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I am not an lawyer nor have I played one on TV. The following blog is just my personal opinion. It is up to everyone to decide what they are ethically comfortable with.
From my Vocabulary Definitions blog:
bribe – You pay someone to act illegally.
expedite fee – You pay someone to work faster.
Let’s travel back in time and visit Ukraine’s governmental institutions between 1991 and 1994. Many people forget that Ukraine is a very young country. It is only 16 years old.
Ukraine inherited from the former Soviet state only 13,000 government administrators. Perhaps this was a sufficient number of run a Soviet colony, but it is certainly far too few to staff the institutions of a modern, independent state of 52 million souls. The United Kingdom, for example, a country with roughly the same population as Ukraine, has nearly half a million administrators.
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Ukraine eventually got more civil servants hired. And the various government offices started creating regulations to govern the implementation of law. But there are still many gaps, so government workers will sometimes just wing it.
This adds an element of capriciousness to simple transactions such as getting your child’s passport or scheduling a court hearing. You might run into a government worker who says “no” just because they feel like it. Or you may be told it costs $500.
I adopted in 2000 and my judge had never processed an adoption before. He was willing to give me a court date that was 30 days in the future. He wanted time to do some reading. Image may be NSFW.
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So my translator talked to my regular driver. Driver had a friend who was a court clerk. The court clerk’s judge had processed adoptions before. So a plan was hatched.
The driver would talk to the clerk who would talk to the second judge. I could hire the second judge to advise my judge. Since the issue was my judge’s lack of knowledge, we could fix this. And then I get an earlier court date.
And that is exactly how everything worked out. I paid the second judge for his time. My judge had his questions quickly answered. I got a court date within days. Email me at adoptukraineblog@adoptionmail.com if you want to know how much.
My experience was completely different from another family. D and R’s judge in Kherson refused to schedule a court hearing. The judge wanted $1,000 first. So the adoptive family went to the Ukrainian police. The judge was charged corruption in May 2006. D and R were able to complete their adoption. It took a little extra time.
There are 3 other points where a family can potentially run into people with their hands out; orphanage, child’s birth certificate, child’s passport.
Just keep in mind that you can say no. Or you can negotiate the price. This is entirely the family’s choice. Regardless you will be paying. Either you pay expedite fees or you pay with extra time. It can take up to 20 days to get your new child’s Ukrainian passport without an expedite fee.