Please Take a Moment to Write a Letter

This topic is near and dear to my heart.

As many of you who follow my blog know, my daughter adopted our darling Gabriella last year from Ethiopia. We were fortunate in our wait time, but adoptive families are now waiting longer and longer for that all important Visa to bring their child home.

It is very important that you take a moment and send this letter!!!!

Here in Canada there is a serious problem with the government and their processing times for Ethiopian adoptions. Currently it is taking 4-6 months and longer in some cases after the adoption is finalized to process a permanent resident visa so the child can come home. These are not acceptable wait times!!!!

No other country takes up to six months to process the adoptions of Ethiopian children. The United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Ireland, Finland and Spain all process adoption visas within 1-4 weeks of the Ethiopian court date, not 4-8 months.

Below is a sample letter that you can copy and paste and email to your local MP and Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (CIC). Her email address: Minister@cic.gc.ca.
As well, copy your local MP. You can find out who your local MP is by entering your postal code here. You can send the letter as is or do your own thing. And you don't need to be an adoptive parent to send this letter either. The more noise we make the more action will be done I hope! It is heartbreaking that children remain in an orphanage when they have families waiting for them and all that is standing in the way is immigration papers.

Dear Minister Finley,

I am writing to express my concern about the time it is taking for Ethiopian children adopted to Canadian families to obtain a Permanent Resident Visa or Citizenship paperwork. It appears, after much research, that the reason why children that are legally adopted by parents in Canada are not coming home is simply because there isn't enough human-power at the High Commission in Nairobi to process their visas or citizenship papers. Shortening this time period does NOT in any way compromise the ethical investigation that goes into each child referral.

This investigation (2-3 months) is what takes place before the court date that determines whether the child can be adopted. This time frame is acceptable, the possible six months afterwards is not.

Recently, with China beginning to make it extremely difficult to be able to adopt, many families are now turning to Ethiopia. As a result there is a backlog that reaches up to 6 months after court date, for a child to come home. Children are staying in institutions when they have parents at home in Canada that simply are not allowed to go and pick them up because of immigration. No other country takes up to six months to process the adoptions of Ethiopian children. The United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Ireland, Finland and Spain all process adoption visas within 1-4 weeks of the Ethiopian court date, not 4-8 months. I won't even begin to get into the long-term effects on the children that do not begin attachment in the early months of their lives.

Lastly, Ethiopian adoptions are on the rise and many adoption agencies do not see it slowing down in the near future. Let's not wait until next year to realize that we needed to hire more people. Let's be proactive and start now. Please make this a part of your "priority" that you have already promised as a government to adopted children abroad.We strongly urge the CIC to employ additional staff to process the immigration paperwork for adopted children at the High Commission in Nairobi. The CIC must support the health of these orphaned children by getting them home in weeks, not months, after the court decisions.

Sincerely,