[k8c]

From the FRUA boards (hope they won't mind...):

"Are you aware that there is more than one data bank? There is a regional data bank specific to the region you are adopting from, and there is a federal data bank for all of Russia. These data banks are not necessarily connected to each other, and they may have different rules about how they operate. In some cases, a region will enter a child on the regional data bank, and then enter the child on the federal data bank only after no family is found locally over a period of time (months). In other cases, the child may be entered on both data banks simultaneously and the required search times pass concurrently. Either way, a minimum period of time must pass on each data bank before foreign adoption is permitted. John Maclean's Russian Adoption Handbook describes all of this in a fair amount of detail, but the timeframes he lists are older (pre-2005) and thus too short.

Looking through our daughter's paperwork, it appears that we had to receive a letter from the local Department of Education (DoE) attesting that she was listed on the regional data bank for a certain period of time, as well as a letter from the federal Ministry of Education and Science (MoE) that indicated she was listed on the federal data bank for a qualifying period of time. We were caught in the 2004 federal release letter mess, so that was our primary concern at the time and why I learned all of this about the data banks.

(deleted information relevant to o-op for re-posting)

Additionally, the data base on the usynovite.ru site is probably only a partial reflection of the federal data bank (and not the data bank itself). So, while finding a child in that data base probably confirms that a child was listed at the federal level at some point, it tells you nothing about when that listing was made. Also, as Mom attested above, failing to find a child in that data base apparently is not proof that a child was never listed on the federal data bank. And either result likely says nothing at all about the child's status on the local (regional) data bank. "

and:

"Just want to summarize what (deleted for re-post) and I are saying (I think), there is the big federal databank and the internet database.

The database is not, apparently, directly linked to the databank. For legal purposes, the databank rules. The database, the one we can see, was part of a move to get more Russians to adopt. It is sporadically updated and maintained. On the other hand, the databank-- the one we cannot see -- is the structure that has the final say on when a child is eligible for foreign adoption and from whom we await release letters."

I found these explanations helpful. Hope someone else does, too!

Kate