adopt-sense.org[/url] Adoption web site: [url]www.adopt-sense.com[/url] Email: Bernisrc@earthlink.net Posted with permission..........................

regarding Bernadette's posting, I am wondering, with 1100 waiting families, how long it will take to get through them all. If the adoption group is only going to meet twice a month, how many matches can they approve in a month? Does this group make the matches or rubber stamp them? Has anyone gotten a referral in the last month or two? Kay Mom to Anna, varna and waiting on #2

According to my agency in Sofia there has not been any meeting since August 1st and therefore there have not been ANY referrals since then as well. They are still waiting for official letters of referral from the meeting last week. It is my understanding that the referrals will occur during these meetings. That the matches will take place in these meetings.