State Department Unofficial Visa Numbers for 2007 Available
December 3, 2007. State Department Unofficial Visa Numbers for 2007 Available. Many sources are printing the totals for intercountry adoption visas for fiscal year 2007. As expected the overall number of intercountry adoptions has dropped; the final total is 19,292 from 20,679 in FY 2006. The number of children adopted from China, at 5,453, is down by 1,000 from the year before and is at its lowest level since 2001. Moreover the China number does not tell the whole story: an increasingly large percentage of adoptions from China are now Waiting Children or special needs adoptions. This marks a transformation from the earlier nature of the program. Adoptions from Guatemala rose from 4,135 to 4,728 but given the problematic legal and diplomatic situation in Guatemala, at best the Guatemala program will shrink dramatically next year. Russia, at 2,310, declined from 3,706 in FY 2006 and is at its lowest level since 1995. To say that Intercountry Adoption is in crisis is no exaggeration. The official State Department statistics will be available at http://www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/stats/stats_451.html.