[anilorak]

I would just like to know how to find out the status of El Salvador's international adoption policies. Last time I checked, sometime last year, they were not allowing Americans to adopt.

Could someone tell me if this is still true? Also, where would be the best place online to go to check the current status of such policies?

Thanks so much!
anilorak

[nannyisme2004]

I am no expert, but here's what I have heard.

Nothing is moving in El Salvador for Americans wanting to adopt. I was in a program for 18 months in 2002-2004. I have been home with my daughter from Guatemala for three months now. I asked my agency last week for an update regarding El Salvador. She told me that not much has changed. The person in charge of declaring the children legally free for adoption and then releasing them to OPA (who assigns them to families) is not declaring any children legally free and so no children can be assigned to families. It is very sad.

I was in an El Salvador program with some 25 other families. This was just after El Salvador had re-opened adoptions to Americans. Early 2002. And actually it was El Salvador that went to my agency and asked them to do adoptions in El Salvador. Two families finally came home with their children praise God. And one family is still waiting to be assigned a child. All other families including me entered other programs. It is very sad.

So technically it is still open as far as I know. But who knows how long that third family will have to wait after waiting some 2.5 years already.

But the entire 18 months I was in the program the El Salvadoran Government kept telling us repeatedly that the next set of children declared legally free were going to go to us and it just never happened. Except for the two families that were determined to wait it out.

I don't know if there really is a place to get good information on adoptions from El Salvador. Most of the El Salvadoran children adopted before 2002 were being adopted by families in Spain.

Laurie F.

[anilorak]

thanks for the info, as sad as it may be. At this point I don't know which choice we'd have to ultimately make: wait it out or go elsewhere. Thanks again.
anilorak

[JohnnaMJH]

Hi there, everything the above poster said is true, unfortunately. Our agency started a program with the hopes, given to the by the Atty and gov't in ES, that things would go smoothly there and adoptions would take 6-8 months. They had four families sign up and finally three are done, but they took 18mos to 2 1/2 years. These were private relinquishments vs. assignments made by the OPA. Never once did any agency in ES follow the rules and laws in place for adoptions.

I am glad that my son is home, but the ordeal was very trying for our family and we are still recovering. I would not recommend adoption in ES to anyone even though I loved the country (outside of the beauracracy) and love my son.

Good luck,
Johnna
Mom to Manuel, 3
Date of referral - 11/02
Home forever - 10/15/04

[hollyskel]

Hello,

I noticed that the El Salvador program is "New" on the Los Ninos website. My husband and I will be contacting them for more details.

Best regards,

Holly

[Georgiaann73]

My agency is currently handling adoptions in El Salvador. PM me if you want their information.