According to the Government of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Education (MoE), all pending adoption dossiers that were not matched with children by December 15, 2010, will be returned and will have to be re-filed as Hague Convention cases once the Hague Convention is fully implemented. The Department of State will continue to monitor the developments in Kazakhstan and seek the confirmation of the Government of Kazakhstan when the new Hague Convention adoption process is in place. U.S. prospective adoptive parents whose dossiers are returned may refer to the description of the Hague Convention intercountry adoption process (the Form I-800A/I-800 process).

Affected prospective adoptive parents with an approved Form I-600A for Kazakhstan wishing to request a transfer of their approved Form I-600A to enable them to adopt from another non-Hague Convention country should refer to the USCIS website.

On July 14, 2011, the presidential order which extends the State Department on Adoption’s (SDA’s) authority to process adoptions was published in Ukraine. We have been informed by the SDA that they have resumed processing adoption applications. As described in a previous alert, the SDA will have the authority to continue processing adoptions until the Ministry of Social policy is ready to take over as the new adoption authority in Ukraine. The Ministry does not yet know when they will be prepared to take over adoption processing.

The SDA also informed the embassy that the new amendment to the Family Code is now in effect. This requires orphans to be registered on the central adoption registry for one year and to be at least five years old before they are eligible for intercountry adoption. The amendment exempts children with certain special needs, relative adoptions, and sibling adoptions. Please note that the Ukrainian government is in the process of updating the definition of special needs, a process which by law should be completed by October 11, 2011.

We will continue to encourage the Ministry of Social Policy to protect adoptions where U.S. prospective adoptive parents have already been approved by the SDA to adopt a particular child. We will also be following new developments closely to understand how they will affect the families currently in process and will be posting relevant updates.

U.S. Mission Kazakhstan has reported that President Nazarbayev signed into law the new Family and Marriage Code on December 26, 2011. The Ministry of Education now awaits government approval of its new policies to accredit agencies and process adoptions.

The Department will post information on the new accreditation process and the new adoption procedures on www.adoption.state.gov as soon as we receive it, and will confirm when the new Hague Convention adoption process is in place in Kazakhstan.