[adpt]

I am an Indian citizen in Switzerland and am looking to adopt from India. I need guidance on the following:

1. Does Switzerland allow adoption from India while staying in Switzerland for people like me?

2. What is the process and is there a site that I could get more information from?

adpth

[sonola]

Hallo !

Bin ebenfalls aus der Schweiz. Ich nehme an, dass du sicher auch Deutschsprachig bist, daher alles in Deutsch:

Hast du schon mal diese Seite angesehen:
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Allerdings sind diese Fragen noch wichtig:

Zu deinen Fragen:

1. Ist möglich, allerdings sind diese Fragen wichtig:

Dein Alter ? Bist du Single, verheiratet in einer Partnerschaft ? Ich nehme an, du bist weiblich ?

Wenn du Single bist solltest du mindestens 35 Jahre alt sein und am besten nicht älter als 40-45 Jahre.

2. Der Ablauf kann wie folgt sein:

- sich an eine behördlich anerkannte Vermittlungsstelle
wenden, das sind diese Organisationen:

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Fondation Enfants-Espoir sowie Terre des Hommes vermitten indische Kinder:

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Ich meine, dass man bei Terre des Hommes verheiratet sein muss und nicht älter als 43 beim Beginn der Adoption.
Es werden Kinder ab 2 Jahren mit gesundheitlichen Problemen. Terre des Hommes hat sich darauf spezialisiert. Weiss nicht ob das für dich in Frage käme. Weiss auch nicht, ob Singles akzeptiert werden.
Bei Terre des Hommes steht noch Wissenswertes über das Adoptionsverfahren.

Ob Singles bei Enfants Espoir akzeptiert werden weiss ich leider nicht.

Hier ein Formular von dieser Vermittlungsstelle über Adoption eines Kindes aus Mumbai (nicht erschrecken):
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Diese Vermittlungsstelle wird einen "Sozialbericht" über dich erstellen, ob du als Adoptivmutter geeignet bist.

Mit diesem Bericht darfst du adoptieren.
Ohne diese schweizer Bewilligung machst du dich strafbar, wenn du ein Kind einzig allein im Ausland adoptierst und es in die Schweiz bringen möchtest.

Generell finde ich dass es einem sehr schwer gemacht wird in der Schweiz was Adoptionen betrifft.
Alles natürlich zum Wohle der Kinder. Das regt mich manchmal richtig auf.

Insbesondere als Single wird es nicht einfach sein.
Nicht unmöglich, aber schwer. Du wirst genau geprüft, Finanzen, Einkommen, als Single wirst du auch Personen angeben müssen, die dich unterstützen können bzw. für den Fall dass dir etwas passiert (z.B. Familie). Fragen über Kinderbetreuung.

Indisches Adoptionsrecht: du kannst adoptieren, wenn verheiratet oder Single (männlich oder weiblich).
Maximales Alter: 45-55 (je nachdem ob Single oder nicht)

Würde mich freuen noch was von dir zu hören.

LG

[adpt]

Thanks for your reply. My wife and I are both in our early 30s and have a 3 year old son. We have been married for 7 years. We could understand a few words of German but are not familiar with the language completely yet as we came to Switzerland only a few months ago. Would you be willing to reply in English please?

[WizardofOz]

Hello,

I was born in Switzerland, lived there until I was a teenager, moved to Israel and then to the US ... So I speak also German and Schwiizerduetsch I have a bit researched adoption in Switzerland, just to compare it to the United States.

The bad news is that authorities make everything soooo difficult, lot of restrictions!!! The good news is that adoption is not a "market", as I felt it is the case in the United States, sometimes.

Instead, adoption is run by humanitarian organizations, the best known of all is probably the Terre Des Hommes. (No need to the remove their URLs, they are all humanitarian organizations like e.g the Red Cross).

To help with the translation: You said you are in your early 30s and married for a long time, so you should be fine. I think I read somewhere that they require you to be infertile but I am not sure if that applies in all situations.

Terre Des Hommes facilitates adoption of Indian children over the age of 2, with special needs. (I have friends in Biel who adopted two boys from India via this organization. Both boys have mild medical issues and they're doing great!). You have to be married and not over the age of 43 when you start the adoption process. Go to their website for more information.

Another organization is Enfants Espoir - again, go to their website to get more info.

In addition, there are American adoption agencies that work with families from Europe. This could, maybe, be another option worthwhile looking into.

In any case, according to Swiss law you have to get home study approved by a social worker before you can bring your adopted child into Switzerland. The home study includes lots of aspects like your marriage, your emotional and financial stability etc. Same procedure is done here in the United States, too. We went through it and it was really not bad at all, just a lot of paperwork.

Good luck to you and keep us posted

[adpt]

Thanks for your detailed message. It was extremely helpful. I had a few other questions in comparison to the US( since I stayed there before moving to Switzerland)

1. In the US, you cannot adopt internationally unless you are a citizen. Does Switzerland have any similar restrictions?

2. In the US it costs around $25-40K for adopting domestically? Do you have an approximate idea of the costs involved in Switzerland?

3. Congratulations on your adoption. I am assuming you were in Switzerland during your adoption process.

I also wanted to acknowledge the happiness that came through the email when you wrote about kiran.

Thanks

[WizardofOz]

Hi again,

I am happy to know that you share my joy! I cannot really reply to your questions since we adopted Kiran from the United States. He was born here and he is of Asian descent (Cambodian/Chinese). So why did we call him "Kiran", you might ask? Because:

1. I love the Indian culture and many of my friends and co-workers are Indians
2. I am practicing yoga and I like Sanskrit
3. Kiran ("sunbeam" in Sanskrit) is what my son is to us.

Still, I will try to answer you some of your questions.

1. The United States do not even allow green card holders to adopt internationally (!) because a non-US citizen cannot bring an adopted child back into the United States. This law clearly descriminates the adopted child compared to the biological one and is against the Hague agreement (which the US signed but has "not implied"). I have signed a petition against this senseless law and, as expected, because we are such a marginal population with no political influence, nobody cares to change anything. I do not think that Switzerland has a similar restriction - to be frank, I think that in this respect the Swiss have their senses better together.

2. I cannot give you an estimate of the cost but I think it's less.

3. I adopted domestically from the US because I this was the only option I had.

But there is still something you should know: I DO have my criticism about adoption in the US - private domestic adoption which is a megamillion business and has become a "birthmother market", public domestic adoption which is full of red tape and international adoption which discriminates adopted children.

But at the same time, I absolutely KNOW that my son Kiran was the child I was meant to have. He is mine, he was predestined to be mine, he is THE ONE.

Please know that just like myself, you will have the child that was meant for you all along
Please keep me updated about your adoption process.

Namaste
Jasmin

[sonola]

Hello Jasmin !

Danke für die Übersetzung und ebenfalls Gratulation zu deinem Sohn !

(Thanks for the translation and congratulation on your adoption !)

Hello adpt !

OK, I will try in English.

1. No, Switzerland doesn't have have any similar
restrictions.
2. In US the costs are very high.
In Switzerland: around 10'000.- Swiss francs
(8'-10'000.- Dollar)

sonola