As the list of possible birth countries American hopeful adoptive parents can look to tragically shrinks, many are hoping to cast a love net in new directions.

Mongolia has been coming up more often lately, with people asking about the possibility of adding children from that country to their family.

Mongolia is a predominately Buddhist country the size of Texas, landlocked between Russia and China, the steppes and the Gobi Desert. The population is sparse and about 30% nomadic. Life, like the climate, is harsh. (Ulaanbaatar, is the coldest national capital in the world.)

Those interested in adopting from Mongolia may be put off by the US State Department's notice:

U.S. citizens are strongly discouraged from adopting in Mongolia at this time. Adoptions in Mongolia do not clearly meet the requirements of U.S. immigration law and a child adopted in Mongolia may not be eligible to immigrate to the United States.

A bit more digging, however, will show that the situation is not as black and white ... or no way / no how ... as it might look at first glance.

From the US Embassy in Ulaanbaatar comes this:

Mongolia is small country of approximately 2.5 million people and doesn't produce many children who are available for international adoption. Although Mongolia is making admirable progress in refining its adoption procedure and criteria, there is still the occasional problematic case, usually where one or more birth parents is still living, and the child therefore doesn't clearly meet the definition of orphan as provided by the Immigration & Nationality Act (INA).

Another problem has been the issuance of inconsistent documentation for adoptive children by different agencies of the Mongolian government. Until these issues are fully resolved, the official Department of State advice will be to discourage adoption in Mongolia.

Since the most problematic adoptions have been so-called "private" (i.e., extra agential) adoptions, the Government of Mongolia has decided to deal with no more than three international adoption agencies per nationality of prospective adopting parent. The Mongolians' deliberate intention is to avoid the chaotic situation in China, where hundreds of agencies are involved. For only 20 or 30 adoptions per year, it isn't realistic for dozens of agencies to operate here. In addition, most agencies aren't able to meet the Mongolian prerequisite that they be running programs in Mongolia that benefit all orphaned children, particularly those who can't or won't be adopted.

For adoptions to American families, the Mongolian government works through Holt International, Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin, and Small World. They are the only U.S. - based agencies that have met the Mongolians' requirements. The Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor has informed us that they will no longer consider adoptions that aren't under the auspices of one of these three agencies.
At least one adoptive parent must travel to Mongolia to complete adoption. It isn't possible to expedite an adoption. The Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor requires six to seven weeks before passing the application to the Office of Immigration Citizenship and Foreign Citizens for their (final) approval, which takes another two weeks. Thus, the minimum time for adoption approval is about two and a half months.

The embassy in Mongolia does not process immigrant visas, so adoption cases are dealt with in Seoul, South Korea. You can get more information from their website, or email the Immigrant Visa unit with questions at seouliv@state.gov.