DOS Adoption Alert: Senegal Suspension of New Applications to Adopt

The Government of Senegal has announced that it is temporarily suspending all new intercountry adoptions while it focuses on implementing the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Convention). The Convention entered into force for Senegal on December 1, 2011.

U.S. Embassy Dakar officials met with Senegalese adoption officials on February 9, 2012, to clarify which cases would be included in pipeline processing. The Government of Senegal has stated that transition cases where a Form I-600A or Form I-600 was filed with the U.S. government prior to December 1, 2011, will be allowed to finish under the previous “orphan” process. However, the Government of Senegal will not accept dossiers for new adoption cases until Senegal finishes implementing the Convention.

The U.S. Embassy in Dakar has not been provided with an expected date by which the Convention will be fully implemented. Please continue to monitor adoption.state.gov for updated information.