USCIS Conference Call, Tue Jan 26 10:28:53 EST 2010

TO:		USCIS Stakeholders

FROM:		U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services - Office of Public Engagement
	
SUBJECT:	Meeting with USCIS International Operations Division and other
		government agencies to discuss recent Government of Haiti decision and other
		updates  

The USCIS Office of Public Engagement and International Operations Division, in
partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of
State, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will host a national conference
call with adoptive parents and prospective adoptive parents to provide
information regarding the recent decision by the Government of Haiti, to
discuss the humanitarian parole process, as well as provide updates on the back
end process. 

Please join us on:

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
10:30 am  12:30 pm EST

• Dept. of State updates;
• USCIS criteria;
  • Carrie Rankin: criteria:
    • Category I
      • Legally confirmed as orphans eligible for adoption internationally
      • Two types of evidence
        • Final adoption decree
        • Evidence of suitability (e.g. I-797)
      • Fingerprints of parents
    • Category II
      • Previously identified as available and matched to parents -- a specific child has been made available and matched (referral)
        • Evidence of significant relationship
        • Referral letter
        • Evidence with agency that we started working on the child
        • IBESR approval
        • Legal relinquishment
        • Secondary evidence
        • Evidence of suitability
        • Fingerprints

  • Laurie P. -- process once received at HaitianAdoptions
    • Review documents -- need additional documentation.
    • Will call or email.
    • Working individually with parents with additional needs.
    • Will let know whether we meet one of the designations -- preliminary
    • Then a list is sent of all cases vetted
    • Not every parent has received an email who has been vetted
    • Category II, pending confirmation of availability
    • Confirmation should be taken with child to embassy to confirm
  • Whitney Wright --
    • Can't turn over travel documents until the Haitians approve. Letters are issued, then ASAP they'll pass out the letters.
    • How kids are being processed -- moving through in groups, by orphanage;
    • Doing pre-vetting in advance, in Washington, ISFAP, then
    • do all at once as a group at the embassy.
    • There's chaos outside of the embassy, so this is their system.
    • Asked help for orphanage identification, to locate cases eligible but not yet found.
    • Parent in PAP should proceed directly to the embassy, given priority access -- trick is to find someone to let you in. Discouraging parents from going down. It's dangerous. There are parents in country, they're being taken on a walk-in basis.

    • There may be some emergency cases, as well. Please let us know.
    • There will more info posted on the USCIS website.

• Scheduling, Process, know who's coming out
• Mailbox address and issues - for parents looking for travel letter. Not for Q/A.
• Use them to get the children scheduled out of Haiti; safer; they'll give a time
• Update on numbers:
  • 700 cases;
  • approved 500 -- for travel to the US. The majority of those are already in the US (RE Michelle).
  • another 200 to look at.

• fully committed to reuniting children with adoptive parents.
• refugee resettlement - make sure that they are safe and secure, until some can take legal responsibility
• When they arrive at an airport in the US, if they're category II, then HS is not able to place them directly with parents-wannabee; but parents can request that DHHS transfer custory to us as sponsor. Fill out a family reunification packet.
• They will confirm that there is current information that confirms background check and homestudy; once that is done, the child can be transferred as a sponsor (so far, within a day).
• Small number of cases -- haven't been able to complete in a day; the child is placed temporarily with a child service residential care facility.

• Immediate concern post-quake: adoption cases
• Right away, how to expedite the process (in spite of US/Haitian laws)
• Came up with proposal, went to govt, they were willing (no resistance).
• Now the Haitian govt wants to know who's leaving.
• right now:
  • At highest level, they're completely in favor of children leaving
  • No call for halt
  • Might take weeks or months -- not true.
  • Because of media reports, rumors, swirling about, concerning children disappearing, the Haitian gov't decided to enact policy to make sure that minors don't leave the country w/o proper documentation.
  • We're working at the highest level to assure that this is going to go smoothly.
  • We have teams working on this around the clock.
  • Please bear in mind that the situation is quite chaotic on the ground in Haiti, that things will happen that are not beautifully coordinated, etc.
  • Best place, for questions and concerns: AskCI@state.gov

Don't anticipate that they're going to want to go back and review more documents.

• Our child has just been issued a Category II HP. What's our next step? How would the travel work best? Can the child be brought to us by outgoing planes?

• What Haitian bureaucracy is in place to check the children scheduled for humanitarian parole?
• Is there any advantage at all to us being in PAP?
• If USCIS is in need of documentation, how can I assist in finding it? For example, we needed documentation of the official legal guardian, or of relinquishment of the child for adoption. I've found people in Haiti who could help establish that, but don't know how to get that info to USCIS....

It is Joint Council's understanding that the government of Haiti, in protecting against the inappropriate movement of children to the U.S. and other countries, has announced that the Haitian government must approve the international movement of each individual child. This includes children that are bound for the U.S., whether through the visa process or humanitarian parole.

It is also our understanding that the U.S. government is actively engaged on this issue with the Haitian government through high level meetings which are are on-going. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which authorizes humanitarian parole for each child, continue to process humanitarian parole cases at the US Embassy in Port au Prince but is not issuing travel documents at this time.

The new requirement of the Haitian government may cause a delay in the travel of children who qualify for a U.S. visa or humanitarian parole. It is understandable that adoptive families who have yet to be united with the child they are adopting, may be concerned. Joint Council urges adoptive families to remain diligent and continue to seek humanitarian parole for the child they are adopting.

It is Joint Council's understanding that this new requirement is in response to concerns that children who were not in the process of adoption, leaving Haiti for the U.S. and other countries. Joint Council shares in the concerns over the inappropriate movement of Haitian children.

Joint Council again calls on the U.S. government, UNICEF and others engaged in child protection to provide transport of Haitian orphans to safe shelter including nutrition and medical care, regardless of their adoption status. Any delays necessitated by this new child protection requirement only further support Joint Council's standing advocacy for the safety and well-being of Haitian orphans and other children.

At this time Joint Council is working to further define the process families must go through to adjust the immigration status and legally adopt the children who entered the United States on humanitarian paroles. Further we anxiously await guidelines to be issued by the Dept of Health and Human Services.