Azerbaijan
February 28, 2007
The United States Department of Travel issued a noticed on 2/9/2006 concerning
the delays and uncertainties of adopting from the country of Azerbaijan.
Officially, this country is open for international adoption as of August 2005.
Since then, however, only three families have successfully completed adoptions.
Due to changes in the Baku City Department of Health many dossiers are being
held up for an undetermined period of time. The Baku City Department of Health
facilitates the selection and referral of children for international adoption.
According to the Sate Department two children who were already referred to
American families were re-referred to Azerbaijani families.
The Azerbaijani Parliament will be drafting a new law concerning international
adoption this year. Currently, the U.S. Embassy in Baku has not received any
new information concerning international adoption policy and procedure.
According to the Department of State the U.S. Embassy in Baku is acting as an
advocate to encourage the Azerbaijani Parliament to consider international
adoptions as a viable option for children when they can not be placed with in
their own country in a reasonable amount of time.
Although the international adoption program is open at this time there are
reported risks and a lack of guarantees that adoptions will be achieved. Many
U.S. adoption service providers are no longer working within Azerbaijan until
the uncertainties are resolved.
