[mtnlvnhippy]

My husband and I have been married for 6 months and want to adopt internationally. My husband contacted an agency and was advised that most countries won't accept an application if you are not married for at least 1 year. Is this true? Are there any exceptions made? Common Law count? Any help would be appreciated.

[karla-k]

some countries and agencies will count time spent living together, you have to be able to prove it though.

most agencies and countries have a minimum length of marriage requirement.

karla

[Nursie222]

Here is the thing, by the time you get all of your paperwork, homestudy and everything else completed you will be married for more then a year. I don't think you can submit your dossier before being married for a year but that takes a while to get together. Hope this helps. good luck

[kretzklan]

I second Nursie - if the requirement is only a year for the country you are interested in, then get started now. It can easily take 6 months to get all the paperwork in order and perhaps the agency will let you start with the homestudy. I would clarify with them whether the 1 year rule is an agency rule or a country rule. There are some countries that require a longer marriage than that - but different agencies have their own set of rules!

[sak9645]

The issue isn't the foreign country, in most cases. The issue is that many homestudy agencies won't or can't (because of state law or internal policies) approve people married less than a year.

Getting married, just like getting divorced, involves making lots of adjustments. Some of these adjustments are major, such as deciding who will pay for what home expenses, if both spouses work. Some of these adjustments are minor and trivial, such as, "Darn! He left the toilet seat up AGAIN." Many social workers believe that the two members of a couple should have at least a year to figure out their OWN relationship, before they take on responsibility for a child.

And, of course, one of the key elements in approving a homestudy involves analysis of the stability of a person's living situation. This is often interpreted as meaning that the person must have lived in a particular situation for a year or two or three. A person who is newly single is just as unlikely to be approved as a person who is newly married, since there is no evidence on which to base a conclusion about the stability of his/her living situation

Now, the good news is that, in states where there is no prohibition, SOME agencies will approve people who have been married less than a year if they have been cohabiting in a marriage-like relationship for a significant period of time before the wedding. Of course, don't look for such approvals if you consult a faith-based agency that opposes non-marital sex on religious grounds.

It is true that some countries will not allow people married less than 3-5 years under any conditions. But some countries will accept -- and have accepted -- a couple with a valid homestudy and a relatively short marriage, especially if there has been a good reason for such approval.

As an example, some foreign countries DO accept couples with a valid homestudy if they have lived together for several years before marrying.

Sharon

[OlgaUa]

As I'm in Ukraine, I can tell you just about this country. The Ukrainian legislation has no requirements as for the marriage length.