Teleconference on Nepal Adoptions

On December 15, 2010, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services International Operations Division and the Office of Public Engagement invited prospective adoptive parents seeking to adopt children from Nepal to a teleconference with USCIS and the Department of State to discuss the current situation of adoption processing in Nepal.

On August 6, the U.S. Government suspended the processing of new adoption cases from Nepal that involve children who are claimed to have been abandoned because documents presented in support of their abandonment have been found to be unreliable and circumstances of alleged abandonments cannot be verified in most cases. On August 27, USCIS and the Department of State centralized the adjudication of Form I-600 petitions filed on behalf of children residing in Nepal at the U.S. Embassy Kathmandu and advised prospective adoptive parents of the option of filing their Form I-600 petitions with the Embassy BEFORE completion of the adoptions. Many prospective adoptive parents have filed their Form I-600 petitions (with all required documentation except the adoption decree) with the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, through their local agency representatives and before traveling to Nepal to adopt a child. Upon review, the U.S. Embassy determined that a majority of these Form I-600 petitions were not clearly approvable and forwarded the cases to USCIS New Delhi for further review.