Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Great News! - No Extended Travel Rquirement

NOTE:  WHILE THE CONTENTS BELOW ARE MOSTLY TRUE, THE AGENCIES WILL NOT RELEASE THEIR OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS UNTIL THEY HEAR FROM THE FAMILY COURT.  THE COURT IS EXPECTED TO RELEASE A FORMAL WRITTEN ANNOUNCEMENT IN A FEW DAYS.  I WILL RELAY THAT TO THE READERS WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE.

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Just received a great news from Korea today!

There will be no extended travel requirement for families according to the Family Court judges. In fact most of you will not have to show up at the Family Court.  This is truly an answered prayer.

The three agencies in Korea have heard from a judge in the Family Court, and the court has cancelled the appointments for several families that were to appear before the court in April, and decided to go ahead and approve their adoptions. 

This is how the process will work:

1. The court will review all the adoption documents of a family that wish to adopt a child from Korea.  Before that the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) would approve the family and issue an EP, and all the documents will be forwarded to the Family Court to get reviewed and a judge will conditionally approve the family.  In the past years the MOHW was the final approving authority.  Under the new adoption law the final approvals will come from the Family Court.

2. A social worker appointed by the Family Court will arrange an interview with baby's birthmother to make sure that she is sure of her decision to give up the baby.

3. Once it is determined that the birthmother does not wish to keep the baby, the 14-day clock starts ticking.  Like I mentioned, this is to give the birthmother the time to reconsider her decision.  In most cases, the birthmothers will not want their babies back.  So in a sense they are given two chances at their babies.  They will be given 7 days to change their minds right after the birth.  And they will be given one more chance just before the babies are adopted. In truth they have the power to take back their children anytime after the birth to the time of adoption.

4. After the 14-day reconsideration period is over, and the baby is still available, a judge issues the final adoption order, allowing the adoptive family to take their child home. 

5. The agency will contact the adoptive family to travel to Korea to pick up their child right after the 14-day period is over.

So a typical family should expect to stay in Korea no more than a week.  This is a huge burden lifted for most families that are not able to travel for 3-4 weeks.

During that time in Korea, most of the families will not be required to appear before the judges.  I say 'most of the families' because the court reserves the right to summon any family they choose to interview. 

However, there still remains the question of adoption finalization and the type of visas issued. One may question whether the adoption order issued by the Korean judges are really the finalization of the adoption process.  If so, is it possible to finalize the adoption without seeing the parents in the court? Is this in accordance with the Hague Convention?

Since most of the parents will not be required to appear before the judges (based on today's news from Korea), this could mean that the adoptions are not finalized and the children won't be finalized until they are admitted to the destination countries.  In the US, an adoption is typically finalized at an American court six months after the child has arrived.  This is the old method of adoption finalization, and this would mean that the children will be issued IR-4 visas. 

On the other hand, the IR-3 visa is for the parents have met the children.  If the parents were all required to appear before the judges in Korea, then they would be issued IR-3 visas.  But since the judges won't meet most of the parents this could mean IR-4 visas instead.

The agencies are not clear on how this will work, but I am sure it will all be ironed out as time goes by. This is a lot less headache to figure out than what all of you were facing before. 

We can thank God for answering all of our prayers.


33 comments:

  1. Steve, what happens to families who have a child whose birth mom cannot be found in order to give her the 14 day reconsideration period? will the baby be allowed to be internationally adopted? In some cases, I am guessing the mom may have moved residences or made it impossible for her to be found.

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    1. I don't really have a clear answer, but the fact that she was given the 7 day consideration period after the birth and she signed the termination of parental rights might be enough. The 14-day period might be enforced whether the birthmother is found or not.

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  2. We appreciate your tireless efforts to advocate for all adoptive parents and especially for Korean children! Whereas I am happy for many families who won't have to travel due to their financial situations or time away from home, this wasn't really an issue ever for us. What we find most disheartening is that the court is interviewing a mother who made a difficult and I'm sure heart wrenching decision at least a year up to 2 years ago (way prior to this law was put into affect). Now not only are they going to have her relinquish again (after she already did initially), but are asking for her to go to court, get interviewed (BTW, what is happening in these interviews?) Are they being coerced or pressured into parenting if they cannot do so? That is wrong on many levels. Then they give a 14 day re-consideration period also. And yes for all the people who will comment (we always knew BM could come back at any time; what we didn't think would happen would be that she would be revisiting the most difficult or one of the most difficult decisions of her life over and over and over again. My questions are: What is happening in these interviews? Are counselors there to help this mother? Is an agency Representative with her? Will every single BM that relinquished under the "old" law have to for sure go to this step? For example: say she did not relinquish until after 2 or 3 weeks after birth?

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    1. Birthmother has every right to take her child back. We should honor that. However, I don't think there will be very few. If she does take the child back the agencies will reassign you with another shortly. As for the interviews, I think the interview will not be a coercive type. It is done just to make sure. Only a court appointed social worker will most likely interview.

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    2. I understand that is the case in Korea. In most countries (US in particular) after relinquishment, there is termination of parental rights. I am sure you can understand the emotional stress this places on everyone in the adoption triad. I know many families have even met their child in Korea with agency approval. This is a heartbreaking scenario for those families.
      And what happens if they do reassign a new child for adoption to you but your family is aged out of system during that time frame?

      It seems that in Korea it is more of a voluntary placement like in foster care in U.S. Why aren't U.S and Korean agencies being forthcoming with this as the case?

      What if BM comes back and asks to see child before or if she decides to parent the child? Will this happen? Has it happened? What will court do? Will foster families come in with child?

      Do you know if this is how the process will be going forward as well? Or cases after Aug 5, 2012 are they relinquishing on the form the courts wants right away or will they also be going back after 14-20 months (right before adoption court process) to relinquish? This will dramatically affect this program going forward (which I guess is what the government wants ultimately anyhow).

      How about repercussions after this BM parents for a bit after coming back and decides it isn't for her? It is too tough emotionally, spiritually, and financially? Where will this child go then?

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  3. This is great news. My question is: Do you think they will speed the process up? If they are intending on contacting the bm again (and they decide to parent)...it would be tragic to wait 18 months for a specific child and then not be able to take the child home. It would be more fair to speed the process up if they are planning on interviewing the bm. Any thoughts on the speed of the process?

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    1. No I don't think the process will be noticeably faster. Maybe just a few weeks.

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  4. Hi Steve: This is great news. Thank you and your team for keeping us up to date. Yes indeed, this is an answered to prayer. Praise the Lord! You said "The three agencies in Korea have heard from a judge in the Family Court, and the court has cancelled the appointments for several families that were to appear before the court in April, and decided to go ahead and approve their adoptions." Does this means that these children papers are out of the court and are on the way to the US Embassy in Seoul to apply for visas?

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  5. I am so relieved to hear that we will not have to travel to Korea for a month. I do believe that our prayers have been answered. Perhaps, you can hep me with a few things. I still do not understand why the bm isn't contacted earlier in the process? Why wait until adoptive parents are conditionally approved? How can we possibly prepare for a child this way?

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    1. Like I mentioned in a previous blog, the Korean law requires 14 days of reconsideration on any ruling, not just on adoption. Both parties involved in the rulings are given their chance to speak before the final ruling is made.

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  6. Wonderful news! Praise the Lord! Thank you, Steve, for your tireless work and dedication. You are appreciated.

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  7. Thank you SO much Steve, you are an angel :-)

    One singel questien: do you know however the judges/ court think about that every singel week they delay the final adoption, "our" children will be suffering al lot more, becaurce they are getting that older before they leave their foster familys? Did they realize that most of us nearly have waitet already for a year ore more?

    I will continue praying that they will speed up the final procces. It will bee a disaster if any adopting parents dont cant stand the waiting anymore. (we have suffered all too long now).

    I know that you know it Steve, but I hope that the judges also think of that.

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  8. Steve you are wonderful....God Bless You....if a family has a court date already set in South Korea, is that date still the date to appear or could that change as well?

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    1. It depends on a family. The news is that the families with the court dates have been cancelled, but there will be families that would have to appear before the judges. But they (agencies) don't expect that many.

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  9. What an answer to prayer! Woo hoo!

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  10. Thank you Steve for continuing to provide information.

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  11. Besides the contacting the BM, will the bio father also be contacted by the court appointed social worker?

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    1. They will most likely try, but it has been known that birthfathers are hard to find and locate. So they usually ignore birthfather side and mainly work with birthmothers.

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  12. Wow, great news. Thanks so much Steve!

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  13. Do you have any idea as to what may cause the judges to require a family to appear in court?

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    1. I honestly don't know. My guess would be if the parents had some questionable history such as being arrested for something in the past, or something in the application that the juges may have additional question...your guess is as good as mine.

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  14. Any new news on when EPs might start being processed again...this is getting very very difficult for our family.

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    1. I can`t agree more, it is a living nightmare, I am not sure that our family can stand not to get any kind of information - we havent heard from any news about anything in serveral mounth. I can`t stand it anymore - PLEASE let us have our babys NOW....

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    2. I hear your pain and I hear your hearts. I am shouting the same thing to Korea.

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    4. Thank you Steve. Are you hopeful that they will at least get moving soon? Are they going to start with the 2013 EPs soon?

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  15. Hi Steve:

    Although the court appearance requirement has been cancelled, but we heard that they have not approved the documents of the 1st group of children who are going through this process. Any ideas what is the reason for such delay and how much longer before the court approval?

    Thanks.

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  16. I hope the Korean government will get processing cases soon! It has been 8 months with no movement. These kids are in limbo. Foster families are being tied up caring for children that should be already in their forever homes. This means agencies are turning away children and can't be put up for adoption if needed. It is a vicious spiral downward. So sad for all involved. God please have mercy. Give the officials wisdom and grant them the power to help these children soon.

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    1. We all like to see the family court to move things quicker. I'm thankful that they cancelled the court appearance requirement for the adoptive parents. Grateful to Steve and his team for advocating for the children and families.
      Not to add discouragement to the situation, I heard that the 1st group of family who submitted their paper to the family court in early January of this year are still waiting for the court to approve their papers. The agencies are not saying when the papers might get approve. Also, they might have to wait another 14 days after the court approval before the agencies can apply for the US visas.
      Proverbs 21:1 says: "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will." I believe that God is in control of all events. This long waiting has been teaching me patience and to trust Him.

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    2. Thank you for the words of wisdom. On the other topic of family court and other updates, I will post another blog on this.

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  17. Thank you Steve. I had sent you an email regarding the quotas, and I appreciate that you share the answer through the blog.
    'Bonne chance' to all the waiting families!

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