Stahlke Adoption

More on Ukrainian Passports

The US embassy in Kyiv released another notice today concerning Ukrainian passports for adopted children. To read it, see
kiev.usembassy.gov/amcit_adoptions_notice_0803_eng.html

After an adoption is finalized in the Ukrainian state court, there is a ten-day required waiting period before the judge's decree is considered final. In those ten days, someone can file an appeal to the adoption. This rarely happens, but the waiting period is mandatory.

Now an announcement has been made that ten additional days are necessary to issue the child's Ukrainian passport, which is necessary before obtaining a US visa. Therefore, with the ten-day period for possible appeal, plus a ten-day period for the Ukrainian passport, a minimum of twenty days are necessary before the parents can apply for the child's US visa.

In 2005, we spent about six weeks in Ukraine before the adoption was finalized. (We estimate that for Kola that time might be three to four weeks). In 2005, the time between the adoption finalization and our travel to the US was five days. The announcement today, plus the other changes since 2005, quadruple that time. We will continue to watch the embassy website to see if further changes will be announced.

posted by Stahlkes @ 3:04 PM