adoption immigration legal analysis Hague Convention

Our Adoption Confronts the Visa Pause: The Article 5 Question

We just filed our DS-260 applications, which means our adoption has reached the point where we directly confront the January 14 visa pause. The next step requires the State Department to certify our children will be allowed into the country. Can it make that certification while refusing to issue their visas?

Our Adoption Confronts the Visa Pause: The Article 5 Question

We have an update on our adoption journey, and it brings us to a critical junction in the coming weeks.

We just submitted our DS-260 applications for our children. This is a significant milestone. But it also brings us face-to-face with the January 14 visa pause in a very concrete way. The next step in our process is receiving what’s called an “Article 5 letter” from the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá. Whether that letter is issued will tell us a great deal about how the State Department intends to treat intercountry adoptions under the current policy.

Here’s the issue: the Article 5 letter requires the State Department to certify that our children “will be authorized to enter and reside permanently” in the United States. But the January 14 visa pause has stopped the issuance of the very visas our children need to enter and reside in the United States.

What Is the Article 5 Letter?

The Article 5 letter is a certification from the State Department to Colombia’s Central Authority (ICBF, the Colombian child welfare agency) that confirms, among other items, the the child is or will be authorized to enter and reside permanently in the United States.1 The name comes from Article 5 of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

The text of Article 5 states:

“An adoption within the scope of the Convention shall take place only if the competent authorities of the receiving State [United States]:

(a) have determined that the prospective adoptive parents are eligible and suited to adopt;

(b) have ensured that the prospective adoptive parents have been counselled as may be necessary; and

(c) have determined that the child is or will be authorised to enter and reside permanently in that State.”2

This third requirement—Article 5(c)—is the critical one. The United States must certify whether our children “will be authorised to enter and reside permanently” in our country before the adoption can proceed. Stated differently for our context, the United States must certify whether our children will receive IH-3 visas.

Why Article 5 Matters: Solving the Timing Problem

International adoption involves a coordination problem between two countries. Our children cannot receive visas to enter the United States until their adoptions are legally finalized in Colombia. But Colombia will not finalize the adoptions until it has assurance that the children can actually enter the United States after their adoptions.

Article 5 solves this problem. It is the mechanism by which the United States provides that assurance to Colombia before Colombia finalizes the adoption.

Article 17 of the Hague Convention makes this explicit:

“Any decision in the State of origin [Colombia] that a child should be entrusted to prospective adoptive parents may only be made if:

…

(d) it has been determined, in accordance with Article 5, that the prospective adoptive parents are eligible and suited to adopt and that the child is or will be authorised to enter and reside permanently in the receiving State.”3

Without the Article 5 letter, Colombia cannot legally proceed with the adoption under the Hague Convention framework. The entire process stops.

Article 5 and the Visa Pause

Here is where we encounter the current uncertainty.

The January 14, 2026 visa pause memo does not mention Article 5 letters. It pauses “all visa issuances to immigrant visa applicants” from 75 countries, including Colombia.4 The Article 5 letter is not itself a visa. It is a certification that precedes the visa stage. So on its face, the memo does not appear to prohibit the issuance of Article 5 letters.

But there is an obvious tension. The Article 5 letter certifies that the child “will be authorised to enter and reside permanently” in the United States.5 If the State Department cannot currently issue IH-3 visas to Colombian nationals, can it honestly make this certification?

This creates two possible scenarios if the visa pause for IH-3 visas remains in effect:

Scenario 1: The Article 5 letter is issued.

If the State Department issues the Article 5 letter, it is formally certifying to Colombia that our children “will be authorised to enter and reside permanently” in the United States. Colombia could rely on this certification to proceed with the adoption.

But if the visa pause remains in effect for IH-3 visas, the State Department would simultaneously be saying:

  1. These children “will be authorised to enter and reside permanently” in the United States (Article 5 certification); and
  2. We are pausing the issuance of the very visas these children need to enter the United States, pending a review of public charge procedures.

This is a contradiction.

Scenario 2: The Article 5 letter is not issued.

If the State Department refuses to issue the Article 5 letter because of the visa pause, the consequences for our family are severe:

  • We cannot travel to Colombia to complete the adoption. Colombian law requires the Article 5 letter before the adoption can be presented to the family court.6 Without it, the Colombian courts cannot proceed.

  • The children remain in institutional care indefinitely. Our children are currently in foster care in Colombia. They have been matched with us, they know a family wants them, but they cannot come home.

Where We Stand

We submitted our DS-260 applications. The next step is waiting to see whether the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá issues the Article 5 letter.

Based on typical processing times, we expect to know within approximately two weeks whether the Article 5 letter will be issued.

We are praying that it will be.

We will update when we have news.

Footnotes

  1. See 9 FAM 502.3-4(D)(6), https://fam.state.gov/fam/09FAM/09FAM050203.html (describing the Article 5/17 letter process); U.S. Dep’t of State, Convention Visa Process, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption/Adoption-Process/immigrant-visa-process/us-hague-convention-adoption-and-visa-process.html. ↩

  2. Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, art. 5, May 29, 1993 [hereinafter Hague Adoption Convention] (emphasis added). The full text of the Convention is available at https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/full-text/?cid=69. ↩

  3. Hague Adoption Convention, art. 17(d) (emphasis added). Article 17 makes clear that the State of origin (Colombia) cannot entrust the child to the prospective adoptive parents until the receiving State (United States) has made the Article 5 determination. ↩

  4. U.S. Dep’t of State, Immigrant Visa Processing Updates for Nationalities at High Risk of Public Benefits Usage (Jan. 14, 2026), https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/immigrant-visa-processing-updates-for-nationalities-at-high-risk-of-public-benefits-usage.html. ↩

  5. Hague Adoption Convention, art. 5(c). ↩

  6. Colombian family courts require confirmation from the U.S. Embassy that the children will be permitted to enter the United States before issuing the adoption decree (sentencia). See U.S. Dep’t of State, Colombia Intercountry Adoption Information, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption/Intercountry-Adoption-Country-Information/Colombia.html (“The Colombian family courts require a letter from U.S. Embassy Bogota stating that the embassy will issue an immigrant visa to the child.”). ↩

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