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Cabo Verde and the Hague Convention
Source: cia.gov.
The Hague Adoption Convention entered into force in Cabo Verde on January 1, 2010. Any adoptions finalized in Cabo Verde since that date by U.S. citizens seeking to obtain U.S. immigrant visas for the adopted children are subject to the U.S. Hague Adoption Convention process. However, Cabo Verde has not yet implemented procedures for the processing of Hague Adoption cases and as such is not processing Convention intercountry adoption cases at this time.
In general, it is no longer possible for a U.S. family to complete an intercountry adoption from Cabo Verde by filing a Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition and/or a Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, because intercountry adoption between the United States and Cabo Verde are now subject to the Hague Adoption Convention. One limited exception would be for cases involving full and final adoption decrees issued in Cabo Verde before the Hague Adoption Convention entered into force in Cabo Verde on January 1, 2010. Such cases could be processed for U.S. immigration purposes as non-Hague cases.
U.S. citizen families interested in adopting in Cabo Verde may initiate a Hague adoption case on behalf of a child in Cabo Verde by filing a Form I-800A, Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country. However, U.S. citizen families should be mindful of the limited validity of the I-800A approval in choosing when to file the application. The U.S. Department of State cannot predict when Cabo Verde will have procedures in place and be ready to process Convention adoption cases. In the event that the Form I-800A approval expires before Cabo Verde starts processing Convention adoptions, U.S. citizen families will need to file a new Form I-800A with a new filing fee. In addition, once implemented, the Hague procedures may include specific requirements for Cabo Verde that must be addressed in the family's home study, which families filing now would not be able to anticipate or address. Families filing now could thus find themselves incurring costs for cases that will not be able to proceed before their Form I-800A approval expires or that will not completely comply with whatever requirements Cabo Verde ultimately puts in place. For information on expiration of I-800A approval, see the Instructions for Form I-800A, page 10, under the heading Processing Information, in the paragraph entitled Decision.
The U.S. Embassy in Praia will continue to monitor developments and will provide information about Cabo Verde's progress toward developing and implementing Hague Convention adoption procedures. As information becomes available, the U.S. Department of State will post it on the Cabo Verde website.
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