United States Citizenship and Immigration Services will stop accepting new requests for consideration under the Special Humanitarian Parole Program for Haitian Orphans as of April 14, 2010, and will resume regular processing of intercountry adoptions.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated the special program in response to the emergency situation caused by the earthquake in Haiti. DHS authorized the use of parole for two specific and limited groups of Haitian children:
(1) Children who either had full and final adoptions completed by their U.S. parents before the earthquake and who were legally confirmed as eligible for intercountry adoption by the government of Haiti.
(2) Children who were far enough along in the adoption process that both the U.S. and Haitian governments could verify the identity and eligibility of the children for adoption, and the U.S. government could confirm the suitability of the adoptive parents.
As of April 14, intercountry adoptions involving Haitian orphans will be processed through normal procedures.
More information about intercountry adoptions is available online at www.uscis.gov/adoptions, and information about humanitarian parole can be found at www.uscis.gov/humanitarian parole.
Information for this article was obtained from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website at www.uscis.gov.
