International Adoption Cheat Sheet

Korea is much different than any other program - when discussing any of the in country facilitators (Holt, SWS or ESWS) they can ONLY talk about that portion...only about the stage they are in in THAT step of the process or where referrals are with that facilitator. Many Holt Agency clients ALSO get a placement thru a Holt facilitator - they CAN NOT talk about Holt (their agency) only Holt the facilitator. This means no paperwork discussion, requirements discussions...nothing.Because Korea is different, its always a good idea to get some feedback from someone else.Since we don't have a Korean FM - CM's, it falls back to you :)

Guatemala: PGN - Procuraduria General de la Nacion. This is the Attorney General's office in Guatemala. They review the case and investigate any inconsistencies with the adoption. :hippie:

USCIS United States Citizenship and Immigration Services - a part of the Department of Homeland Security. Grants the 171h or 797c which allows parents to bring an adopted orphan into the US. Also you'll see reference to WCP which stands for Waiting Child Program.

I thought of another one: FCC is Families with Children from China. The purpose of FCC is provide a network of support for families who've adopted in China and to provide information to prospective parents

Crick asked me to post this: Two people/organizations that will show up on the Guatemala board that are not allowed - even though at a glance you would think they would be ok: Susana Luarca / ADA or Association for the Defense on Adoptions Susana and the ADA do quite a bit for the advocacy of adoptions in Guatemala. However, Susana also is an adoption attorney who completes lots of adoptions in Guatemala. Anything posted from the ADA or on the ADA website is by Susana. Info from the ADA site can be posted in a quote or paraphrase but they cannot LINK it. They cannot say "info from Susana", because her name cannot be posted in reference to actual discussion. (i.e. "Susana works for the ADA" is okay, but not Susana from ADA said xx & xx") Focus on Adoption and/or Hannah Wallace Same type of thing. Focus on Adoption is a wonderful advocacy group for adoptions, however it is run by Hannah Wallace who is also the Executive Director of Adoptions International, an adoption agency in PA. Therefore, posts linking to Focus on Adoption or an article by Hannah Wallace, or an article regarding Hannah Wallace also would not be allowed to be posted or directly linked to. Most times, a person can just link to the Guatadopt.com homepage which will have either person or organization linked on it - which would get the member the exact information, but without linking directly from our forums to either person or organization. Clear as mud? :flowergift: EDITED TO ADD: Just mentioning the ADA or Focus on Adoption, or saying if you liked or disliked the information on the said sites is OK. If you look back - there is a lot of allowed mentions of these organizations. Thread Examples that are OK: FOCUS ON ADOPTION:[url]http://forums.adoption.com/guatemala-adoption/291839-new-focus-adoption-press-release.html?highlight=Focus+Adoption[/url] ADA: [url]http://forums.adoption.com/guatemala-adoption/288227-if-you-interested-ada-response-protocolo.html?highlight=Focus+Adoption[/url]

Links to Frua are NOT allowed. (Families for Russiand & Ukranian Adoptions) It is a paid membership site as well as a closed forum discussion site.

ICBF - Columbia - also known as The Colombian Institute of Family Welfare. They oversee all the adoptions from Columbia and also license the private orphanages.

We now have a Taiwan forum....here are some things to note. [url=http://www.ait.org.tw/en/visa/iv/]AIT - Immigrant Visa[/url] AIT = American Institute in Taiwan is the government organization overseeing adoptions from Taiwan and can be discussed and linked to. Taiwan appears to have 4 "main" orphanages to adopt from and much like Guatemala's Hogars, these orphanages are private and fee based adoption "services". Therefore, discussion about orphanges practices, rules, guidelines etc. CANNOT be discussed on the forums and MUST be done via PM. Names of Orphanages to watch for: CATHWELL St. LUCY CENTER CHUNG YI HOME OF GOD'S LOVE MORNING LIGHT - is not yet an orphanage persay but are applying for registration to be one and it still applies to the rules above. Each orphanage has it's own list of requirements so we might see discussion about these and they'll need to be edited/deleted. If they want to post "you need to contact an individual agency/orphanage for their requirements", or even a "some require age caps under 50 or married for 3 years" etc. that's fine, as long as they are not discussing a specific one and it's general information. (Just like if any of us posted on a domestic thread "Some agencies require xx or xx, so you need to contact them personally to see what their rules are".)