Philippine Adoption

December 23, 2011

Unfortunately, you will not be able to do an adoption of a 17-18 year old. It's not the adoption that is the problem, unless the Philippines does not allow children of this age to be adopted; it is the immigration. Under U.S. law, an adoption visa can be granted ONLY if a child has not yet reached his/her 16th birthday at the time the I-800 is filed with the USCIS. The only exception is in a case where a bio sibling of a child has already been adopted and brought to the U.S. by the same family; in that case, an adoption visa can be granted up until the child turns 18.

I must also tell you that good adoption practice does NOT support splitting up families. Where possible, it is believed that siblings should be adopted together. And when it is not possible -- for example, in the case of a very large sibling group or a group where one or more children may have serious special needs -- it is believed that every effort should be made to keep siblings in close proximity, so that they can maintain a relationship. At the very least, they should be in the same country, if at all possible.

I would recommend that you not consider adoption of these children, but that you use your contacts in the Philippines to see if the children can be adopted either by one family in the community or, if necessary, by two or three families in the community.

Regarding the oldest child, since she is a good student, you may want to try to bring her to the U.S. on a student visa, so that she can attend college here. This would not be a permanent resident visa -- she would have to return to the Philippines after completing her education or if she drops out of school -- but it might be a good way to assist her at this difficult time.

The only thing you should know is that, to bring a child to the U.S. on a student visa, you will need to be her sponsor. This means that you must be able to prove that the child has guaranteed admission to a particular school that is approved by the USCIS, and that her school fees and living expenses will be paid. Since college is expensive, and a person who is not a U.S. citizen may not have access to as many scholarships as an American child, you may not be able to afford this option.

As to the cost of international adoption, while the cost for adopting an unrelated child whom you do not know is usually in the $25,000-$40,000 range, it is less costly to adopt a relative's child, because you do not need to have an agency or foreign authority actually select a child for you.

However, adoption isn't cheap, even if you are related to the child in question. You would need to have a homestudy in your state of residence, to ensure that you are qualified morally and financially to bring a child to the U.S. and that you are prepared for the challenges of parenting an adopted child. A homestudy may cost anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 or so, depending on your state of residence.

Then, you have USCIS paperwork. USCIS fees are high. As an example, the I-800A, which must be completed for any child from a Hague country, like the Philippines, that you wish to adopt, has a filing fee of $720.

In addition, to file the I-800A, you must also spend $85 per adult in your household for fingerprinting and related activities. The USCIS wants to be sure that you will not be bringing a child into the U.S. for illegal or immoral purposes, and that you are unlikely to become unable to support the child, putting him/her into the foster care system.

Because the Philippines is a Hague-compliant country like the U.S., you would have to use a Hague-accredited, licensed U.S. agency to submit your paperwork to the government of the Philippines. Since you have already identified the child, the fees would be lower than if you had not; however, I doubt that they would be less than a few thousand dollars, since there is a tremendous amount of Hague paperwork.

You will then have fees that you must pay to obtain documents, such as your birth certificates, marriage certificates, medical reports, police reports, and so on, both for your homestudy and for your dossier that goes to the government of the Philippines. And once you have obtained these documents, those that go to the Philippines will need to go through a process of notarization, certification, and authentication; the various authorities charge fees for each document going through the process, and all told, you might wind up paying a few hundred dollars for these.

The Philippine government will charge some fees for processing the adoption, and the U.S. government in the Philippines will charge fees for the child's visa to enter the U.S.

You will need to travel to the Philippines to receive guardianship of your child and bring him/her to the U.S. Escort is not permitted. As a result, you will have airfare and lodging fees for yourself, your spouse, and your child.

And if you do not finalize in the Philippines -- I believe that you have to bring the child to the U.S. under a decree of guardianship and adopt here in the U.S., you will have various fees related to the finalization, such as attorney fees, court costs, costs for post-placement reports by a social worker, and so on.

Personally, I adopted at an older age -- I adopted an 18 month old child when I was "only" 51, so I'm 66 with a 16 year old daughter now. I have no problem with adoption by older parents, and absolutely LOVE being one. But the issue is not whether you can, simply, afford to feed and clothe a child. Especially when you adopt an older child, you need to be prepared for a variety of behavioral, medical, and other issues, that can be costly and very demanding of your time and emotional involvement.

Sharon