After a family has travelled to Haiti and signed for the local judge, the judge issues a new "process verbal" (one of the legal documents that is part of the child's dossier) to be added to the child's dossier. This new process verbal reflects that a parent has travelled and met their child. Originally I had been told that a new process verbal would not be required for families who did not meet with the judge, and that for these families, they would only need to show evidence that the family had been to Haiti. However, this week, I have found out that a new process verbal is required for these families too. However, the civil court judge said he would not make these families return to Haiti for another trip but that the orphanages could show the passports and stamps to the local judge and he could do the process verbal from them. Once the new process verbals have been issued by the local judge, they must be added to the child's dossier. For families not yet in the Court process, this will not change their process at all except for having to have this addition document issued. However, for families currently in the Court process, their dossiers must be returned to Parquet to have the Parquet approval's date changed. I am not expecting that this will be a long process; I am not expecting these dossiers to get mixed with the dossiers that are currently in the Parquet stage. Once the change has been made to the Parquet approval, the complete dossier will return to the courts. 

Now, has that confused everyone?? 

10 October 2009

We have seen lots of movement with adoptions this past month.  We have received many dossiers out of MOI and even had several children going home.  IBESR has gotten dispensations and we have even seen files coming out of parquet!  It is so nice to see things moving for some families even if other families are stuck in different areas.  I wish that all files could move through the system quickly, but I have kind of given up on this happening with Haitian adoptions!

The house has been full of adoptive parents coming to sign in front of the local Judge and we are almost caught up with all dossiers in courts and parquet.  There are still a few families left to come, but not many.  We think it has been nice for the families to see their children but I know it has been a hardship financially for some parents to make the trip to Haiti. 

For families whose dossier is in courts, the dossier must now return to Parquet for a new Parquet paper with a date that is before the date the parents signed in front of the judge.  I think this is a complete mess!  We end up having to change three (3) court documents so that dates match!  That does not even make sense to me!  We are changing the dates on legal documents at the request of one judge!

We are still waiting on dispensations and last week received one that had been in the system since November 2008!  We are still waiting on 5 from November!  Waiting for the Presidential dispensations have been so frustrating!  All we can do is sit and wait.  I truly believe the stress has given me an ulcer! 

Hopefully, we will continue to have parents coming to Haiti before they go into Parquet so that they can move through the system smoothly.  Please pray that Judge Cadet will grandfather the files through that were already in the system before he made his fateful decision that all parents had to come to Haiti!

2 September 2009

 Recently, the Adoption Judge responsible for all of Port-au-Prince made the decision that all adoptive parents must make a trip to Haiti, meet the children, and sign a form in front of the justice of the peace (the local judge that we use in Kenscoff) before the final court decision would be approved.  He made this decision on his own without any input from IBESR, the Minister of Justice, or any of the other judges.

 This judge, Mr. Cadet, attended a meeting on the Hague Convention and Haiti was shown as a country that had badly managed adoption procedures.  On his return, he decided to make all adoptive parents come to Haiti and meet their children before the finalization of the adoption. 

 Haitian law says that it is legal to be represented by another person living in Haiti.  Mr. Cadet has decided that this does not apply to this one section of the law that says that adoptive parents must appear before the Justice of the Peace at the beginning of the adoption process. 

 Mr. Cadet has been inflexible about his decision and does not want to change his opinion.  The French Embassy has tried to negotiate without any results.  After the summer holidays, the French Embassy along with other countries, will try to work something out with IBESR and UNICEF about this situation.

 Many orphanages are now requiring adoptive parents to come to Haiti.  GLA will also now require our parents to come.  ALL ADOPTIVE PARENTS MUST APPEAR IN FRONT OF THE JUSTICE OF THE PEACE BEFORE YOUR ADOPTION CAN BE FINALIZED IN THE CIVIL COURT. For American Families, we will try to do this at the same time as you file your I-600. American families, who have already been to Haiti to file their I-600 and can prove this with a copy of their entry visa into Haiti, do not need to come again.  If there is a husband and a wife, then both of them must come to Haiti unless there is a medical problem with one of the couple that does not allow them to come into Haiti.

 We will first be giving priority to families whose files are currently in the Courts stage. After that, will be families that are in Parquet. And lastly, families that are in IBESR or before. Please note if your file has already passed through Courts, then you do not need to come.

 We are extremely sorry for any inconvenience this will cause our families.  We have fought through our lawyer and through the Association of Orphanages to get this changed without any success.  The bottom line is that if you want your child home in a timely fashion then you must come to Haiti and appear in front of the Justice of the Peace.

 And Life in Haiti goes on....