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Hi, I am new to the Colombia forum. My daughter is adopted from Guatemala. Before her adoption we had started the Colombian adoption process (very early stages) in January 2006 but our lawyers had recommended switching to Guatemala. Anyway now they are suggesting for the second adoption trying Colombia b/c of our ages.
My questions -
Is it still possible to do a private adoption in Colombia through an orphange or do all adoptions go through ICBF?
What exactly is ICBF? It it like the foster care system here in the states?
Any info you can provide would be appreciated. Thanks.
ICBF is the Colombian version of the Child & Family Welfare Organization. It is still possible to adopt through a private orphanage (which is not the same as a private adoption) or directly through ICBF. Most children placed with ICBF, especially those under 2 are in foster care. We adopted our son from ICBF when he was about a year old. He had been with the same foster family since he was 11 days old. It was a very loving environment and he was very well taken care of. ICBF requires the foster parents to go through ongoing training and they frequently assess the welfare of the children. Ultimately ICBF must approve all adoptions in Colombia regardless of whether you go through an orphanage.
A couple of differences...ICBF is cheaper as they do not charge a fee to adopt from them. Younger babies "tend" to be available from the casas although I have heard of some ICBF placed children as young as 3-4 months, 6-8 is more typical if approved for 0-12 months. Some of the casas will not allow you to adopt from them if you already have a child or may have tighter age restrictions than ICBF.
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Laura,
So you can do an independent adoption through a private orphanage, as well as ICBF? Sorry, if I'm misunderstanding. Does a family contact the orphanages themselves to begin the process?
No..if both cases you need to go through a Hague accredited agency who does adoptions in Colombia.