Is Bulgaria the right choice, now?

I hate to say it but no-go. At least until referrals start coming in significant numbers for healthy children. The official story as to why there are no referrals coming for healthy children is that the central database -which is new to the process, is not operational yet. They are saying by summer it will be running. With the August shutdown, I do not expect anything before September / October. If referrals start coming in the fall, then go ahead and write a check. But I would not give any money until the country is running again. I have 1 daughter from Bulgaria and am registered for a second. I am considering switching to Russia because of my concerns with the country at this time. Kay

I jsut realized I did not really answer your questions, so here it goes, from what I know: How long is it taking to get a referral? I have heard of no referrals for healthy chidren. There are a few coming now for special needs kids. This is a good sign, because it does show that the country has not shut down completely. How easy is it to get siblings/ twins that are under 3? This might be a challenge to get 2 kids under 3, unless they are twins. Most of the kids do not make it out until they are at least 18 months, if you are willing to have a 4 - 5 yar old you have a better chance. A set of twins is possible, I do know of families that have adopted twins. You might have a longer wait for a match, though. What U.S agencies are still moving quickly? They are all moving at the same speed - competely stopped! I do not think you will find much of a difference in agencies speed at getting matched, since the matches are made by the Ministry of Justice. I am using Tree of Life toladopt.org.

Sadly I have to second that setiment. We started in February of 2003 for two children (requsting medically challenged children) and we brought our first son home this past September and will visit our other son next week. Were we not "in it" when things were running so smooth(or so we thought in 2003) then we would have switched to Russia...which even though that country has its own issues for the most part things are predictable regarding a timetable and never "shut down" completely. Good luck in your journey, it will happen! Vicki

Please realize that there are agencies that do not require a big chunk of your money before you get a referral. I heard from several US agencies that wanted a large amount even before Dossier was submitted and then all of it before they even had a referral for me. My Bulgarian agency required no money until I submitted my dossier and then it was only 1/3 the total. The second 1/3 was not paid until I had a referral and had actually seen and accepted the referral. The final 1/3 will be paid next week when I go to pick up my child.

We did /are using a US adoption agency for Bulgaria. Our fees also are paid in installments. If Bulgaria does close down, we can transfer agency fees to another country. We will be "out" a percentage of our foreign fee, which is paid in three installments, if it closes down. Two installments are paid at points after acceptance of referral and court approval. Since I am hearing so much about the fall timeline for a move in referrals, we are going to wait until then and see. If nothing is still happening there, and our agency still has no solid information, we will probably switch to Guatemala. It will then be officially one year from the time we started this process and the time Referrals were supposed to pick up, so I heard. This is just how I am thinking Good luck, Maria still awaiting "official registration"

My out of pocket expenses prior to referral........... 1200 home study 675 INS 300 Dossier collected and authenticated 100 to mail it 3000 agency and country fee

We have recently returned from a visit to Bulgaria to see our daughter. While there, we went to the American Embassy. They shared some views on the future of adoption in Bulgaria. The information below comes from the US Embassy in Sofia's website. It echoes what we were told in person. We thought people may be interested in the projections. T`s Dad Availability of Children for Adoption Recent statistics reflect the following patter for visa issuance to Bulgarian orphans adopted by American citizens: 2001 - 295 2002 - 257 2003 - 198 2004 - 116 The statistics for fiscal year 2005 shows that the Embassy in Sofia issues an average of three adoption visas per month. These numbers reflect the current trend of steady decline of foreign adoptions in Bulgaria. If this trends continues, we may expect less than 40 visas issued to Bulgarian orphans in FY 2005. The government of Bulgaria is pressed by the European Union to reduce the number of foreign adoptions and to find alternative methods of placement of orphans and neglected children. According to recent information from the Ministry of Justice, there are only 180 children available for foreign adoption and about 1200 families and single parents from North America and Europe on the waiting list. Approximately 80 % of the children have medical condition. Please note that the parents applications are not processed in chronological order. An adoption Council at the Ministry of Justice reviews the applications and matches children to a proper family. Priority is given to parents wishing to adopt a child with medical condition.

I am glad you posted this. I read it this morning on my email from the group. This makes it very clear that Bulgaria is basically shut down.

Thanks to evveryone. I guess we need to start researching other countries if we want to build our family any time soon.

I definitely agree that beginning a Bulgaria adoption right now isn't the fastest way to go! Had we not already been 'in' it all, we wouldn't start now either. I saw on another board an interesting post reminding that the statistics are for US only, and that the 1200 backed up now is US and European families. (Apparently some people on that board were rating US only statistics against the US and European together statistic of 1200 which is obviously skewed). They said statistics of total US and European adoptions in 2001 was 895 and total for 2002 was 1155, then since 2003, there have only been a couple hundred signifying where the slowdown began. Anyhow, just thought that was interesting. But again, obviously Bulgaria is in a virtual standstill right now. Keeping my fingers crossed it won't be that way for too long. :cool: