January 20, 2004 - The U.S. Department of State has issued a public announcement about Tajikistan which replaces the Travel Warning of 12-20-03.  It is being issued to reflect the decrease in incidents of political violence in Dushanbe and the rest of the country. The Department of State reminds U.S. citizens, however, that the potential for terrorist actions against Americans in Tajikistan remains. U.S. citizens should evaluate carefully the implications for their security and safety before deciding to travel to Tajikistan. This Public Announcement expires on July 19, 2004. 

U.S. citizens are urged to register and update their contact information at the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe. The Embassy is located at 10 Pavlov Street, Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The telephone numbers are 992-372-21-03-48, 992-372-24-15-60, and 992-372-51-00-29. The fax number is 992-372-21-03-62. Some consular services for Tajikistan are handled in coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The U.S. Embassy in Almaty is located at 97 Zholdasbekova, Samal-2, Almaty 480099, tel. 7-3272-50-48-02, fax 7-3272-50-48-84.

January 2003

JCICS has learned from the U.S. Department of State that international adoptions in Tajikistan have not been provisionally suspended as previously thought.  Only one case was suspended, not all adoptions. 

However, we do recommend that family's interested in adopting from Tajikistan understand the following excerpt taken from the Department of State's website and that the Tajik government prefers to have the adoptive parents present at the adoption proclamation so prospective parents are encouraged to travel to Tajikistan at least once.   

"AVAILABILITY OF CHILDREN FOR ADOPTION: Very few Tajik orphans have been adopted by U.S. citizens – perhaps one or two a year, in recent years. There is no law prohibiting international adoptions in Tajikistan. However, the Tajik Government does not favor international adoptions, making an adoption of a Tajik orphan by the average American difficult. Some organizations in Tajikistan have urged the Tajik Government to suspend adoptions of Tajik children by foreign citizens until “the process of international adoptions and the child’s welfare after the adoption are under complete control of the Tajik state.” It is currently not known whether Tajik authorities have taken any steps to forbid adoption of Tajik children by foreign citizens in response to such requests, but adoption by Americans in Tajikistan can be hindered by the lack of specific laws and regulations allowing foreigners to adopt in the country. The revised Law on Marriage and Family was passed by the Tajik Parliament in 1998, but this legislation provides for adoptions only by citizens of Tajikistan and is completely silent on the issue of international adoptions. In 1994, the Tajik Government acceded to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides for the possibility of inter-country adoption; on the basis of this, international adoptions were completed in Tajikistan on a case-by-case basis."