May 28, 2008
The U.S. Department of State announced that the Nepali Cabinet approved the following terms and conditions to govern the intercountry adoption process on May 2nd, 2008:
Some changes introduced by the new terms and conditions include:
- The WCS Ministry, not the orphanages, will be responsible for matching children with adopting parents.
- Documented efforts by the orphanages to find an abandoned child’s natural parents will be intensified, as well as efforts to promote domestic adoption of these children by Nepalese families in Nepal as a first preference.
- Adoption agencies must be registered with WCS in order to work in Nepal, and prospective adoptive parents must apply to adopt through these registered agencies.
The legislation also stipulates that adoptive families who had been matched with a child prior to June 15, 2007 may be processed under the terms and conditions which were in effect at that time.
