A couple of years ago, I was contacted by a Pakistani American who was trying to get an immigrant visa for an orphaned baby. The baby had been found outside in the freezing cold in January of 2012 in the Hindu Kush Mountains. Only God knows how she survived. After the baby came home to California, the same client sent me an article from the Dawn Newspaper.According to the article, over 10,000 newborns were found dead in trashcans across the country in 2012. Think about that: 10,000 newborns- most of them little girls. I could have gotten orphan visas for most of those babies. In fact, I’m pretty confident I could have gotten a visa for every single one of them. Yet only 29 visas were issued to Pakistani orphans in 2012.
According to State Department Statistics international adoptions in general fell to 8,668 in 2012 after peaking at 22,884 in 2004. Of the almost 9,000 visas issued to foreign orphans last year, less than 200 of those visas were issued to orphans from predominantly Muslim countries. These numbers are surprising when you consider the relatively small pool of Muslim children who are available for adoption in the United States. The statistics become more shocking when we look at what is happening overseas. As stated above, 10,000 babies perish in trashcans across Pakistan. 1.5 million Iranian children live in orphanages; but only 4 visas were issued to Iranian orphans by the US State Department last year. Don’t get me started on what’s happening in Afghanistan.
Why are so few visa applications made for Muslim orphans? Many are daunted by the complex procedure for obtaining an immigrant visa. The United States has strict guidelines on visa issuance for orphan children. First, the adoptive parents must undergo an intensive background check which includes a criminal background check. Second, the child must be proven to be an orphan due the disappearance, death, desertion or abandonment by the biological parents. Although the orphan definition is quite restrictive, even children who are never placed in an orphanage can and do qualify for visas. Third, the United States will not issue a visa to an orphan child unless the adoptive parents comply fully with foreign laws and obtain the express permission of a Judge in the child’s home country to take the child out of that country for the purpose of emigration and adoption. The recently enacted Universal Accreditation Act has thrown another hurdle in front of parents trying to adopt from Muslim countries. Although the journey to adoption is difficult, the reward for those who are willing to navigate the emigration/adoption process is great.
If you have questions about the adoption/ emigration process, please feel free to contact me. It’s my favorite thing to talk about!
Hi Grace:
I was interested in reading your blog about international immigration from the middle east. Now that Carolina has been granted Permanent Residency, Carolina and I are know we can adopt. We have talked and prayed about it for years and have always believed that we were called to adopt a sibling group.
The process (as I have seen) is so daunting and overwhelming that we’ve been paralyzed. International adoptions through agencies have often so-closely resembled “selling children”, that I became leery of the process and feared that I would be contributing to child abduction in places where poor parents aren’t given due consideration and protections under the laws of their country.
On the other hand, domestic adoption officials with the various state public offices have always seemed to want me to guarantee access of the child’s extended family members and even to become responsible for making sure the child visits with those people regularly.
Probably without exception, these extended family members are such a mess that I have often regarded them as being largely responsible for the children’s pain.
Carolina and I are prepared to take this step but when a child or sibling group joins our family–WE want to be their family and don’t want them sitting on the fence, confused about who they are or where they belong.
I’d like to talk about what our options might be.
Your faithful and lifelong friends:
Brian and Carolina Haack
Brian, It is very commendable that you desire to become an adoptive parent through ICA, yes! 🙂 … I support your ICA family desires, however, I would highly recommend that you read about adult adoptees & their feelings on the issue of “who they are or where they belong”, especially transnational adult adoptees thru ICA. In today’s adoption education & research, there is very interesting & powerful research evidence concerning the adopted child’s need to know about their adoption and/or connect with his/her bio/1st family (but not always possible with ICA).
As a fellow adoptive parent, I’m concerned about your intentions thru ICA because you wish to avoid the bio/1st family “mess”. I’m hoping this doesn’t also mean you wish to avoid the disclosure of adoption & birth facts to your future child(ren). Research evidence has shown, this is not in the child’s best interests. A
I know Grace K. blog is for legal issues mostly, so please excuse my “off the legal track” comments … but I feel the need to share educational sites about the non-legal side of adoption in response to your post. A very good,objective site I have found to help me gain good knowledge for my own ICA family (I have 2 foreign-born adopted children) in regards to adult adoptees & their feelings on bio/1st family information & adoption in general, is http://www.creatingafamily.org/. There are also many sites about the adult adoptee’s experience & perspective (http://www.thelostdaughters.com/ is very respectable). For the sake of your future adoptive family, take the time to find out how best to integrate “adoption” with the best intentions & interests of your future children in mind. Please educate yourself on becoming an adoptive family … 🙂