U.S. Department of State

INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION

Enforcement of Adoption Procedures in Sierra Leone, October, 2004

In an effort to improve rule of law, Sierra Leonean judicial officials are now enforcing legal requirements for international adoption that have not been enforced for several years. Consistent with the published laws in Sierra Leone, adoptive parents are required to travel to Sierra Leone to attend the court hearing for the adoption. The old practice of waiving personal appearance of adoptive parents is now ended.

Also under consideration to be re-introduced is the requirement that adoptive parents reside with their adoptive child for six months in Sierra Leone before an adoption decree is issued. As more information on residency requirements becomes available, we will update this notice.

Immigrant visas for Sierra Leonean citizens, including adopted orphans, are issued at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. Due to a high rate of document and adoption fraud in Sierra Leone, the U.S. Embassy in Dakar carefully scrutinizes all immigrant visa petitions. The U.S. Embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, will conduct field investigations into the circumstances surrounding the adoption as warranted. The U.S. Embassy in Dakar will return all immigrant visa petitions (I-600s) to the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services if, after an investigation, the relevant adoption court orders are determined to be fraudulent and/or the prospective adopted children are determined not to be orphans under section 101(b)(1)(F) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

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