International Family Services
Guatemala Program

Effective December 31, 2007, the country of Guatemala instituted a new set of laws and regulations which identified the Guatemalan National Council for Adoption (CNA) as the Guatemalan Central Authority for Intercountry Adoptions in compliance with the Hague Treaty Concerning Intercountry Adoptions. Numerous additional changes also became effective at that time.

All cases which had been properly registered with the Guatemalan government prior to December 31, 2007, are considered 'grandfathered' (considered 'transitional' cases) and will be processed largely according to the law in existence prior to 2008. Additionally, the CNA is reviewing the relinquishments of these children for adoption in order to ensure that no child was improperly entered into the adoption process through financial inducement, kidnapping, or other illegal means or pressures. IFS continues to work with adoptive families and their cases which were properly registered prior to 2008.

The CNA is still developing the procedures for referring children for intercountry adoption under the new laws and regulations. Therefore, after December 31, 2007, and until these new procedures are established and clarified, International Family Services will not accept accept new applications or make any arrangements for placement of an adoptive child from Guatemala (except for cases properly registered in 2007).

Once the procedures have been developed, IFS anticipates arranging adoption services in Guatemala. Until this time, however, IFS cannot provide any information about what these services will entail.

The U.S. Department of State has issued a Guatemala Adoption Reform Fact Sheet (http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/intercountry/intercountry_4255.html). It reads,

Since early 2006, the Department has repeatedly issued warnings to prospective adoptive parents and the U.S. public about the uncertainties of adopting from Guatemala. The Government of Guatemala (GOG) acceded to the Hague Convention in March 2003, and then reaffirmed its commitment to the Convention in June 2007.

Convention-implementing legislation passed on December 11, 2007 radically changed Guatemalan adoption procedure, as well as the Guatemalan child welfare system. Under the former system, adoptions in Guatemala were done almost entirely by private attorneys with little to no government oversight. Under the new legislation, the adoption process is controlled by a Central Authority, the National Council on Adoption (CNA), which oversees adoption service providers. The GOG has had insufficient time to build the capacity to implement the reform legislation. Presently, Guatemala does not and cannot meet its Convention obligations because it does not have a Convention-compliant adoption process in place.

• USCIS is not processing I-800 petitions as of April 1, 2008 because the State Department is unable to verify, as required by Section 301(a) of the Intercountry Adoption Act (IAA), that the requirements of the Hague Convention have been met.

• Guatemala has agreed to process to completion pending adoptions or “transition cases” (those initiated in Guatemala before the new law went into effect December 31, 2007). However, new requirements have been added that have thus far restricted the flow of cases and has caused some pending cases to be rejected.

• The Department continues to monitor the adoption practices of Guatemala and urge the PGN not to raise unnecessary barriers for these cases.

• We cannot yet predict when we will be able to start processing new adoptions from Guatemala.