Jolie collects Vietnamese orphan

Actress Angelina Jolie has picked up the three-year-old Vietnamese boy she plans to adopt, but faces a few last procedural hurdles before she can take him home to the United States.

Vietnamese officials approved the adoption today, but US officials still need to give the adoption the green light before it is final, said Nguyen Van Trung, director of the Tam Binh orphanage, where Jolie picked up the child at around 9am local time.

The child must have a medical check-up before US officials can issue him a passport and visa.

The procedures could be completed within the next day or two, an adoption official said.

About 20 minutes after Jolie arrived at the orphanage, someone carried the boy outside to a waiting minivan with dark windows. Someone shielded the child’s face from photographers with an umbrella and Jolie followed him directly into the car, which then headed into the centre of Ho Chi Minh City.

The same vehicle later arrived at the department of justice, where Vietnamese adoption officials said a ceremony was conducted at which Jolie officially took possession of the child.

After about half an hour, two vehicles left the building, followed by a buzz of reporters and photographers.

It wasn’t immediately clear where they were heading, although some of the security staff who accompanied her to the justice department were later seen in the lobby of the Park Hyatt Hotel, where Jolie is staying.

Jolie, who arrived in Vietnam last night, arrived at the orphanage carrying her five-year-old son Maddox, whom she adopted in neighboring Cambodia in 2002.

About 20 children dressed in traditional Vietnamese tunics, called ao dai, welcomed the pair with flowers at the orphanage.

Trung, the orphanage director, said Jolie greeted the boy with a kiss and held him. The child at first seemed shy with his mother-to-be, he said.

If all goes to plan, Jolie could take the child home by the weekend, officials have said.

The boy has been living at the Tam Binh orphanage on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City since he was abandoned at a hospital as an infant, according to adoption officials.

Shortly after he arrived at the orphanage, the Tam Binh staff tried unsuccessfully to locate the boy’s birth parents.

Jolie filed adoption papers as a single parent, because she and her superstar partner Brad Pitt are not married.

They already have three children: Maddox, adopted from Cambodia; two-year-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia, and another daughter, Shiloh, who was born to the couple in May.

Jolie is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and has traveled extensively to countries in the developing world.

Her 2001 film Tomb Raider was filmed in Cambodia, which borders Vietnam.

Jolie and Pitt starred together in 2005 movie Mr And Mrs Smith.