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Jolie in Hanoi to finish adoption at U.S. Embassy

(Reuters)
2007-03-20 08:29

An undated handout photo provided by Ho Chi Minh City's immigration department shows Pham Quang Sang, renamed Pax Thien Jolie, who was adopted by actress Angelina Jolie.[Reuters]

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie arrived in Hanoi on Monday to complete the final step in her adoption of a 3 1/2-year-old boy from a Vietnamese orphanage, obtaining documents to allow the child into the United States.

Jolie, 31, pursued by photographers and TV crews for days, was met at Hanoi airport by four cars and driven to the historic Metropole hotel in the Vietnamese capital, eyewitnesses said.

The Oscar-winning actress plans to visit the U.S. Embassy to seek an entry visa for her newly adopted son, renamed Pax Thien Jolie, according to her American adoption coordinator, Heidi Gonzalez.

"She now just needs the approval of the American government to bring the child into the country," Gonzalez told Reuters by telephone from suburban Philadelphia. "Once she has her (embassy) appointment, hopefully everything will go fine, and they'll issue the visa, which they usually pick up the next day, and then they'll go home."

Jolie has remained out of public view since her arrival in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday to complete a process that Gonzalez said began last May when the actress began taking a required home-study course.

Gonzalez said the adoption was formalized by Vietnamese authorities last week in Ho Chi Minh City, where Jolie assumed custody of the boy from the orphanage. Gonzalez said the child had been raised at the orphanage since birth.

Assuming no last-minute hitches, Pax Thien will soon join his three new siblings in the United States -- 5-year-old brother Maddox, adopted from Cambodia, 2-year-old sister Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia, and infant sister Shiloh Nouvel, Jolie's biological child with actor Brad Pitt.

The actress, accompanied to Vietnam by Maddox and Zahara, applied to adopt Pax as a single parent because Vietnam bars adoptions by unmarried couples.

Meanwhile, Pitt's publicist said there was no truth to a new round of stories in the tabloid press that the celebrity couple were secretly looking forward to marriage. The pair have said they have no intention of marrying but were committed to raising their children together.

Gonzalez's agency, Adoptions From the Heart, has denied reports suggesting Jolie's application was "fast-tracked" or given preferential treatment.

She said Jolie accepted the first and only child referred to her for adoption, and first saw the boy in person with a group of children during a visit to the orphanage last November.