Jolie's adoption of Vietnamese boy on fast track

HANOI, March 9 (Reuters Life!) - Hollywood star Angelina Jolie is expected to return to Vietnam by the summer to take back a boy she is in the process of adopting to the United States, a Vietnamese adoption official said on Friday.

Jolie, 31, filed adoption papers last week through an American agency without her partner Brad Pitt because under Vietnamese law, an unmarried couple can not adopt a child.

But Vietnam's top adoption official said the paperwork could be completed faster than usual, partly due to her fame.

"In this case, things can move faster because she's a celebrity and she has already found a child so it should take about three months for the boy to move to the United States with her," said Vu Duc Long, director of the Justice Ministry's International Adoption Department.

In Vietnam, it can take as little as one month for some families to adopt children but the process can drag on for over six months in some cases.

Long said earlier this week that the child was a boy aged between 3 and 4 years from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. Under the law, Jolie's application would be reviewed by officials in Ho Chi Minh City.

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. They are also working together on film "A Mighty Heart" about the killing of a U.S. journalist by Pakistani militants.

Jolie won an Oscar in 1999 for best supporting actress in "Girl, Interrupted". She starred in the 2001 movie "Tomb Raider" which was filmed in Cambodia, which neighbors Vietnam.