I'm not sold! My repsonse to the Vice Consular

Following is my response to the US Vice Consular’s letter concerning the her reasons for the denial of IR-4 immigration visa’s to Ugandan children under the Legal Guardianships of American parents. I for one do not accept her explanation, which I posted in my previous post.

To give you a bit of background, Ugandan law states that non Ugandan citizens must foster a Ugandan child for 36 months in Uganda before the Ugandan Government will finalize the adoption. Obviously this rules out international adoption to anyone who does not live in Uganda. There is a “loop hole” in the Ugandan law however which does allow Americans not residing in Uganda to adopt. The U.S requires that an American parent obtain Legal Guardianship (or Legal Custody) of the child in order for the child to travel to the U.S on a IR-4 immigrant or tourist visa. Judges give American parents living in the U.S Legal Guardianship of a Ugandan child and the permission for them to take the child out of the country. The unwritten understanding and expectation is that the child will then be adopted in the U.S. Because of Ugandan judges taking advantage of this “loop hole” well over 100 orphaned Ugandan children have found American homes in the last decade. There is nothing illegal about this, nor does this in any way fall under child trafficking!

As a Montanan who has been residing in Uganda for five years now and who has Legal Guardianship of two Ugandan children, I am extremely dissatisfied with the explanation by the US Vice Consular concerning the denial of IR-4 Immigrant visa’s to Ugandan children under the Legal Guardianship of American parents.

First of all, the denials were issued with no warning what-so-ever to American citizens (resident in the U.S), already in Uganda and who had already gained Legal Guardianship of their children, through Ugandan High Court. There was no forewarning prior to February 3^rd about the possibility of this decision and five American families are now left in limbo in Uganda, Legal Guardians of their Ugandan children but with no way to take them home to the States! I find it deplorable that no exemptions have been made for these families and children, and that they weren’t warned about this upcoming change in policy in their prior appointments with the Vice Consular.

Secondly, I find the information inaccurate that the judges in the Uganda High Court have been under the impression “that American citizens will not adopt Ugandan children in the U.S. and that Ugandan children will not change their citizenship.” Not only do the adoptive parents come with U.S home studies and approved by the U.S government to adopt overseas, but their intentions to adopt the child in the U.S are clearly stated in their affidavits! Because Ugandan judges know this, they allow the children the right to travel outside of the country knowing full well that these children will be adopted and most likely never return to Uganda. This is the “loop hole” in the Ugandan law that has allowed 178 orphaned Ugandan children to be adopted in the States in the last 3 years. For the U.S. to seal off this loop hole and deny orphaned Ugandan children the right to loving American homes is indeed an unnecessary travesty. To say that Ugandan judges have not known that these children will be adopted in the U.S is insulting their intelligence and tremendously offensive.

Thirdly, it is extremely presumptuous to expect the Ugandan Government to rewrite their current adoption law to allow non Ugandans to obtain adoption without the 36 month foster period in Uganda or for judges to rewrite their court rulings, in order for the U.S to continue to issue IR-4 Immigrant visas. In the past ten years Ugandan judges have allowed the adoptions of 248 Ugandan orphans to American families. Why would the U.S government want to impede this by denying the children visas? It is highly offensive for the U.S government to insult the intelligence of these Ugandan judges by insinuating that they have been so naïve as to not have known that these children would be adopted in the U.S., and that they could do their jobs better by adding additional wording to their guardianship orders.

Fourthly, on the web sight that the Vice Consular refers to, there is no current or updated information on this issue. Furthermore, under country specific Information for Uganda, under #4 and #5 it refers to adopting the child “(or gaining Legal Custody)”, and continues to use the terms “adoption” and “legal custody” interchangeably. It rightly assumed the possibility that if you were taking your Ugandan child to the U.S it was under Legal Guardianship and you would complete the adoption there. In the past this loop hole in the Ugandan law was honored by the U.S while now it seems that it will not.

I am truly horrified at this latest turn of events. Not only has it left American parents and their Ugandan children stranded in Uganda (all but one of these families have other children waiting in the U.S) but it insults the intelligence of the Ugandan judges who have been issuing these Legal Guardianship orders. Most importantly, it has slammed the doors for Ugandan orphans, now and in the future, to find loving homes with American families. This should be unacceptable.

This is obviously a much more complicated matter then the Vice Consular addresses. I implore the U.S government to resolve this issue quickly and to make it possible for U.S citizens to continue to adopt Ugandan children through the loop hole that the Ugandan law has provided. And please, lets not insult the Ugandan government and the High Court judges!