Korea Update - on EP under New Adoption Laws

Thanks to all of you for patiently waiting for my updated report from Korea regarding the EP situation and the effect of the new adoption laws in the intercountry adoption process. 

Many of you have emailed me or responded to the previous blogs with questions on wanting to know what the latest development is.  I'm sorry that I got delayed in answering your requests.  For the month of September, there were MPAK and my work related travels every single week.  For instance, for the past two weeks I was in Denver for my work-related travels.

So here is the update.
Based on my interviews with two different sources in Korea, I found out that the intercountry adoption process is going very slow, but for a legitimate reason (of course there is really never a right and legitimate reason to delay a process of uniting a child with parents). 

As I have mentioned on my previous blog where I said that this year Korea has already expedited 90% of the quota level (number of children allowed to leave Korea in a year) before August, at which time the new adoption laws kicked in.  I also mentioned that this was done to expedite all the children that need to go home, and the remaining 10% cases (from Aug – Dec, or 5 remaining months) would be processed under the new adoption laws to serve as a learn-as-you-go type of processes for the agencies, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), and the Family Court that will be the final place of approving authority.

Unfortunately the learn-as-you-go process for the remaining 10% has been going very slowly, and this has not only affected intercountry adoption but also the domestic adoption process as well. To date, there have not been any new EPs issued for intercountry adoption, and in the case of domestic adoption, there have only been one approval by the Family Court to date.  So whether inter country or domestic, the process is going very slowly for the remaining cases.  For those of you waiting overseas, rest assured that the delays in your cases are temporary as Korea tries to find a right process not only for intercountry, but domestic adoption as well.

One of the reasons for the delay is that all the agencies, MOHW, and the Family Court need to have the new processes and all the appropriate paper works that are understood and accepted by all parties.  So working on the new processes and creating new forms of documentation is taking a lot of time.  Undoubtly there are many reviews, rejections, reworks and revisions that are being made, but this is a natural pain in the new process that cannot be avoided.  

Another reason for the delay is that MOHW is undergoing their annual audit conducted by the government, and this has stalled all the work related to adoption.  I am told that this should be over by next week.  Also, I am also told that additional EP requests have been made to MOHW under the new laws, and once these are approved, the agencies would hand the cases over to the Family Court for the final approvals. 

I don’t know how long it would take for the Family Court to approve the intercountry cases, but I was told that in the one domestic adoption case just approved, the Family Court took one month to process it.  I predict that it will be a bit longer for intercountry adoption.  But I also believe that once they go through a number of these, I think it will set the rhythm for the remaining processes and should become quicker as they get ready to process the new quotas waiting in the year 2013.

I plan to visit Korea in three weeks to attend MPAK’s national conference to promote domestic adoption, and while there I will try to make another updates to the blog to inform the latest happenings.  Please stay tuned, and thanks for your patience.

Steve Morrison

911 Remembered - A Visit to the Ground Zero

Who can forget the September 11, 2001?
The day that is forever etched in our memory. 

I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard the terrible news on that day.  I was on my way to work, stuck in a traffic on 105 Freeway going west, just passing the 710 Freeway underneath when I first heard the news on the radio. 

Before the Summer was over, I took my family to an 11-day vacation to visit Philadelphia, Washington DC, Gettysburg, Niagra Falls, Boston, and New York.  I called it "Discover America Heritage Trip" to teach my five kids the birth place of the US, hoping that visiting all the historic places would give them better perspective as they learn about the US history in their schools.

So one place we stopped by (only three weeks ago) was the 911 Memorial Site in the heart of New York City.  Of all the places to visit, this place drew our hearts like a magnet.  Partly to actually see the Ground Zero that we have heard so much about over the years, but more importantly to pay respect and remember nearly 3000 lives lost, and to honor the fallen NYFD firefighter heroes. 

There were people taking pictures, children running around, constructions going and some puting hands on the inscribed names of those perished to reflect, and to try to make some sense out of what happened.  Amidst the heavy city traffic and noises of the building constructions taking place all around, the 911 Memorial Site was very quite and somber and peaceful.  In that stillness and quietness, the memorial seemed to cry out for peace, and it was clearly louder than the noisy clutters of the city and the voices of people that surrounded it. 

911 - May We Never Forget.

Benjamin (in black) reflecting on the 911 Memorial

Reflecting Pool with the names of people perished inscribed around the perimeter.

My kids (not the woman with the bag) observe the reflecting pool, my wife on the right with a red backpack.

One of the new World Trade Center going up.

The ground at the 911 Memorial Site

Crumbled aluminum sheet from the building.

Yes, May We Never Forget - A Memorial to NYFD

343 NYFD Firefighers that have perished in their services - You are our Heroes!

My wife Jody and I at the 911 Memorial visit on August 24, 2012.

EP Status in Light of the New Adoption Laws

Many of you have asked me for an update on the impact of the new adoption laws that took effect in Korea as of August 2012, and on the issue of  adoption and the Emmigration Permit (EP) the Korean government issues allowing children to go home abroad.  So here is what I got so far.

It is well into August 2012 (August 14th as I write this), and the the new adoption law is trying to find its way into the unfamiliar territory and establish itself as the new order.  In checking with Korea, I have been told that by August 5th, the 90% of the quotas for the year 2012 has been fulfilled and the EPs have already been issued under the old laws.  Despite the slow start at the beginning of the year 2012 with issuing the EPs, both the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and the adoption agencies have been working very hard to place as many children as possible this year to fulfill the quota under the old laws, and the remaining 10% of the EPs will be issued under the new laws. 

This is to accommodate the learning curves that the Family Court will face as they try to implement the new laws in a practical way without delaying or holding up the children that need to go home.  The Korean government has wisely decided to place as many children as possible within the designated quota limit set this year under the old laws but set aside the remaining 10% cases as a way to learn the new ropes for the lawyers, judges, MOHW, and the adoption professionals under the new laws.

So it is hoped that this new experiment will go smoothly and by the end of this year the Family Court, MOHW, and the agencies would have learned enough from processing the remaining 10% cases, that by the time the year 2013 rolls around they will be ready to place the children under the new laws as the process will become more routine.  There is certainly going to be some adjustments along the way, but this expected.

The new laws have not impacted the intercountry adoption that much this year, it is affecting the domestic Korean adoption in a dramatic way.  For instance, it has been a common place for a Korean national couple to adopt a child and the couple would immediately register the child into the family registry as if the child was born to them.  In fact the majority of the domestic adoptive parents have used this approach in adopting their children. The motivation behind this approach was to keep their adoption secret.  As you know this is the main reason why the adoption culture in Korea did not improve for many years until MPAK started to advocate the concept of transparent adoption to bring about positive changes to the Korean adoption culture starting in 1999.  But this is a whole new topic and I won't go into the details.

The new law requires that a child born to an unwed mother now be registered into the mother's family registry first, before being relinquished.  The new law allows the birthmother seven days of consideration period before deciding whether to keep the child or not.  This has resulted in two outcomes in Korea. 

First, there has been a flurry of domestic adoption of babies just before the new laws came into effect.  This is to take advantage of being able to adopt them and register them under the new adoptive parents name as if the children were born to them, thus allowing them to keep their adoptions secret.  Under the new laws this is not possible as the children will be registered first under the birthmothers' family.

Second, there has been an increase in the abandonment by birthmothers as they do not want to register the babies under their names, and want to keep their identities secret, not wanting to be discovered by their parents or friends. So there has been an increase in children being abandoned or in many cases discarded.  So the stories of birthmothers abandoning their babies in a subway stations, or on the streets, or in some cases in trash bins, have surfaced on news media more often recently.  A birthmother committed suicide by jumping off a building with a note that it was too much of burden for her to raise a child.  Also there have been more illicit adoptions where birthmothers give up their babies in a clinic without due process as new adoptive parents whisk the babies away in the dark. 

On the other hand, there have been some good and courageous birthmothers that have decided to keep their babies, and I hope there will be more birthmothers that will choose life.

The intention of the new laws is to bring about greater opportunity for birthmothers to keep their children, and to provide greater chance to be adopted domestically, and to place the children abroad if they cannot find homes domestically within Korea.  This is in keeping with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption.  The new adoption law is aimed in keeping with the Hague Convention as Korea readies to ratify the convention. 

However, the adoption culture in Korea is not ready to meet the new laws head on, and there will be some more pains and adjustments and lost lives before Korea gets into the rhythm intended by the Hague Convention.

 

Francis Chan's Impassioned Plea - for North Korean Children

UPDATE:  The law has just been passed unanimously.  See the article at:
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/adoption-09122012162556.html

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Friends,

Please visit the following link to help the homeless children in North Korea.

This announcement is by Francis Chan, a pastor who really puts himself in the shoes of escaping orphans from North Korea.  Please respond to his impassioned plea by signing your petition at:  http://www.thinkchildren.org/

Or visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh81-ToZfnY



Sign your petition at http://www.thinkchildren.org/  It is very easy for you to sign.
There are currently 52 co-sponsors in the house who have officially signed on to the bill. It has  bipartisan support and support from high ranking democratic and republican members.

Of the estimated 20,000 refugee children, only a small fraction of them are believed to be adoptable (around 1000). This number could of course go up or down depending on how the law changes. On the plus side, there are around 6,000 American families that said they would be willing to adopt a North Korean orphan.

Here is a link to the exact bill text:  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.1464:

Here is a brief background in honor of the late Sam Han-Schneider, himself an adoptee.
In 1961, Dr. Arthur Schneider adopted Sam Han-Schneider by means of a private bill S.1100, which allowed, for the first time, a bachelor to adopt and bring a foreign child to the United States. Sam Han-Schneider is the founder of Han-Schneider International Children's Foundation, which provides for orphans in need around the world today.

The North Korean Refugee Adoption Act, if passed, would allow Americans to adopt refugee orphans who have fled the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to neighboring countries such as Mongolia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. These children are struggling in harsh circumstances, and run the risk of being sent back to DPRK. According to the World Food Program, DPRK faces regular food shortages, and one in three North Korean children under five are chronically malnourished.

Right now, it is extremely difficult to bring refugee children to the United States.  One American family on the east coast is currently working to secure the adoption of two orphaned siblings from DPRK. The adoption process for them could take anywhere from three to 10 years, and approval is not guaranteed. The passage of this Act would reduce the waiting time for families seeking to adopt refugee orphans.

This is not simply an adoption issue, or a Korean American issue. Refugee orphans do not have access to food and clean water, and are vulnerable to human trafficking and deportation. The North Korean Refugee Adoption Act would lessen the burden on parents in the United States who wish to provide a safe and caring home for refugee orphans.

Please vote in favor of the North Korean Refugee Adoption Act (H.R. 1464 and S. 416).

Thank you for your support.

Impact on the EP Process by the New Adoption Laws

I made some calls to Korea the other day to sort out what is going on with the plans by the Korean Government as they get ready to implement the new adoption laws by August 2012, and what this means to the current EP process.  

I made this inquiry based on many comments and questions I have received from my readers.  It was obvious based on all the questions that the biggest concern was on the uncertainties surrounding the implementation of the new adoption laws and what it means to all the waiting families with EPs being submitted and whether there will be another delay like last year or the first three months of this year.

An agency I called informed me that there is definitely a preparation from the Family Court, where they have sent several lawyers to the agencies to familiarize themselves with the processes involved in adoption, and asking lots of questions.  It is a learning process for the Family Court to learn all about the complexities, regulations, and processes involving not only the intercountry adoption but also the domestic adoption as well.  They will now take a big part of the adoption equation.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) will continue to work with the agencies, which will continue to submit the EP applications to the MOHW.  The MOHW will review the EP applications and if they don’t find any objection they will approve the EPs, and these will be sent up to the Family Court for the final approval process. 

Because the Family Court is in the ‘learning process’, MOHW has decided to lighten the loads for the Family Court by accepting three times the normal volume of EPs, and these are in the process of being cleared.  It is hoped that these EPs will be approved by the end of July before the new laws take effect on August.  Once the laws take effect starting in August, all the subsequent EP applications submitted by the agencies to MOHW will go through the usual filtering process to get cleared, and then these will be submitted to the Family Court for the final approval.   

It is estimated that the time for the Family Court to approve the final adoption will take a month or so.  So what does this mean?  It may mean that the adoption process may be delayed by an additional month due to this one extra step, or that the agencies and MOHW may work out more efficient ways to cut down the waiting time, and nobody knows for sure what this will be, but if I had to guess the biggest portion would come from not referring a child so early.

There is another matter under the new laws that the Family Court needs to decide. That is whether to require all future intercountry adopting parents to travel to Korea and show up at the Family Court in Korea to stand before a judge for the final approval before taking their adopted children home.  Another agency I talked with will now require the parents to travel.  Their main reason is that this will provide opportunities for the parents to learn more about the Korean culture, people and customs to better equip them to raise their Korean-born children.  This makes sense and is a good idea, but another agency I talked with is against this as they believe this will cost additional burden on parents to take their time off to go to Korea, and may not be able to do this. I think the best way is to make this a voluntary travel rather than a requirement.

So the conclusion is, as of this writing, is that in looking at the whole matter of adoption transition in Korea, one gets a big picture as to where Korea is headed, but the details of who does what, how to do it, and when to do it, and what information is passed from where to whom, all are still being worked out, and this transition in Korea is still a work in progress.  I will continue to update when new information surfaces.

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NOTE:  IF YOU FEEL THAT MPAK HAS HELPED YOU IN ANY WAY THROUGH THE MANY BLOGS ON EP ISSUES,

PLEASE HELP WITH OUR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN AS THERE WILL BE “CONCERT OF LOVE” EVENT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR MPAK ON JULY 31, 2012 AT THE WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL.

Knowing that most of you won’t be able to make it to the event, you are more than welcome to donate to MPAK.  Please make checks payable to MPAK and send it to:

MPAK
13507 Droxford St.
Cerritos, CA  90703

MPAK is a registered nonprofit 501 c(3) organization where your donations are fully tax deductible.

Thanks for helping MPAK to serve you, and supporting us to be a stronger voice for homeless children in Korea.

Updated Poster for Concert of Love

A slight changes made to the poster design - "The Concert of Love for MPAK - The Melody of Hope", still performing Beethoven's music, with the Chorale performance in Beethoven's 9th. The event is on July 31, 2012 at the famed Disney Concert Hall. The Concert of Love hopes to raise funds for MPAK to be a voice for homeless children in Korea.

 

The Concert of Love for Homeless Children

The Beethoven Melody of Hope

July 31, 2012, 7:30 PM

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles

 

A Night of Beethoven - A Concert of Love for MPAK

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR ALL THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN HELPED BY MPAK SINCE ITS BLOG STARTED A YEAR AGO.

MPAK is happy to announce that the Los Angeles Korean Philharmonic Orchestra (LAKPO) has approached us with a big event to raise funds for MPAK and at the same time promote adoption in the Korean community.

This Concert of Love titled "A Night of Beethoven" will feature a full orchestra and a chorale group that will perform Beethoven's famed 9th Symphony "Chorale" under the direction of the Maestro Im Sang Yoon.  In addition, there will be performances by some renowned soloists that have joined the cause by only taking a fraction of their normal honorariums. The audience of around 1500 people is expected, where a video will be shown during the performance introducing the works of MPAK.

This fundraising event is a night to support the cause of homeless Korean children, and to support children's ambassador MPAK to:

• Raise awareness of the homeless children in Korea
• To promote children's fundamental rights to their own homes
• To help find homes for needy children through adoption

Event: The Concert of Love "A Night of Beethoven"
Featuring: The LA Korean Philharmonic Orchestra
Date:  July 31, 2012 (Tue), 7:30 PM
Place:  Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California

If anyone wishes to donate to this event, you are more than welcome.

Payable to: MPAK, (Mention "Concert of Love" in the check)
Mail to:
MPAK
13507 Droxford St.
Cerritos, CA  90703

MPAK is a registered nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization where your donation is completely tax deductible.

If you feel that you have benefited much from this blog throughout the year, please feel free to join this fundraising event.

If you live locally in Southern California, you are more than welcome to come to the concert as the tickets purchased will help with the fundraising.  Tickets are in three groups:  Section S ($100), Section A ($40, and Section B ($20).

You may request your tickets by emailing me at: mpakusa@gmail.com

Thank you for your support.

Steve Morrison