All families that adopt from Ethiopia are required to complete post placement reports. These are short updates, typically only two to four pages long, on how the adopted child is adjusting to his or her new home. There are two types of post placement reports: agency reports and family reports. Agency reports are completed by a social worker. Family reports are written by you, the adoptive parents, at three, six, and twelve months after arriving home, and then annually until the child is 18 years old.

We cannot stress how important it is to complete your family reports on time! These reports are sent over to Ethiopia; one copy is filed with MOWA, the government branch that oversees adoptions, and another copy is filed with the child's orphanage and made available to any biological family that would like to see them. These reports may be the only link family members have to these children. MOWA also takes these reports very seriously to ensure that the children are doing well.

We have received notices from our staff in Ethiopia about missing reports and several families have been contacted in recent weeks about getting them submitted. Failure to submit your reports endangers the future of the Ethiopia adoption program, as MOWA uses these reports to help gauge how successful adoptive placements are. Please help us help children by getting your reports done on time!

Submitting family reports is now easier than ever. Just visit our website (adoptionadvocates.org) and click on the green Post Placement Reports button in the middle of the homepage. Click on Ethiopia and then click on the link for the online form. Fill in the blanks, attach some pictures, click finished and you're done! Your report will automatically be sent to our office and you will receive a confirmation email when it's reviewed by a staff member. Alternatively, you can still write reports in your own format and mail or email it with pictures to our office.

If you have any questions about post placement reports, please contact Johanna!

If an internationally adopted child enters the United States on an IR-3 visa (issued when both adoptive parents personally saw the child prior to court proceedings in the country of origin), they are automatically granted citizenship when they enter the U.S. and a Certificate of Citizenship is typically received within 50 days of entrance.

However, we have gotten notice from a couple AAI families that there is currently a 3-6 month delay in certificate processing. If you still haven't received certificates for your IR-3 children and it's been over 50 days since arriving home, it is likely that their certificate is caught up in this delay.

If you would like to contact USCIS regarding this, you can call them at 800-375-5283 or send them an email. Hold times can be quite lengthy when calling, so we would recommend going with an email!

Click here for more information on Certificates of Citizenship. If your child entered the U.S. on an IR-4 visa, you will need to finalize the adoption in your local county court and then file the N-600 to receive their certificate.

Please remember to keep an eye on your USCIS file, homestudy, and fingerprint expiration dates. Your USCIS approval needs to be current at the date your case is submitted to embassy. If it expires before then, you will need have your homestudy updated in order to renew your USCIS file. Your fingerprints also need to be current at the date of your embassy interview.