Bolivia Adoption Alert

Bolivian children playing tarka.
Source: Wikipedia.org.

NOTICE: Procedural Barriers to Hague Adoptions (as of April 26, 2013)

The Office of Children’s Issues and the U.S. Embassy in La Paz have received numerous inquiries from prospective adoptive parents interested in adopting children from Bolivia.

Bolivia is a Party to the Hague Adoption Convention. Therefore, in order to adopt a Bolivian child, prospective adoptive parents are required to work with a Hague- accredited U.S. adoption service provider (ASP) who is also authorized by the Ministry of Justice, which is the Bolivian Central Authority, to facilitate adoptions of Bolivian children. However, Bolivia has not authorized any U.S. Hague-accredited ASPs to process adoptions of Bolivian children. As a result, the intercountry adoption of children from Bolivia to the United States is not possible at this time. Although the U.S. Embassy will continue to engage with the Bolivian government on this issue, we cannot estimate when the Bolivian government will authorize a U.S. ASP to facilitate Bolivian adoptions.

The foregoing does not affect the ability of an adoptive parent who is habitually resident outside of the United States to file a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, for an adopted child from Bolivia with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). To be considered habitually resident outside of the United States, the adoptive parent must complete two years of legal custody and shared residency in Bolivia with the child.

USCIS determines whether a child meets the definition of an “adopted child”, and qualifies for immigration on a case-by-case basis. For more information about Form I-130, please visit the USCIS Form I-130 processing page.

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