Dear Vietnam Family

Here is the latest update from our Vietnam Director:

As most of you know, their was a quarterly meeting at the US embassy in Hanoi with all adoption agencies. Thuy, our main representative in Vietnam did attend the meeting. She reported that mostly the new I-600 procedures were discussed during the meetings. There are still a lot of agencies that have not even submitted an I-600 under the new system so many agencies still have many questions. Thuy stated that the MOU was very briefly discussed but there wasn’t really any new information for us. There will be a group of US officials that will travel to Vietnam in March to discuss the MOU once again with the Vietnam government. In March, written letters need to be exchanged between the two governments stating they want to resign the MOU agreement that expires this year. If the written letters are not exchanged in March, then the MOU will expire on September 1st, 2008 and we will no longer be allowed to submit new dossiers after this time. So it looks like we will know for sure one way or another come March. We really don’t have a feeling one way or another if the agreement is going to be signed. I really feel it is a 50/50 chance at this point.

What does this mean for families? We truly don’t believe If the MOU is not signed that there will be a very long standing moratorium. Even if the MOU expires in September, we feel that the two governments will continue to discuss it and an agreement will eventually be reached. I don’t think it will be closed for years like it was prior. Also, our goal here at CHI is to keep at least 100 dossiers submitted at all times at the DIA. The DIA in Hanoi will continue to process the dossiers that are logged in prior to September. So CHI will continue to receive referrals, families will continue to travel for at least another year or longer. So hopefully if there is a short moratorium, it will not affect our families too much and another agreement could be signed soon.

There were no new referrals this week received by CHI. We are not sure that we will receive any new referrals before the Tet holiday. Our staff in Vietnam will be taking off work from January 30th, 2008 until February 12, 2008. However, we will continue to send our weekly fed ex package to Vietnam. Therefore, all dossiers and other important paperwork will still be sent during the holiday. We are able to do this because our office in Vietnam is in the same apartment building as Thuy, our main representative. So she will still be home to accept packages.

There were 3 families in Vietnam last week and they finished their adoptions this week. All 3 families are already home or on their way home as we speak!! Everything went very well and fast for the families in country.