Guatemala

September 11, 2008

Lic. Elizabeth Hernandez de Larios, President of the Directive Council of the National Council on Adoption (CNA), confirms that CNA will not accept any new adoption cases at this time.  The halt is to enable CNA to work on establishing guidelines to use in accrediting adoption agencies for intercountry adoptions and to focus on completing transition cases.

(All information taken from the U.S. Department of State website)

Update on Casa Quivira and Semillas de Amor Cases 

February 5, 2009

Casa Quivira  

According to our records, about 14 of the original 46 children at CQ still have cases pending.  For six of these cases, the Attorney General’s Office (PGN) has identified irregularities.  All six will have to be processed as abandonment cases; however, the Guatemalan government has agreed cases will be processed as transition cases and do not have to wait for the new procedures to drafted and implemented.


Semillas de Amor  

The Embassy has obtained agreement from GOG officials that children whose adoptions have been completed, and who already have U.S. visas, should be allowed to leave the country.  However, both the MP and PGN must complete their investigation and processing and then the Judge must lift to order for the children to stay at Semillas.  Simply having the completed adoption and issued a visa will not automatically allow the child to leave Guatemala.  Twelve more cases were released by the MP to PGN in January.  According to the MP only five cases of the original 54 cases have irregularities; these likely will have to be processed as abandonments under Guatemala’s new laws.

http://www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/intercountry/intercountry_4368.html