The Office of Children’s Issues and the U.S. Embassy in Liberia wishes to caution U.S. adoption service providers (ASPs) and prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) adopting from Liberia of the potentially lengthy time involved in processing the Form I-604, Determination on Child for Adoption (commonly referred to as an orphan determination). The Department would like to highlight concerns about practices that may place children and families at risk and result in difficulty or delays immigrating an adopted child to the United States. The Department has continued to observe evidence of systemic fraud and poor record-keeping throughout the country, including: backdated, inconsistent, or non-existent documentation of the child’s background, birth parent consent, and other documents material to the adoption and immigration process (see the country information page on https://travel.state.gov for more information about Liberian civil documents).

Due to these challenges with verifying vital records for intercountry adoptions in Liberia, processing times for adoption cases are significantly delayed. Consular officers appreciate that families are eager to bring their adopted child home as quickly as possible; however, depending upon the circumstances of the case, it can take several weeks or, in some cases, months to complete the Form I-604 orphan determination. While the Form I-604 determination for most cases will consist of an analysis of available documents, some cases will require additional interviews, documentation, or a field investigation, all of which may result in delayed processing of the case.

PAPs are advised to keep their travel plans flexible while awaiting the Form I-604 determination results. PAPs are not required to remain in country during the Form I-604 process. If the family is currently in-country when this determination is initiated, the PAPs may return to the United States until it is completed.

Finally, some adoptees can be found ineligible for an immigrant visa because the child does not meet the definition of orphan under immigration law. In cases where the immigration petition is denied, even if the adoption is legally completed in Liberia, Consular Officers in Liberia will not be able to issue the child a visa to immigrate to the United States. We encourage prospective adoptive parents to review our website for information about completing a legal adoption in Liberia, including how to find an adoption service provider (ASP) to facilitate an intercountry adoption.

Per the Department’s travel information page, all travelers should be aware of significant security concerns involved in travel within Liberia, which include crime, corruption, and scams with increased risk in certain regions.

The Department of State will continue providing updated information on http://adoption.state.gov as it becomes available. Email inquiries may be directed to Adoption@state.gov.