US Adoptive Parents Face Delays in Bringing Children Home Due to Visa Process Hurdles

Josh and Katie Derrick, longtime foster parents from Cleveland, Tennessee, have adopted multiple children domestically. When family friends adopted from Malawi, the Derricks were moved by images of children waiting for homes. “It was something that God laid on our hearts … we couldn’t talk ourselves out of it,” Josh said.

Adopting from Malawi presented challenges, as their friends faced obstacles with the Malawi government. However, the Derricks did not anticipate delays originating from the United States. In December 2025, President Donald Trump issued a travel ban affecting 39 countries, which did not exempt adoption visas. The adoption community responded, and in late January, the U.S. State Department provided guidance that children from these countries would qualify for visas under the “national interest exception” (NIE) clause, subject to case-by-case evaluation.

Initially, the NIE process caused minor delays. But since August, adoptive families have encountered significant slowdowns, sometimes lasting weeks or months. These delays have left one parent stranded overseas with the child, separated from the rest of the family. Parents have had to pause their careers without knowing when they might return to the U.S.

Adoption agencies report difficulties in communicating with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the State Department. On May 21, the Derricks, along with their three oldest children, arrived in Malawi to complete the adoption of their 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice. After a month of bonding and court proceedings, Katie and the children returned to the U.S., expecting to reunite with Josh and Beatrice within weeks. Instead, the NIE delay caused a months-long separation.

“It was … heartbreaking as a father, that [Beatrice] had made a connection with her mom and siblings and wanted to be with them,” Josh Derrick said. The emotional toll of such separations underscores the human cost of bureaucratic delays in adoption processes.

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