HAGUE CONVENTION INFORMATION

We are excited to announce that on March 31, 2008, we received Temporary Hague Accreditation through the Council on Accreditation (COA). We expect to receive Full Accreditation in early 2010. To read more information about the Hague Convention and how it effects adoptions in Convention countries, click here.

As a Hague Accredited Agency, we are required to provide certain information to clients upon initial contact. In order to maintain compliance with the Intercountry Adoption Act and Hague Regulations we are providing all prospective clients the following information. The samples are substantially like the documents you will be required to sign. Hard copies of each of these samples are available upon request.

• Dissolution Policy
• Sample Adoption Services Agreement
• Sample Acknowledgement of Acceptance
• Sample Waiver Statement
• Complaint Policy

The Hague Convention on International Adoption Complaint Registry can be found on the Department of State Website.

According to the Hague Regulations, we are required to disclose any domestic supervised providers that we use that you will be working with directly or indirectly when adopting from a country that is a part of the Hague Treaty on Intercountry Adoptions. OWAS is currently accepting applications for the following countries that are considered part of the Hague: Brazil and Latvia.

Currently we accept home studies from a number of partner agencies within the United States. These agencies may be considered by our agency to be either Exempt Providers or Supervised Providers based on the services they are providing. We will NOT accept a home study from all agencies, so before committing to a home study agency it is important that you discuss this with OWAS.

According to Hague regulations we are required to disclose any foreign supervised providers that we use and that you will be working with directly or indirectly when adopting from a country that is a part of the Hague Treaty on Intercountry Adoption.

In Brazil, the foreign provider who makes a child referral is CEJA. In addition, OWAS works with translators, coordinators, and other (non-adoption service) providers.

In Latvia, OWAS works with various licensed attorneys and orphanages. Referrals are made and approved by the Ministry of Welfare.

The identities of OWAS providers, translators, and coordinators will only be provided to the general public should the person inquiring have a reasonable rationale for requesting this information, as determined by the Executive Director.

The following information is available upon written request: the number of adoptions completed per year for the past three years, and the number of these placements and percentage that are disrupted or have been dissolved, the number of applicants who apply to adopt yearly, the current number of waiting children we are aware of as being eligible for adoption through our agency for each country where we work.

It is impossible for us to predict the number of children eligible for adoption in either the US or foreign countries. There are many estimates on the number of orphans in the world, many of whom are not necessarily eligible for adoption. We suggest that you visit the State Department website at: http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/stats/stats_451.html to view information on the number of children issued adoption related immigrant visas to enter the US on an annual basis.