Hi everyone,
I hope you're having a good summer! Good news - we get to start with
some congratulations this month! Congratulations to Jose & Kristi and
Eric & Robin - their dossiers were sent to China this month!
US Consulate Changes Procedures Regarding Home Study Addendums
When a family is matched with a child who is older our younger than
initially requested or who has special needs not mentioned in the
initial home study, a home study addendum is required. In the past, the
U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou allowed families to submit that addendum in
person at the time of their visa appointment. (The visa appointment
happens in the last third of the trip to China.) However, they have
made a change to their procedures; you can find the announcement here -
http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/information_regarding_home_study
_addendums.html. In short, rather than submitting the addendum to the
Consulate in Guangzhou, families will have to submit it to their local
CIS office in the US. The local CIS office will then make any changes
to your approval and forward the new approval to the National Visa
Center, which will then send it to the Consulate in Guangzhou.
What does this mean for you? - First, in addition to monitoring the
expiration of your CIS approval, Welcome House will be monitoring the
match between your approval and the child that you are referred. If an
addendum needs to be completed, Welcome House will either complete it or
ask you to work with your home study agency to do so. Second, in your
addendum you may be approved for a wider age range or range of health
issues than initially requested. For example, if you initially
requested a child 0 to 12 months old, your addendum may approve you for
a child who is 0 to 18 months or 0 to 24 months. This is to ensure that
your approval will cover the child you are referred, even if they are
slightly older or younger than initially requested.
If you have any questions about these new procedures or the status of
your approval, please don't hesitate to contact me or your Adoption
Coordinator.
Visit from Chinese Students Postponed
In light of the recent outbreak of 2009-H1N1 (aka "swine flu") the
Chinese officials responsible for the students participating in the
August student visit have decided to postpone the trip until early 2010.
Stay tuned to this newsletter for news of their rescheduled trip.
Update on Implementation of Tuberculosis Testing for Children Being
Adopted from China
As we mentioned in the June program update, the US Consulate in
Guangzhou has implemented a program of testing children ages 2 - 14
years for tuberculosis at the time of the visa appointment. The testing
began on July 1st and appears to be going smoothly so far. We've been
hearing from other agencies that a majority of the children have
positive skin tests (perhaps as many as 90%) but that most, if not all,
of them have negative chest x-rays. As far as we can tell, thus far no
families have not had their return home delayed due to the new testing
protocols.
Update on the Status of the Waiting Child Program
As was mentioned in the April program update we are relaunching the
waiting child program in stages. At present, we have one "Stage 1"
family who is still awaiting a referral. We are in the process of
hiring a Matching Coordinator, who will coordinate the matching of all
future families. Due to the time necessary in recruiting and training
this person, it may be several months before he or she is fully on
board. We currently have 8 families who have submitted China Waiting
Child Conditions forms and are able to consider children on the shared
list. If you have questions about the waiting child program or would
like to receive a Waiting Child Conditions form, please contact Heather
Carter-Tryon at hcartertryon@pearlsbuck.org or 215-249-0100 ext. 136.
As always, if you have any questions about this information, please
don't hesitate to contact me or your Adoption Coordinator.
Take care,
Heather
Heather Carter-Tryon, MSW, LSW
Program Manager
(Coordinator for China, Nepal, Philippines, Vietnam, SWAN, and
Post-Permanency programs)
Pearl S. Buck International
Welcome House Adoption Program
Phone: (215) 249-0100 ext. 136
Fax: (215)249-9657
www.pearlsbuck.org
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