[AnaM-H]

Do anyone have any information, help, etc about adoption of Mongolian children? Pm me or post here.

Thanks

[sak9645]

As you are probably aware, there are two Mongolias.

Outer Mongolia, now called Mongolia, is an independent country. I presume that you are talking about adopting from this country.

However, there is also Inner Mongolia or Ne Monggu, which is called an "Autonomous Region" and which is under Chinese rule. Some families adopting from China have gotten referrals from Inner Mongolia.

In terms of Mongolia, be VERY careful if you try to adopt from there. The U.S. State Department has warned families that many of the children in Mongolian orphanages do NOT have paperwork showing clearly that they qualify for an adoption visa to enter the U.S., under the terms of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.

If you were to adopt a Mongolian child who does not qualify for an adoption visa, the only way you would be able to bring him/her to the U.S. would be to live overseas with him/her for two years and then apply for a regular dependent visa for him. Since you probably cannot leave your home and family for two years, you would have to disrupt your adoption and return the child to the orphanage.

There is only one agency that I would wholeheartedly recommend for a Mongolian adoption at this time, and I will send you the agency name as a PM. Basically, it has been doing international adoption for over 50 years, and has been working in Mongolia for several years. It is a cautious and conservative agency that knows U.S. immigration law well.

There is one other agency that I might consider, which is a member of the Joint Council on International Children's Services. However, I do not have any information about the success of its Mongolia program.

I would be very cautious about all other agencies and facilitators claiming to conduct adoptions from Mongolia. If you are interested in one of them, take some of the following steps.

1. Contact the licensing authority in the state where it is located. Determine whether it is in good standing, and whether it has had a lot of substantive complaints against it. Also connect the Better Business Bureau in the state for the same reason.

2. Find out how long the agency has been doing international adoption, in general, and adoption from Mongolia, in particular. Experience counts in international adoption.

3. Find out how many Mongolian adoptions the agency has done successfully. Again, experience counts.

4. Ask the agency whether any families adopted Mongolian children but got denied adoption visas for them. Then contact the U.S. Embassy in Ulaan Bataar and ask whether families using the agency had any problems getting adoption visas for their children.

5. Ask the agency for a list of references specific to its Mongolia program, contact each person on the reference list, and ask a lot of questions. Also, be aware that the references probably are from the agency's most satisfied clients. Go to your local adoption support group and out on line to see if you can find other families that have used the agency for Mongolian adoptions.

6. See if the agency is a member in good standing of the Joint Council on International Children's Services, the leading advocacy organization for ethical conduct in international adoption, which helps educate adoption professionals. (You can find a membership list at JCICS2.) Also see if the agency is a member of other reputable adoption advocacy organizations, such as the National Council for Adoption, the Child Welfare League of America, the North American Conference on Adoptable Children, etc. Involvement in professional organizations of this sort usually suggests some degree of commitment to sound professional practices.

Sharon

[intladoptionblog]

Here's the State Department link to info on adoptions from Mongolia:

Intercountry Adoption Mongolia

Looks like a no-go at the moment for Americans.

[Vail]

We adopted a little girl from Mongolia (the country). She's wonderful!! There is only 3 USA agencies that can legally do adoptions. Our website (I know it's rough we're still working on it) is: Mongolian Adoption

We have the agencies listed there.

[sak9645]

Intladoptionblog, the State Department does not forbid Americans from trying to adopt from Mongolia. It simply says that there is a high risk, since many of the children don't meet the requirements of U.S. immigration law. So a person CAN adopt from Mongolia, and CAN immigrate the child to the U.S. if he/she uses an agency that is very careful to place only Mongolian children that meet the requirements. This is NOT the sort of situation that applies with regard to Cambodia, where the U.S. government has declared the country closed to American citizens because of ongoing concerns about corruption in that country's adoption system.

There are two main reasons for a child not meeting the requirements for a visa. One would be if the child actually did not qualify as an eligible orphan under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act -- for example, because the child was directly adopted from married parents. Under U.S. law, an adopted child can immigrate to the U.S. ONLY if he/she:

a) Has been living with a single parent, who cannot support the child at a level considered normal in the foreign country.

b) Has been abandoned, with no known family, and has been living in an orphanage or foster home.

c) Has experienced the death of both parents and is living in a foster home or orphanage, or is living with local people who do not plan to adopt him/her; death certificates must be available.

d) Has been permanently removed from the birthparents by a lawful authority in the child's country, for reasons such as abuse or neglect, and is living in an orphanage or foster home with no contact with the biological family.

e) Has been officially relinquished by the birthparents, under the laws of the child's country, and is living in an orphanage or foster home with no contact with the birth family. The USCIS will look with suspicion on a situation where the child has been placed in the orphanage very recently, as this can suggest that the child was put there temporarily by the birthparents simply to evade U.S. law so that a U.S. citizen can adopt.

The other reason would be if the child did not have authoritative paperwork showing that he/she was eligible under the U.S. Immigration Act. Even if he/she actually qualified for a visa, there would have to be proof of such things as the death of a parent, the parents' divorce, the child's age as under 16, etc. (You cannot get an adoption visa if a child has reached his/her 16th birthday at the time the I-600 is filed, unless you have already adopted his/her bio sibling; then, he/she is eligible until his/her 18th birthday.)

If a child does not qualify for an adoption visa, the adoptive family is still legally and morally obligated to provide for his/her care if a decree of adoption has been issued. A family would have to live overseas with him/her for two years, and then apply for a regular visa for him/her. Most families simply cannot do these things, and wind up having to dissolve the adoption and return the child to the orphanage, foster home, or birthparent.

Vail, I know you mentioned three agencies doing Mongolian adoptions, and I read the names of the agencies you listed on your website. I am familiar with them, and mentioned two of them to AnaM-H.

You should know that there's also a fourth American adoption agency that is actively promoting Mongolian adoptions to families. It claims to be able to do them, though I do not have any statistics on how many have been done, what visa problems might have occurred, etc. It may be perfectly legitimate, though I would be cautious. I can PM you the name of the agency if you want to do some research.

Parents should ALWAYS check out agencies claiming to do Mongolian adoption with extra care, and should probably stick with only the oldest, most experienced, and most conservative. The riskier the country, the more important it is to do homework thoroughly. I mentioned some of the things a family should do in a previous post.

Sharon

[BrandyHagz]

I've deleted a couple of posts from this thread - please remember that the discussion of agencies by name on this forum is not allowed.

You are welcome to PM your recommendations or warnings to anyone who is seeking feedback!

[Kerith]

I've been looking at Mongolia lately, so I have some basic info I can share.

Mongolia will only deal with 3 agencies per country, so there are only 3 US agencies that can deal directly with the Mongolian adoption authorities. The Mongolians are fairly rigid about this, and are not open to dealing with other agencies. I think someone else has a link posted to find out who the 3 approved agencies are. I'm told one of the three tends to specialize in older child adoptions.

The Mongolian rules don't seem all that restrictive, but one of the 3 approved agencies told me this morning that they are tightening up and are inclined to reject families that they have been approving up till now. The agency I spoke with recommends that parents be between 35-49 years. There should not be more than 10 years age difference between husband and wife. You should have income of at least $35,000. You should have been married at least 5 years, unless you have been married before in which case they will want to see more years in your current marriage. The agency I spoke with said they might be able to work with families that don't meet one of these requirements, but they will not recommend Mongolian adoption to families that don't meet 2 or more of these guidlines.

Hope this helps.

Kerith

[twoinblue]

Our agency closed it's Mongolia program about a year ago due to repeated problems dealing with the government. The letter stated that the risks and the costs were starting to get unreasonable for the adoptive families. They allowed people to switch to different countries.

I think it's cool that some people have had successful adoptions from Mongolia. Maybe it will change things in the future.

[Mongoose]

Hi,

I've been researching Mongolia myself and found pretty much what everybody else has but so far I haven't found any information on adoption from Mongolia as a Canadian, though, which would really be of more use to me. If you see anything about it in your search, please let me know!