American families adopting children overseas are stuck waiting weeks or months for permission to bring them home, Christianity Today reports. The magazine says the Trump administration's travel ban is behind the delays. In late January the State Department told adoptive families to proceed as usual: affected children would qualify for visas under the ban's national interest exception, judged case by case. The embassy requests that exception from the State Department after the child's in-country visa appointment.
At first the extra step cost a few days. Since August, Christianity Today reports, families have faced unexpected lags of weeks or months, often leaving one parent stranded overseas with the adopted child while the rest of the family waits at home. Parents have put their jobs on hold with no idea when they can return. Adoption agencies across the country also report slowdowns and difficulty communicating with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department.
Josh and Katie Derrick are longtime foster parents from Cleveland, Tennessee, who have adopted multiple children domestically. When family friends adopted from Malawi and the Derricks saw images of children there waiting for homes, they could not stop thinking about it. On August 4, the magazine reports, Josh and Beatrice went to their embassy appointment. The consular officer approved their documents and said the last step was the exception, expected to take a week. Three weeks later they had heard nothing. Then the United States canceled all visa appointments worldwide for mandatory training.
Other families tell similar stories. The Rileys and the Blocks, from Community Church in Alma, Michigan, adopted children from Sierra Leone and waited almost 40 days for their approvals. The Rileys adopted two sisters, 14 and 17, who lost their parents to Ebola. When the travel ban came, the Rileys had to tell the girls they did not think the adoption could be completed, and a month later the exception was established. Daniel Nehrbass, president of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, said one of his agency's families waited two and a half months. Valeria Vera, who adopted a 13-year-old boy through Open Door, was stranded for two months in Mexico, a country not covered by the ban.
Jyotika Acharya, executive director of St. Nick's Kids, which works with 13 countries affected by the ban, told the magazine that the State Department and USCIS already investigate both the child and the parents, so the added approval repeats work already done. "Why are we doing another layer of vetting when there is already one?" she said. She added that some families now must travel outside their child's country for a visa appointment.
Through the stress, churches at home have stepped up, Christianity Today reports. They bring meals to family members left behind, call and pray with the parent waiting overseas, and help with money. Members of Community Church in Alma even traveled to Africa to deliver food and medicine to Jordan Block and Matt Riley. James 1:27 ties true religion to the care of orphans, and these congregations are living it out.
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