Dear Families,

We have good news to share! The Regulation 654 (previously known as Article 268), which sets forth the protocol by which foreign adoption agencies can apply for and receive accreditation to work in Russia, has finally been approved by the Russian Government and published on November 8th, 2006. The new regulation asserts that accreditation permissions will be issued now for a term of 5 years instead of 1 year. However, the Ministry of Education and Science (MOE) has a right to temporarily suspend the validity of the issued permission if it decides that some provisions have not been followed by an agency, especially in regards to post-placement report compliance and consulate registration of adopted children.

This confirms the level of significance of timely submission of post placement reports and completing consulate registration. The Regulation 654 also outlines a list of documents required to be submitted for accreditation. We have diligently prepared all the required documents and are just waiting for the MOE to start accepting the accreditation paperwork. Before the MOE can accomplish this, they need to process and implement the new regulation internally. This may or may not mean that additional documents will be required for accreditation.

We are hoping that in the near future the MOE will issue an announcement of a complete list of documents they will be requiring for accreditation and start accepting the paperwork from adoption agencies. According to the new regulation, the MOE has 3 months to review the submitted paperwork before issuing accreditation. Again we keep hoping that it will happen faster.

Please be assured that we are doing everything in our power to get our accreditation in Russia as soon as possible. We sincerely appreciate your patience and confidence in us.

Sincerely,

The Staff at Bless This Child, Inc.

 

current update | February 2007 | November 2006