The Ukrainian government has started restricting the number of international adoptions.

This is partly good news. It makes the adoption process more predictable. During the last 2 years it has been a roller coaster. It was a combination of shutdowns and reorganizations. Many families gave up on adopting from Ukraine.

I said on March 26 that this quota system wasn't impacting Americans yet.

The quota is on the number of submitted dossiers. And it is controlled per quarter. Americans are allowed 558 dossiers per year. This is 139 dossiers per quarter. I heard that Americans were slightly over their quarterly quota. But the SDA decided to accept dossiers on March 26 because it was the end of the first quarter.

The Abella family was very happy with this decision. Their dossier was accepted on March 26. They are dancing a happy little jig and hoping to adopt 3 children.

I haven't hear anything from the Italians. Their yearly quota is 380 with a quarterly quota of 95. I am assuming they are successfully submitting dossiers.

Spain seems to be doing OK. Their annual quota is 494; quarterly 123. All Spanish families have to funnel their dossiers though their embassy in Kyiv. And the Spanish embassy will only submit a maximum of 12 dossiers per week.

France has an annual quota of 133; 33 per quarter. About 40% of their dossiers have been rejected; parent's names not consistent on documentation, apostille number not clear.

Germany's annual quota for dossier submissions is 75. They are over their quarterly allotment of 19. The SDA is refusing to accept new German dossiers until April 16 2007.

Canadians are limited to 24 dossiers per year. And they have submitted 24 dossiers. There are 18 missing post adoption reports. And most of these were due from 1996 to 2000. If the Canadian government can get the families to complete the missing post adoption reports, Ukraine may increase the quota. I know at least 5 Canadian families on pins and needles about this. This have completed their dossiers and just want to file it.

While Ukrainian adoptions seems to be moving slowly... It seems like there will be about 2,000 Ukrainian children internationally adopted in 2007.