Jolie set to adopt child in Vietnam

ANGELINA JOLIE arrived in Vietnam last night to adopt a three-year-old boy, adoption officials said.

Jolie was expected to attend an adoption ceremony with Vietnamese officials in Ho Chi Minh City this morning, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

After she receives the child, Jolie will meet with US consular officials, who must review the adoption before a passport can be issued for the boy.

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

Communist-run Vietnam’s top adoption official said the authorities had speeded up Jolie’s adoption and she could come to take him to the United States ‘‘any time soon’.’

‘‘All they need now is a signature from the vice mayor of Ho Chi Minh City to give the final approval,’’ said Vu Duc Long, director of the International Adoption Department.

Last week, Long said the adoption would likely be completed faster than normal, partly due to Jolie’s fame.

Jolie, 31, filed adoption papers in early March through an unidentified American agency without her partner Brad Pitt because under Vietnamese law, an unmarried couple may not adopt a child.

In Vietnam, adoptions have been known to take as little as one month if background checks and issues of whether the adopting family can support a child are quickly resolved.

However, the process can take six months or longer in some cases.

Long had said the child was a boy aged between three and four years from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City.

VNExpress quoted orphanage director Trung as saying the boy was healthy and liked to play soccer. The child had been abandoned at a local hospital and was admitted to the orphanage in 2003, Trung added.

Jolie and Pitt visited Ho Chi Minh City last November and met children at the orphanage. They have one biological child, Shiloh Nouvel who was born last year, and two adoptive children — son Maddox from Cambodia and daughter Zahara from Ethiopia.

Jolie and Pitt, who starred in the 2005 movie ‘‘Mr & Mrs. Smith,’’ have said they have no plans to marry but are committed to raising their children together.