Sunday, June 2, 2013

Family Court Schedule is Set for June

The initial group of adoptive families have met the judges of the family court on May 31st.  This initial meeting of the adoptive families by the judges is to personally verify the families through the interviews and checking all the paper works.  The judges have taken approximately 20 minutes per family as they processed through one family after another.

The judges usually do not grant the approval on the first meeting (there have been some exceptions), and it will take anywhere from 1 - 3 days for judges to grant approval for adoption.  From this day, the 14-day waiting period begins.  Some couples have chosen to go back to the home country and return once the waiting period was over, and some have opted to stay in Korea the whole time.

In addition to the May 31st group, there are other groups scheduled for 6/4, 6/14, 6/19, and 6/28. I understand that all the groups that are being processed in June are the remaining EPs from the year 2012.  It is expected that by the end of June all the EPs from 2012 will be processed by the family court, and the last expected date for families to pick up their children would be around July 15th after the waiting period ends.

It does begin to look like the family court is slowly getting used to the process. The only challenge is how the four judges can process the quota of 743 set for the year 2013.  I expect that some of the EPs from 2013 may flow over to the year 2014, but I'm hopeful just a few will overflow if it does.

There is still some chances that the judges may not summon some of the families, thus the children will be issued IR-4 visas.  The Child Citizenship Act (CCA) of 2000 allows children that have been adopted through IR-4 visas would get automatic citizenship once finalized in the US, which normally takes around six months.  In this way, there is no issue of any adoptees will be deported in the future. Since the CCA of 2000, all the adoption agencies in the US report that every single one of their children processed have gone through adoption finalization, thus no concern for any deportation in the future is expected.

6 comments:

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  2. Thanks for this update, Steve. Very informative.
    When you say "by the end of June all the EPs from 2012 will be processed", you're talking about EP issued during that calendar year and not merely matches of families to waiting children. Correct? So, for example, a family matched with a child in 2012 but still awaiting EP...well, that could still be up in the air as far as whether or not they will be processed this year at all.
    ?

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    1. That's correct as some families that have got the EP approvals in 2012 still don't have their children yet. They should all have the court appointments, and hopefully children will come home soon. For those that were matched or referred in 2011, 2012, or later, the wait still continues.

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  3. Steve thanks for your updates! From what I read, however, I fear that those who have received his referral in 2013, perhaps it will not be before the court in this 2012 .... is it possible?
    It is so depressing ...

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    1. Dear Maruika, I couldn't quite understand your question, but I can somewhat guess at it. The EPs that were approved in 2012 are being processed by the family court. The EPs do not include the referrals made in 2012 as EP comes after the referral. So there are many referrals made in 2012 that may not have received EPs in 2012. In fact many of the EPs recieved in 2012 may be from the referrals made in 2011. I hope I haven't confused you more.

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  4. Thanks Steve, you've been very accurate! Soon with more good news!

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