Democratic Republic of the Congo Adoption Alert

Refugees along the Congo River.
Source: Wikipedia.org.

Alert: U.S. Secretary of State Meeting with Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President (August 5, 2014)

On August 4, Secretary of State John Kerry met with DRC President Joseph Kabila to stress the urgency of lifting the suspension on the issuance of exit permits for Congolese adopted children. Secretary Kerry strongly emphasized our humanitarian concern for the children and families affected by the suspension, and urged that children whose adoptions were completed in Congolese courts should be allowed to obtain exit permits and join their adoptive families in the United States.

President Kabila did not provide any new information during the meeting regarding the DRC government’s policy to not review cases during the suspension. President Kabila stated that the DRC adoption process has involved many inconsistencies in case processing and needs to be reformed.

The Department of State deeply regrets that families continue to face an indefinite wait for exit permits. We will continue to stress to the DRC government our concern for Congolese adopted children who are not able to obtain exit permits and stress our commitment to addressing the Congolese concerns about intercountry adoptions. Our offers to provide technical expertise, and to bring a delegation of Congolese officials to the United States, remain on the table and will continue to be reiterated at every opportunity.

Please direct questions related to this alert or a specific adoption from the DRC to the Department of State, Office of Children’s Issues at 1-888-407-4747 within the United States, or 202-501-4444 from outside the United States. Email inquiries may be directed to ExitPermitSuspensionDRC@state.gov.

Alert: Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Announces End to Exit Permit Exceptions Until New Law is Promulgated (July 11, 2014)

On July 10, Ambassador James Swan met with Director General Beya of the Congolese General Direction of Migration (DGM) to seek clarification on the DGM’s decision to no longer issue exit permits to any adopted Congolese children until a new adoption law is promulgated. DGM Beya stated that his office will not accept any cases for consideration in the interim, even those involving children with medical conditions or those cases that met the DGM’s October 2013 exception criteria.

During the meeting, the DGM stressed that it considers no intercountry adoptions from the DRC to be completely free of fraud. The DGM said it believes all the bordereaux letters it recently reviewed to be falsified or back-dated and therefore invalid for purposes of seeking an exit permit.

Over the July 4 weekend, the Second Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden, raised the exit permit suspension and all the pending cases with Congolese parliamentarians and the Minister of Gender and Family, all of whom emphasized their concerns about problems in the adoption process. The parliamentarians further cautioned that they consider many Congolese judges to be corrupt and that few government officials have confidence in completed adoptions.

The Department of State deeply regrets that families are once again forced to wait indefinitely for exit permits. On July 3, the DGM accepted eight medical cases from the U.S. Embassy for humanitarian consideration. In the July 10 meeting, the DGM stated that it will not consider exit permits for any of these eight medical cases. To date, the DGM issued exit permits for four children whose cases were submitted to the DGM prior to July 3. At the July 3 meeting, the DGM refused to accept 29 grandfathered cases received from adoptive families in response to our June 13 Adoption Alert.

The Department of State will continue to engage the DRC government on ways we can address its concerns about intercountry adoptions. Our offers to provide technical expertise, and to bring a delegation of Congolese officials to the United States, remain on the table and will be reiterated at every opportunity. We will also continue to strongly emphasize our message that all children whose adoptions were completed in Congolese courts should be allowed to obtain exit permits and join their adoptive families in the United States.

Please direct questions related to this alert or a specific adoption from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Department of State, Office of Children’s Issues at 1-888-407-4747 within the United States, or 202-501-4444 from outside the United States. Email inquiries may be directed to ExitPermitSuspensionDRC@state.gov.

Alert: Direction Générale de Migration to Review Grandfathered Cases (June 13, 2014)

In a June 6th meeting, the Congolese Direction Générale de Migration (DGM) informed the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa that the DGM would be willing to conduct a review of the documents for the children whose cases appear to meet the DGM’s exception criteria (outlined in the Department of State’s October 23, 2013 Adoption Alert) and would consider issuing exit permits in these cases.

The DGM did not provide a timeframe for the completion of the review nor did it guarantee that the children will receive exit permits.

Furthermore, the DGM only agreed to review cases provided by the U.S. Embassy only once, and we have no reason to expect that the DGM would consider reviewing cases submitted at a later date.

We ask that adoptive families whose cases met the DGM’s exception criteria or their local representative hand-deliver the documents listed below to the U.S. Embassy. Documents will be accepted Monday through Thursday between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. The U.S. Embassy will deliver cases with complete documentation the DGM for review. To ensure that the DGM reviews the cases as quickly as possible, the U.S. Embassy must receive all documents no later than June 25, 2014.

Each case packet should include, in order and in hard copy:

Original bordereaux letter, issued prior to September 25, 2013;

Copy of child’s passport;

Three (3) passport photos of the child;

Child’s Congolese birth certificate;

Original birth certificate jugement;

Original Acte d’Adoption and Certificate of Non-Appeal;

Original Jugement d’Adoption;

Original PV Tutelage Report (Proces-Verbal de Constat d'Abandon d'un Enfant), if child was abandoned;

Local Guardian Council letter proving the child is a Ward of the State, if applicable;

Original consent (autorisation parentale) from a birth parent or guardian, if the child was relinquished;

Original death certificate(s) for birth parent(s), if applicable;

Original Social Services determination that the relinquishing birth parent does not have the means to care for the child (Attestation d’Indigence), if applicable;

Original consent from commune’s Social Services, if applicable;

Copies of all other original documents;

French translations of any documents written in English or another language;

New, original 2013 Form I-864 affidavit of support;

Copies of the adoptive parents’ 2012 tax return(s);

Copy of homestudy;

Medical report from U.S. Embassy’s panel physician / authorized clinics;

Notarized, original Form DS-1981 vaccination waiver, if applicable;

Copies of adoptive parents’ passports;

Two (2) passport photos for each adoptive parent;

Adoptive parents’ marriage certificate, if applicable;

Police report from the adoptive parents’ place of residence; and

Pictures of the adopted child from time of referral to present, if available.

Alert: Request for information about medically critical cases pending in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (June 9, 2014)'

The Department of State continues to engage the Direction Générale de Migration (DGM) concerning the issuance of exit permits for adopted children affected by the DRC's exit permit suspension. The DGM has been willing to consider cases of adoptive children facing serious medical conditions that cannot be treated in the DRC. To aid in this effort, the Department of State seeks information from adoptive families regarding the number of children that are subject to the exit permit suspension with serious medical conditions that cannot be treated in the DRC. To date, the DGM has granted one exit permit to an adoptive child with a life threatening medical issue.

We ask that adoption service providers (ASPs) send information concerning children waiting on exit permits with serious medical conditions that cannot be treated in the DRC to ExitPermitSuspensionDRC@state.gov.

Note: If you are an adoptive parent not working through an ASP, please send the following information to ExitPermitSuspensionDRC@state.gov:

1. Your name and email address
2. Your child’s name, date and place of birth, DRC passport number, current location (i.e. which orphanage or foster home they reside in)
3. A description of your child’s medical condition and current treatment of that condition, if available in DRC. (No medical documentation should be sent at this time.)
4. Date of your final adoption decree
5. Date of bordereaux letter, if applicable
6. Whether your child’s U.S. immigrant visa has been issued

The deadline for submitting information to the Department of State is June 17, 2014.