[dsdebow]

My husband and I have decided to consider adoption from China. Is it possible to adopt through China itself? I have family that lives there so travel would not be an issue. Translation wouldn't be an issue either. We have put a lot of thought into this as I am 51. My husband is 41. I have 3 adult sons and 1 adult daughter that I adopted when she was 14. We would really prefer a baby. Any advise?

[KarenInCa]

Hi,
Interesting question. When we first started our process for our first daughter, we assumed that the normal process was to adopt without a specific China protocol. I don't know about adopting a child that's your own relative in China, but normally adoptions from China go thru the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs). And the children adopted are in orphanages. The normal age range for a baby is 6 months to 18 months old at referral, and it takes 6-8 weeks till you get Travel Approval (TA) from China, so the youngest your child will be at the time you get her will be 8 months old. But in the true sense, CCAA will consider 6-24 months a baby, even if you request as young as possible. Our first daughter was 16.5 months old at the time we traveled to get her, and she had a lot of baby left in her.
The time to get the paper work together is typically 4-8 months. Some if it is waiting for government stamps of approval. At this time, the expected wait till referral is 3-4 years, unless you opt for special needs (which can be very minor - relatively speaking). Then the wait time is about half. When we adopted our first daughter in 2006, the average wait was around 10 months. And no one really knows if the wait will start to decline or continue to rise.
There are new requirements that also must be met, as of May 2007.
Here is a link to the full list of requirements
New Regulations for Adopting from the People's Republic of China

If this is your first child between you and your husband, adding a child can be a very fulfilling change to your family unity.
Best of luck.

[mdaisyq]

If you are a US family, then you would have to first be approved in your state to adopt a child and then approved by the US government, to adopt a child from China.

The CCAA has stated that both parents must be under 50 years old to adopt a NSN (non special need) child. You can apply to adopt a SN (special needs) child if both parents are under 55 years old.

If one of you, your husband or yourself, is of Chinese heritage, meaning you have a parent who is of Chinese descent and who was born in China (this is very important) a placement of a child with you can be expedited, but I don't think they grant age waivers based on Chinese descent.

If you attempt a "domestic" adoption within China, assuming you can, and the waiting lists are very long at some orphanages within China for domestic adoptions , and granted, there are some less than sanctioned ways to adopt a child in China domestically, you could face difficulties with getting your child a US Visa so that you can bring your child home.

[sak9645]

International adoption has two components -- adoption and immigration.

From the adoption perspective, if you are a citizen or resident of another country, China will not let you do a domestic adoption. You will have to adopt like any foreigner. That is, you will need to submit a dossier to the China Center for Adoption Affairs and be matched with a child.

I have heard that some families, especially in the past, have managed to do an adoption in their ancestral province, without going through the CCAA However, it is not common, and will cause you to be denied in the immigration process, if you want to bring the child to the U.S. The U.S. will honor China's prohibition of the practice, especially now that both countries have ratified the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption.

If you live in the U.S., either you or your spouse, or both of you, will need to be a U.S. citizen. You will need to have a U.S. homestudy, go through the USCIS I-600A process, assemble a dossier of documents that are notarized, certified, and authenticated, and then wait for a referral. You can go through the standard non-special-needs process, the standard special needs process, or the Waiting Child program.

From the standpoint of immigration, the only way to bring a child into the U.S. on an adoption visa is for at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen. If both parents are legal permanent residents or on some other kind of visa, they will not be able to get permission to bring a newly adopted child into the U.S. The only way to bring the child to the U.S. will be for at least one parent to give up his/her visa status by living abroad for two years with the child, and then applying for a regular visa to bring the child into the country.

Knowing that the U.S. requires at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen for an adopted child to receive an adoption visa, the Chinese government will NOT permit a family in the U.S. -- even one of Chinese descent -- to adopt a Chinese child, if the parents do not meet the requirements.

While it may seem surprising to you that the U.S. and China work so closely together on these issues, they do. The U.S. government respects the adoption law of any legitimate government, and will not issue a visa to a child if he/she was not legally adopted/given to a family under a decree of guardianship for adoption in the U.S. And the Chinese government takes international adoption very, very seriously and has had a Hague compliant system even before it formally ratified this important international treaty.

Sharon

[sak9645]

China DOES give a few advantages to people living abroad, if EITHER one spouse was born in China or the parents of one spouse were born in China. In those cases ONLY, China will expedite referrals by several months. They will also be more likely to grant a request for a boy or for a child from the family's ancestral province.

China does NOT give any special advantages to any other people of Chinese heritage, whether or not they speak Chinese. As an example, if both you and your parents were born in the U.S., but your grandparents were born in China, you would not qualify for an expedited referral.

And China's basic laws governing international adoption treat both people of Chinese heritage -- even those born in China but living abroad -- and people who are not of Chinese heritage equally. While China wants families who will raise their children to honor their cultural heritage, it is more concerned with basics like parental good health, absence of a criminal history, and so on.


Sharon