A change of plans....

As you know we have been waiting several weeks for USCIS in Vietnam to respond to whether or not our son will be considered special needs due to his age. I have contacted the Department of State in DC and they said they cannot say they will consider him special needs because they cannot interpret Vietnam law and that Vietnam needs to make that decision. I have spoken to USCIS in DC and they said that Vietnam has to define what special needs is and this cannot be done on a case by case basis, ie. our son. We were trying to get USCIS to make a decision first, but they said Vietnam has to make the decision first. We are now going to go back to DIA to ask them to make the decision first as a referral to us to be presented to USCIS. He is 12 years old and in most countries, including the US, children 3 and older are considered special needs. In the past Vietnam has not considered age to be special needs. It is my understanding that they are currently working to define what special needs would encompass. So I am calling on all the other people touched by Vietnam adoption for their help in encouraging Vietnam to consider older children special needs through their agencies and connections to Vietnam. If not for our son, but for all the older children who may "age out" of the orphanages during the closure. Even though we have not given up, it is going to be a long and difficult battle. There have been many positive changes thus far and I think we can make more. So as of now, I don't think the US can help us too much. We need Vietnam to act first and then put the pressure on the US to let him come home.