In the past few years, the world of intercountry adoption has dramatically changed for families, practitioners and vulnerable children. Most notably, the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention), an international treaty on adoption, came into force in the U.S. on April 1, 2008. The Hague Adoption Convention has the admirable goals of regulating outgoing and incoming cases to ensure more transparency and prevent abuse and trafficking. [The Hague Conference on Private International Law is a global inter-governmental organization working for the “progressive unification” of private international laws. The Hague Conference on Private International Law had generated 39 conventions as of February 2009. The only convention discussed in this article is Convention 33, Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.] The Hague Adoption Convention has brought much needed reform to intercountry adoption. It supplants the existing “orphan” procedures for children coming into the U.S. from a Hague Convention Partner country. Families do not have the choice of which procedure to use, but must use the Hague Adoption Convention procedures if the child to be adopted is considered a “habitual resident” of a Convention partner country, the family is considered a “habitual resident” of the U.S., and the child is obtaining an immigration benefit based on an adoption.
The full article can be found in the attached PDF.