[DanielleNeumann]

Hello all,

I would appreciate any tips or a vague overview of HOW to adopt from Brazil without an agency. Have any of you gone through it yourself? I am pretty competent with deadlines and paperwork and organization, and would prefer to handle the adoption myself instead of going through an agency. Any info on working with CEJA or Brazil adoptions in general is very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Dani

[MamaS]

Are you extremely fluent in Portuguese?

[sak9645]

Remember that Brazil, like the U.S., has ratified the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption, a treaty that is designed to protect children, their birthparents, and their adoptive families from fraudulent and unethical practices. In general, countries that have ratified the Hague are not supportive of independent adoption, because, historically, that is where such practices were most likely to be found. You will almost always have to work through a licensed, Hague-accredited agency to complete an adoption from these countries.

Sharon

[melissa813]

If you arent a brazilian citizen it is unlikely you would even be able to adopt from brazil at this time. There is a pretty long waitlist for their domestic programs, and a lengthy process to get children released from parental custody from their foster care system. Children able to be adopted are generally over the age of 5, or special needs. CEJA has a list of families waiting to adopt younger children, and they would only go to international after this. Most children are matched in the country.

We are currently pursuing adoption there, and expect the wait to be approx 2 years for a 0-3 year old. We are also brazilian citizens, with a home in the country, and live in both places, so we are dual domiciled, which makes this possible for us.

There currently are NO hague accredited US agencies in Brazil, and without these you cannot even adopt from there at all.

[Sheriv]

hi it is usually very difficult to adopt from Brazil outside the country. There are No legitimate companies who have access inside the countries. Adoption is free but infants normally have Brazilian preference.

Hope this helps. I adopted from Brazil 8 years ago but we were living in the country.