VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUM #0141 0640425
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 050425Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0870
INFO RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 2650 UNCLAS ULAANBAATAR 000141 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR CA/OCS/CI 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS:        
SUBJECT:  Update on Mongolian Adoption Processing 
 
 
 1.  Summary:  A high-ranking official in the Ministry of Social 
Welfare and Labor has provided assurances that international 
adoption cases which had been on hold for at least two months would 
be processed within the next few weeks.  A new adoption law may be 
introduced in the Mongolian Parliament in autumn 2007.  End 
Summary. 
 
 2.  Visiting Seoul Petition-based Visa Unit Chief and Ulaanbaatar 
ConAsst met February 28 with State Secretary Ochir Baigalmaa, 
third-ranking official in the Mongolian Ministry of Social Welfare 
and Labor (MSWL).  Ulaanbaatar Consul (who was unable to attend due 
to a last-minute emergency) had requested the meeting due to 
concerns heard recently from local and international adoption 
services providers that the GOM had placed a hold on overseas 
adoptions pending enactment of a new adoption law. 
 
 3.  Mongolia's existing adoption law dates from 1999 and is seen by 
the GOM as deficient in not containing detailed qualifications which 
prospective adoptive parents should be required to meet. 
Approximately two months ago, the MSWL appointed a new Adoption 
Officer who expressed reluctance to process international adoption 
cases until the above problem could be remedied in law and 
implementing regulations.  A total of seven (7) of these cases 
involve orphans to be adopted by U.S. citizens.  On the heels of Ms. 
Baigalmaa's February 27 meeting with an official from Holt 
International (who also visited with Conoffs and ConAsst the same 
day), Ms. Baigalmaa had an in-depth discussion with the Adoption 
Officer to make it clear that a continued hold on international 
adoption cases was not merited.  Ms. Baigalmaa thus assured Conoff 
and ConAsst that we should see all seven cases processed "within a 
few weeks." 
 
 4.  Ms. Baigalmaa noted that a working commission on Mongolia's 
adoption law has been sitting for the past two years and that draft 
legislation could be ready for publication and presentation to the 
national parliament as early as this autumn. 
 
 5.  In light of the above information, Post looks forward to working 
with CA/OCS/CI and Seoul on final language for a comprehensive 
update to the Department's country-specific web page on adoption 
from Mongolia found at http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/ 
country/country_422.html.  In its current form, that page 
discourages U.S. citizens from adopting from Mongolia 
notwithstanding the handful of successful IR-3 cases we see each 
year following GOM approval and determination by CIS and State that 
the adoption meets INA 101(b)(1)(F) requirements. 
 
 6.  According to Ms. Baigalmaa, Mongolia has around 50 state and 
private orphanages in total.  State orphanages typically house 
between 100 and 200 children.  A common size for a private orphanage 
is 25 children, but the figure can vary widely from one institution 
to another.  She said overall the number of children requiring 
adoption is decreasing thanks to expanded GOM support for families 
in need.  At the same time there is growing interest in domestic 
adoption, as well as a modest rise in cases of international 
adoptions, which stand currently at 30 or so per year for children 
destined to the U.S. and other countries. 
 
Minton