El Salvador Program

NOTE: All families in the process that have not submitted dossiers and have been approved by OPA (Office for Adoptions) must submit birth certificates and general physical examination forms for any children in the home. Please contact your family coordinator if you have any questions on this.

There is an increase in the estimated wait time from dossier submission to referral for El Salvador. America Word’s current projections are 12-18 months for this wait time. There are a number of factors contributing to this increase: lack of resources in El Salvador to process children this year, the closing of other Latin American countries causing an increase of interest in El Salvadoran adoptions, and Hague implementations to come in the United States. This could certainly change in the months to come as El Salvador takes measures to improve their processing system to declare children adoptable and as other NGO’s pour aid into El Salvador. America World has not yet received referrals for their first families who are currently at a wait time of 18 months.