Adoption from Philippines?

Hi, We just got back from adopting our new little daughter from the Philippines! I'll pm you the name of our agency. ICAB really respects a few agencies, and as you are asking for a sibling group, your adoption will get processed immediately upon arrival in the Philippines! We spent a long time with the director at ICAB when we were there, and found out tons of info. on how it all works there!! As soon as I get more than a 1/2 an hour to sit down, I'll post our wonderful experience (we stayed there for 2 weeks, and lived, ate, and slept in the Philippine culture!). Jen

Hi, Ive read a lot about adoptions from the Philippines, mostly from orphanages, however currently my wife and I am in the process of adopting her 14-yr. old niece and 1 yr. old grand niece. Currently we are awaiting finger printing and our adoption agency has sent the package to the Philippines. Just wondering what the time frame we are looking at. The agency we are using says that this could take anywhere from 6 months to a year but since we are not waiting to be matched up I figured hopefully closer to 6 months. My wife is planning on going over in a couple months to bond with the baby and stay there until the adoption is finalized. Is it possible for her to contact ICAB on the progress of the processing. One last question, my agency states that the Philippines processing is what causes the delay but in reading recent forums it appears that the US processing is causing the most delays. Is this true? Thanks for any info

elbwood, Yes, your wife can contact, and even visit ICAB if she would like. Usually they like you to contact them through your agency, but if you just happen to be in the Philippines, I'd go in and talk to them - they are very kind there. With relative adoptions, they are usually much faster - as long as you have the correct proof of relation. ICAB has been working hard to try and get people matched, and have families in there every week to pick up their children. For us, it was very much the US's side of things that held us up. Good luck, and enjoy your new children! Jen

Inter Country Adoption in the Philippines is handled single handedly by the Philippines Inter Country Adoption Board (ICAB). They may not consider single parent, common law , or same sex couple from adopting. You may find that in their inter country adoption questionaires. They require the couple married for at least three years with four references and one of them have to come form a priest. If you are not Roman Catholic, you may be out of luck. Also, the processing time may be long.

From our bitter experience. Philippines is the one which slow things down. Recently they have tightened their rules and restricting who can go abroad. The US is not under Hague Convention but the philippines is. Philippines Inter Country Adoption Board ICAB is the sole governing body to handle all adoptions cases local and international. For intenational adoption.You have to seek the approval from ICAB. The are the final authority in the Philippines who decide the fate of your relative child. Not you as their potential adoptive parent. They have a strict guideline to follow.

CalJen, I am just about to start the journey of adopting from the Phillipines. My FIL is from Manila and his brothers still live there. He has spoken to them about my venture and they said there are many children waiting for families there. I went to the website RenaCruz mentioned and printed the application to start filling out hopefully this weekend. We are looking to adopt an older girl around 3 to 5 years old. Who knows, we may be making our journeys around the same time. Stay in touch and Ill keep you posted on my progress as well!!!!!Kathy Orphanagemom, If you wouldn't mind emailing me any info, my email is on my profile!Thanx Kathy

I feel the need to write and caution everyone. Larryman is posting some extremely WRONG information. I am sorry you had a bad experience, but that doesn't mean you can post whatever YOU feel is going on there instead of what REALLY is going on. True, they are still working on adoptions from 1 1/2 to 2 years ago, but you also have to understand that they are a THIRD WORLD country. They simply DO NOT HAVE resources to keep up on the extreme demand of people wanting children. ICAB is there to keep the Filipino children safe from being adopted out to just anyone. THAT is why it takes so long!!! YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT NEED TO BE CATHOLIC TO ADOPT FROM THE PHILIPPINES! We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and our adoption went right through. The only religion they do not adopt to is Jehovah's Witnesses because of the blood transfusion thing. They also will ONLY adopt to single women, or a married couple (man and woman), who believe in God. The US IS under the Hague Convention, but not all adoption agencies have made THEMSELVES compliant yet. I have recently been to the ICAB, have visited with many people there, and seen how EVERYTHING works. All adoptions do go through them for the Philippines, so they can monitor and keep their children safe. Children in the orphanages in the Philippines are WELL LOVED. It is mostly Catholic Nuns that care for the children, and they are cared for as if they were their own children. Kathy, I will email the document I have to you as soon as I get to my other computer where it is saved. Jen!

Currently my wife is staying in the Philippines with the children and the rest of her family while we wait for approval to bring the children home. We are currently in the process of adopting her 2 nieces one is 15 years old and the other is 16 months. She went to ICAB last week and talked with the social worker handling our case. They had just received the child study report from DSDW and said next would come the matching process (a formality since it is a relative adoption). Our agency said to keep in close contact with ICAB so they dont forget about us. We plan on contacting them once every couple weeks. To be honest with you this part of the adoption process has gone quicker than we thought. My wifeҒs family was contacted by DSDW about 2 weeks after ICAB received our dossier from our agency. It took about a month for DSDW to complete there report but it would have been longer if my wifes family did not get a majority of paperwork and physicals done within a couple weeks. I am hoping the matching process does not take too long. My wife said the people working at ICAB were very friendly and helpful however I can understand some couples frustration with the process. The most frustrating part is not getting a estimated time of how long each process takes. I think they stopped doing that since now every thing is taking a much longer time to process. The social worker there stated our wait will be majority with the INS for the Visas. I hoping to pick them up no later than March.

Congratulations!!! I'm so happy for you and your wife. I hope all goes well. Jen

We just care as much about the children in the Philippines as you do. Many congratulate to you for your successful adoption in the Philippines. We do not know how long ago you were in ICAB but things have changed quite a lot since August 2004. One thing for sure from our very experience is that one cannot adopt a child without going through proper matching from ICAB. This is part of their procedure. They match the child with the criteria you completed in the criteria form together with your Inter Country Adoption Application. Some local social worker does not know this process. She choose to bring a abandoned child directly to us. We did ask her if this can be done and she as well as a regional DSWD said that my wife and I have no problem adopting the kid (a three months old abandoned baby todler). My wife was borned and grew up in the Philippines, we are citizen of Canada. For adopting that kid she actually went to the Philippines and start bonding with her. But when it come to ICAB, it is to her and I disappointment, we have to let the child go. Both my wife and I have compassion for the child and the child needs a good home and my wife and I can more than able to support that kids to post-graduate education and even beyond in his future. The instruction from ICAB gave the two social workers working for us quite a shock and they were both embarrased about the whole stituation. My wife, who started the bonding with the kid was soobing with tears to see the child go. We bought the kids some cloths from Canada and a few toys and we gave them to him as a gift for wishing him can settle in a future good home. ICAB turn the case down because they need to follow their sets of guidline. It is so bad that sometime the rules and regulation establish for a good course ended up banning the child for a potential good future. It is also evident from another couple of our local agency whose application has been turn down because article 5 and 7 of the Hague Convention on International Adoption are not followed. That couple saw a child they like and briefly inform ICAB about their intention to adopt the child. ICAB say no to them. One of the reason is quite obvious, ICAB do not even have the home study report of the couple and neither the child study report. ICAB do have computer equipment but of course not the most up to date technology. They do have quite a good website with most important information and both relative and inter country adoption questionaires and application available for downloading. Also in their website they have links to the articles from Hague Convention and their specific rules and regulation both old and 2003 update available together with their orgnization structiure including Board of Directors and Employees. User can log into their website and find out all sorts of valuable information. They welcome people to use their website and send them questionaire via electronic means and even visit their office though this practise is discouraged because under their rules and regulations, communication has to be via the applicant's local agency. They do have e-mail address and this is the one they use to communicate with the provincial government of British Columbia and from there to our local agency. Our local agency has call the resouces from the Philippines and they are the one who deal quite extensively with the Philippines. Some of your posting on ICAB is true when it comes to their avaiability of Todlers under 18 months particularly girl. But you maybe a little under estimate what ICAB have in their possession. They are located in Quezon City, one or maybe the best neighbourhood in Manila Philippines. Furthermore they are the Philippines Government designated agency to look after International Adoption as well as relative adoption. They do have sufficient resource to handle the basic demand. We are not making things up for we have be following ICAB guideline for Inter Country Adoption. On our application form they very explicitely say that they do not welcome same sex couple and common law relationship . And they do have priority. The priority is first goes to both adoptive parents who are Filipino Nationals and practising Roman Catholic Faith. They do allow other religious denomination except as what you have mentioned JW because of blood transfusion. But Roman Catholic is the first priority given, follow by Filipinos with other nationals who are practising catholic. In the application we do have to respond how we practise the faith. Then , they ask for four written reference , not from immediate family members, and one of them must be from a priest who know us for five years, and we did. Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints is one of the fastest growing Christian denomination in the Philippines. Many local people do very much welcome them into their community. We have a couple of apartments for rent and one of our tenant is an elder from Jesus Christ of Later Day Saint. We met them a few times and they have been exceptional in upkeeping the property for us. You must be proud of your denomination success in the Philippines ! We have all the evidents with us. I use my real name for posting and I cannot afford to lie for this will not only hurt others but ruin my reputation. Though we have a number of information about ICAB, we find that some of them maybe conflicting coming from our local agency, local Philippines Social Workers, and to some extend the Philippines Consulate in the Canadian City where we resides. We very sincerely like to share many inforamtions from you for our adoption in Philippines has not been going smoohtly. Either we are missing some information or ICAB misplace our documents. Maybe we do not have a competent representative from ICAB handling our adoption case and the local social workers working on our case is not quite up to date on international adoption. Afterall, ICAB has over 30 employees.

We would like to share any most up to date information on ICAB with you. If you have any post August 2004 information on Philippines Inter Country Adoption, we are most welcome to hear from you.

Canada is under the Hague Convention. You mentioned that the United State is also under the Hague Convention for the protection of children's right as well. When did the US became a participating member nation under the Hague and what status of the convention she is under ?

Thank you for clarifying yourself to me. I will try to answer questions you have, and hopefully you have more info also. Yes, the US is participating in the Hague. But, each individual adoption agency has to make themselves compliant. I am now working with an agency here, who is in the process, and when they become compliant, I will be able to be certified, and do adoptions for the Philippines. The info. you have now stated is true, however the priority thing (except for being Filipino) is more and more becoming general with respect to religion. Their philosophies have change drastically in the last 5 - 10 years to simply adopt to anyone who has a strong belief in God, and practices their religion. ICAB does not allow, at all, people to choose their child. If you try to do that at all, they will deny you adoption. This is probably your case, from what I have read. Also, your agency has to be ICAB certified to do adoptions, and have to comply by their exact rules, and the way they want things done. If they are not, they will just throw away your dossier. I am so sorry for your bad experience, and I hope that your story will help others to know exactly what they have to do to adopt from the Philippines. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you in the future. Sincerely, Jen

Thanks very much for your information. It is rather disappointing to us that some local professionals in the Philippines do not quite understand the rules and regulations set out by ICAB. We all become embarass by that experience. Painful but a good learining experience for us. God Bless You All Larry

Thank you very much Jen, you have been a great help in explaining to us. God Bless Larry