It has been quite a long time since I posted an update because the China program has essentially come to a halt. Agencies are no longer accepting applications and there is no end in sight for those who are matched with a child but have not yet been able to travel.

If travel does occur, the US Department of State posted in October that the COVID vaccine will be required as part of the medical exam.

For the rest of the update, this is information which was shared in a group recently:

Current numbers of families still in the China program: There are 209 waiting for TA. So far 139 families have left the program and are not currently working on another adoption. It is so sad to see the actual breakdown of numbers. We still are desperate to get answers on when we can travel as families come up on the 2 year marks of when their children should have been home.

NCFA recently conducted a survey of agencies working in China in an effort to have more accurate and updated information about how many families are at various stages of the process and changes that have occurred since the pandemic began. 18 agencies completed the survey and 1 agency provided partial information. These numbers do include the agencies with the largest China programs:

Process Stages

• Number of families with previously issued TA – 48
• Number of families with LSC (no TA) – 209
• Number of families who are LID only (they are waiting to receive LSC) – 275 (*This was not intended to include dossiers that have been in China for several years waiting on a NSN match.)
• Number of families pre-DTC/working on homestudy, etc. – 129
• Total – 661

Withdraw/Transfer

• Number of families who have withdrawn completely from your agency’s China program as a result of the pandemic’s impact on the program and are not currently pursuing another adoption – 139
• Number of families who have transferred to another intercountry or domestic adoption program – 34
• Number of families who, as a result of the pandemic’s impact on the China program, have decided to keep their dossier in China but are pursuing a concurrent adoption in another country – 48
• Of the three categories described above, how many families were “matched” with PA or LSC – 36

Domestic Adoptions

• Number of families matched with a child that has since been placed for domestic adoption in China – 11 (NCFA is aware of a few additional cases)
• Of those families, how many have remained in the program to wait for a new match? – 8

Aging Out

One agency reported one family matched with a child who will turn 16 in the next 6 months. There are two families who finalized the adoption by proxy due to aging out (14 at the time) and still need to travel to bring their child home.