Ukraine Passport Printing Issue Strands Adoptive Parents UPDATED

This story is making the rounds in media and blogs. This isn’t the first time that passport printing has been an issue. I found references to similar delays that occurred in 2007.Delays are always something that PAPs need to plan for.

” “I am one of six stranded American families who all have their adopted children with them, waiting in Kiev’’ for the Ukrainian government to issue passports for the children, Caswell McCarron said in an email. “We must have these passports to fly home and also finish medical clearances and visa applications at the U.S. Embassy.’’

So far, the wait for a passport for Kristina has lasted more than three weeks.

“The day I filed for Kristina’s Ukrainian passport, the country stopped the printing of all passports,’’ Caswell McCarron said.

According to the kyivpost.com news site, the government warned in late June that, “there may be delays in issuance of foreign passports due to changes in manufacturer’s passport forms.’’

This week, it was reported the situation was resolved and passports were being printed again. A staff member at the Consulate General of Ukraine in New York City on Friday said, “everything is OK.

“We don’t have any problems with passports for adoption. No problem at all,’’ said the woman who declined to give her name.

Caswell McCarron, director of undergraduate studies at Boston College’s Communication Department and a longtime TV and radio reporter who currently hosts “Clear Voice’’ on CatholicTV, disagrees with that assessment.

While there was a printing of passports on July 10, “I was just told (Thursday) night … that 87 percent of all those newly printed passports are defective and no good. There is now a backup of some 160,000 passport applications,’’ she said.

It now seems the earliest they’ll hear any news on where they stand in that line for passports would be Monday, said Michael McCarron, who is taking care of the couple’s two sons at their Dedham home and waiting for his wife and daughter to return.

Although he has been in contact with lawmakers in Washington, “I feel helpless. I can’t do anything for my daughter. I can’t do anything for my wife,’’ McCarron said Friday. “They’re halfway across the world.

“You try to stay cool. Pounding your fist doesn’t get you anywhere,’’ he said; and he understands “the U.S. government can’t walk into the Ukraine and tell them to start issuing passports.’’

Still, he’s “hoping there’s an outcome sooner rather than later.’’

The family’s journey began last summer when they hosted Kristina, then 10, for a month-long visit through the Open Hearts And Homes for Children program. Open Hearts connects orphans in Ukraine and Latvia with families here who sponsor them for a vacation and educational visit.

When they met Kristina, despite the language barrier, “it was like she was our own daughter,’’ said Michael McCarron. “The boys fell head over heels with her,’’ and the family decided to begin adoption proceedings in August.

Kristina returned to the U.S. for a visit in December and spent Christmas Eve with her extended-family-to-be in Holliston, said Diane Brockert, Caswell McCarron’s sister.

“Kristina is a beautiful, great child,’’ Brockert said.

In April, the McCarrons and sons Brant, 14, and Jace, 8, went to visit Kristina at her orphanage in Ukraine.

“My husband and I returned for our court date’’ in June, said Caswell McCarron, and “our adoption was finalized on June 12.’’

It’s been almost four weeks since she went back to Kiev to bring Katrina McCarron home.

If his being in Kiev would help expedite getting the passport with his daughter’s new legal name, he’d be there tomorrow, said Michael McCarron, but it’s seems as if there’s nothing to do but wait for the Ukraine government to act, with perhaps some nudging from Washington.

“Hopefully, somebody’s going to step up and do what needs to be done” to get his wife and daughter home, he said.”

Passport snafu keeps mom and adopted daughter stuck in Ukraine

[Metro West Daily 7/13/13 by Julia Spitz]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:  Some passports issued. Some still waiting.

Christine McCarron “Finally, the passports were cleared at the last minute, and mother and daughter both arrived at Logan International Airport on Saturday night.[July 20, 2013]

Dedham Family Whole After Adoption Ordeal In Ukraine

[Boston CBS 7/22/13 by Karen Twomey]

Colwells are still waiting
““We were told before we left that they had switched companies and there was a little bit of a problem with when they were going to start printing, but that more than likely it would be all figured out by the time we got here,” Lorraine Colwell said Friday via Skype from an apartment provided for the family by adoption facilitators.

She described the ensuing explanations from both the U.S. and Ukrainian governments as “a game of telephone.” The family was told when they arrived in Kiev that the new company’s passport printing machines weren’t working. When they did fire up, a majority of the passports were misprinted and had to be discarded, she said.

The Colwells are joined by several families throughout the country facing similar problems in the former Soviet satellite nation. A Boston woman pressed her congressman to make her case to the State Department for a speedy return. A Chattanooga, Tenn., couple adopting their third Ukrainian child has also been stuck for more than a month waiting for the government to clear their exit. Mistakes have snarled plans for more than 100,000 Ukrainians planning to leave the country, according to state media.

Making matters worse for the adopted children in limbo is the fact that many have significant health problems, Lorraine Colwell said. Nika ran out of the medicine she’s taking and a refill had to be ordered from her orphanage, but others have it worse.

“There’s kids here who are on heart failure medication, and the families don’t know how bad their heart is and don’t have answers,” she said. “There’s a child here who can’t take Tylenol. His teeth are rotting out of his mouth.”

The Ukrainian agency in charge of printing and authorizing passports said last week the first batch of acceptable papers have begun streaming out to regions of the country via train. A total of 7,000 were issued for urgent cases, which include most of the children adopted by American parents. Families are beginning to leave the country, but the Colwells are still waiting – and running out of money, Lorraine Colwell said.
“Something needs to be done,” she said. “Something has to change.”

Though exhausted and frustrated, Lorraine Colwell said she doesn’t hold a grudge against Ukraine, its people or its government. They gave her Nika, a daughter she won’t leave behind, and answered her and Zach’s prayers.

“My husband and I have just always known that we wanted to adopt,” she said. “And we felt called that it was the right time.”:

Liberty Lake family stuck in Ukraine

[The Spokesman Review 7/21/13 by Kip Hill]