U.S. citizens hoping to adopt orphans from other countries may get both more help and more hassles from the recently implemented Hague Convention on the Protection of Children (HCIA). (The U.S. signed this convention in 1994, ratified it in December of 2007, and it entered into force on April 1, 2008.) You can get the text of this law and other information from http://adoption.com.

Although the convention hasn’t yet changed the basic immigration procedures described in Nolo's books, some changes may be in the works (stay tuned). In the meantime, prospective adoptive parents will be affected in the following ways:

• You'll get more information from the Department of State (DOS) website. The DOS is the central authority for overseeing implementation of the HCIA. As part of its role, it will provide more information via the DOS website (at http://travel.state.gov, click on Children & Family, and then Intercountry Adoption), including procedural summaries, specific country policies, and warnings about problems in different countries.
• You may have access to children from fewer agencies than before. Adoption agencies must now, before U.S. parents can adopt children through them, be accredited by either the Council on Accreditation or the Colorado Department of Human Services (CO). Click here for a list of agencies that have received accreditation so far. (This list is found on the DOS website, at http://travel.state.gov.)
• You'll receive a better idea of the fees you'll need to pay from the outset. Adoption agencies are now required to provide clear information about their fees, payment policies, and other financial matters. This should be an improvement over the past, when some adoption agencies were known for underestimating fees, with U.S. adoptive parents feeling like they were strung along and held hostage to ever-increasing costs.
• Your prospective child will be more carefully screened to ensure that adoption is in his or her best interests. The HCIA requires that the sending country make an active effort to keep the child within his or her family and kinship group, or a least country. Of course, the downside for parents is that you may wait longer while certain countries are investigated, or be barred from access to legitimate orphans because of the bad actions of some adoption agencies.
• Countries with a history of adoption irregularities (such as paying parents to place their children in orphanages) will be less available for adoptions. In fact, a moratorium will be imposed on some nations that have signed the HCIA and are found not to be complying with it.

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