A group of lawmakers known to support adoption, including Senators Kevin Cramer and Amy Klobuchar as well as Congressmen Robert Aderholt and Danny Davis, have asked the State Department to fix a problem that is making international adoption even more difficult than it has been recently.
International adoption has been facing some serious challenges in recent years. Nations around the world are rethinking their willingness to allow foreign adoptions, and changes in procedures both in the United States and abroad have increased the cost and the length of time involved in these adoptions. In December, travel bans have slowed or stopped visa production for 75 different countries. Also in December, an automatic process allowing exemptions special visas for adoptive children was ended. Now, people in the process of completing an international adoption are finding that their children cannot enter the U.S. on a special visa allowing them to be in the country legally while their naturalization takes place.
The plan from Congress
Concerned about the many families who are affected by this, the legislators have asked the State Department to restore the exemption. “This has introduced uncertainty for children and American parents who have waited years for their adoptions to be completed and were preparing to bring their children home,” they wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “We strongly urge you to advocate for the restoration of the categorical exemption for adoption visas.”
The signatories of the letter are members of Congress’s Adoption Caucus and the nonpartisan Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.