Skip to main content

Foreign Affairs: Agencies Have Improved the Intercountry Adoption Process, but Further Enhancements Are Needed

GAO-06-133 Published: Oct 21, 2005. Publicly Released: Oct 21, 2005.
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

U.S. intercountry adoptions nearly tripled from more than 8,000 to more than 22,000 between fiscal years 1994 and 2004. While the Department of State (State) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) manage the process, factors ranging from corruption to inadequate legal frameworks in foreign countries could lead to abuses such as the abduction of children. GAO (1) describes the U.S. intercountry adoption process, (2) assesses the U.S. government's efforts to manage the intercountry adoption process, (3) assesses U.S. efforts to strengthen safeguards and mitigate against the potential for fraudulent adoptions, and (4) describes the Hague Convention (Convention) and the statuses of U.S. and top sending countries' implementation of the Convention.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Homeland Security To improve the management of the U.S. intercountry adoption process, the Secretary of Homeland Security should work with the Director of USCIS to formalize its quality assurance mechanisms so that the agency can assess the quality of the intercountry adoption process over time, ensure that senior officials from USCIS and State are aware of the outcomes of the quality assurance process, and identify opportunities where additional training or guidance may be warranted.
Closed – Implemented
In October 2005, GAO reported (Foreign Affairs: Agencies Have Improved the Intercountry Adoption Process, but Further Enhancements Are Needed)that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) did not have a formal quality assurance program in place where results were summarized and formally reported to senior agency officials. GAO recommended that in order for USCIS to improve the management of the intercountry adoption process, USCIS formalize its quality assurance mechanisms so it can assess the quality of the intercountry adoption process over time, ensure that senior officials from USCIS and State are aware of the outcomes of the process and identify opportunities where...
Department of Homeland Security To improve the management of the U.S. intercountry adoption process, the Secretary of Homeland Security should work with the Director of USCIS to consider establishing a formal and systematic approach to document specific incidents of problems in intercountry adoptions that it has identified in foreign countries to retain institutional knowledge and analyze trends of individuals or organizations involved in improper activities.
Closed – Implemented
USCIS notified us that it addressed the recommendation through the implementation of centralized adjudications under the Hague Adoption Convention process and the country-specific fraud summaries prepared by the Department of State. First, through the process of the Hague Adoption Convention, which the United States is party to, USCIS centralized all adjudications of intercountry adoptions under the Hague Convention as of April 1, 2008. All Hague Adoption Convention applications and petitions from U.S citizen prospective adoptive parents are now adjudicated at the USCIS National Benefits Center (NBC). According to USCIS, the centralization of Hague adoption adjudication provides for...

Full Report

Media Inquiries

Sarah Kaczmarek
Managing Director
Office of Public Affairs

Public Inquiries

Topics

Child adoptionCitizenshipEligibility criteriaForeign governmentsFraudImmigrationInteragency relationsInternational relationsOrphansProgram abusesSafeguards