Adopting from Haiti After Earthquake

Today’s show is on adoptions from Haiti after the earthquake. We talked about current adoption cases as well as what the future holds for adopting children orphaned by the Haitian earthquake last week. Our guests were Whitney Reitz, Branch Chief, for the International Operations Division U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; Nyda Budig, Adoption Division Office of Children’s Issues at the US State Department; Rebecca Hackworth, Director of the Haitian Adoption Program at Dillon International, and Susan Cox, Vice Pres Policy and External Affairs for Holt International.

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Hit the Highlights

Status of Haitian adoptions that were in process when the earthquake struck
Difference between a humanitarian parole and an immigration visa.
How do they decide which child should receive a humanitarian parole and which an immigration visa.
What should adoptive parents do to apply for either a humanitarian parole or an immigration visa?
If the child is eligible for either a humanitarian parole or immigration visa how does the child get to the US?
How is the US government arranging flights out of Haiti?
What is the status of the airlift of children from Haiti to the US using private planes?
What will happen to the approximately 50,000 children that were living in orphanages or institutions prior to the earthquake but who had not been referred to an adoptive family?
What is the anticipated time frame for families that had already applied to adopt from Haiti but had not received a referral?
When does the US State Department and Citizenship and Immigration Services anticipate that adoptions from Haiti will resume?
What type of safeguards, such as DNA testing and fingerprinting, will be used to protect the children from child trafficking?
How many children will have been orphaned by the Haitian earthquake?
When will international adoptions from Haiti resume?
What is the process to adopt a child from Haiti?
Why is Haiti so hard to adopt from?