Adoptions from Vietnam to the US will not immediately resume

Although the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption took effect in Vietnam on February 1, 2012, the US will not yet allow the resumption of adoptions from Vietnam to the US.  There is concern that Vietnam does not yet have an adoption process in place that is completely Hague compliant.  The text of the notice for the US State Department is below:
  
The United States has determined that it will not resume intercountry adoptions in Vietnam on February 1, 2012, when the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption will enter into force there.
Despite Vietnam's initiatives to strengthen its child welfare system and ensure the integrity of its domestic and international adoption process, it does not yet have a fully Hague compliant process in place. We continue to caution adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents that, to ensure that adoptions from Vietnam will be compliant with the Convention, important steps must still take place before intercountry adoptions between the United States and Vietnam resume. Adoption Service Providers should not initiate or claim to initiate, adoption programs in Vietnam until they receive notification from the Department of State that it has resumed adoptions in Vietnam.
The Department of State will provide updated information on www.adoption.state.gov as it becomes available. If you have any further questions about this notice, please contact the Office of Children's Issues at 1-888-407-4747 within the United States or 202-501-4444 from outside the United States.

Please be wary of any adoption agency that may now be suggesting it is appropriate to initiate the adoption process from Vietnam.  First, it is highly unlikely that any US agency would already be approved by the Vietnamese authorities to conduct adoptions.  Second, as it appears the Vietnamese process does not yet meet the Hague standards, it is unlikely the US government would acknowledge or process the adoption or issue the necessary visa to allow the child to enter the US.