Relative Adoption Philippines

I am hoping to see some input on this thread. My sister in law is having a baby soon and we are hoping to adopt the child.

I am not sure how it works in the US, but we are in a similar situation in Canada. We have officially adopted our niece in Nigeria and are now working to bring her to Canada. To do this we need to meet the adoption requirements for immigration (even though the adoption is complete and we have the adoption order and certificate) which means the full home study etc. Once that is complete then our Ministry of Children and Family Development issues a "letter of no objection' to immigration. THEN we have to go through the immigration process. We had a glitch in the immigration process and were told we had to wait two years. :grr:We are now at the end of the wait and are having the SW visits start tomorrow (seems silly when we are family and already have a 4 yr old!!) To better navigate the immigration system we are using an immigration consultant who specializes in family sponsorship. We have high hopes for fall - 6 months.... :flower: My best advice is to do as much research into the process as possible and if you can possibly get professional help to navigate through the system - do it. We would have saved alot of time and grief if we had not tried to complete the paperwork etc ourselves.

Hi, my husband & I are adopting my half sister's son. I am a Filipino by birth, married to a Canadian, became a Canadian citizen, and reacquired my Philippine citizenship and is presently in the Philippines for more than a year now (got a home here where I raise this little boy) until the adoption & immigration process is done. Canada/US and the Philippines (among others) are signatories to the Hague Convention, so, adopting from the Philippines whether d child is a relative or not, PAPS must go thru the international adoption process. Meaning, you have to consult with your home's international adoption central authority (ours is SAI since are based in Quebec), and said central authority will guide you re the whole process. Since ours is a relative adoption, we dont have an agency, the central authority in Canada (SAI in the case of Quebec) handles our case directly; Very important: If you have plans to bring the child to the US (ur country of residence)/Canada in our case, pls be extra careful not to fall into advices to do local adoption in the Philippines. Yes, it is possible to do so, it is your wife's birth right (and, mine too), but if you are primarily domiciled in the US, you will avoid all kinds of problems if u do not go to court in the Philippines. Believe me, we committed the mistake of filing a petition in a Philippine Family Court, but we were saved by some inner guide in us not to leave any stone unturned, I went ahead contacted the Inter-country Adoption Board (ICAB) of the Philippines, and my husband also consulted with SAI of Canada, both guided us accordingly for which we are most grateful... We were guided to close our court adoption petition. Had we proceeded w/ our Philippine court adoption petition, we would have been into a lot of grave trouble and may not be able to bring the child to Canada. We are blessed to trust our hearts and were able to correct our mistake (of listening to a false advice). We finished all d Canadian requiremnts in March 2012, our file from SAI was received by ICAB in Apr 2012, filed for immigration in June 2012,ICAB approved our bid in early Apr2013, SAI's No Objection received a few days after, Quebec selection received also in Apr2013, notice for immigration medical received in early May & done a week after, and we are now waiting for our little boy's visa. Please feel free to contact me if there is anything else I can do for you. I really dont know how we survived all the challenges, the experiences were tough, but fo the love of this child and the prospect of giving him the best, I believed we did well despite all hardships incldg being separated from my hubby for many months since we started the process so that our child will not have to be without even just one of us. I hope above input be useful in your bid to adopt your wife's nephew's son. We wish you the very best! Am pretty sure you can do it, probably way better than we did. Bst regards, k

My wife held a Philippines passport and was living in the US for 7 years when we started the adoption process. We went thru the Philippine court system with a good lawyer ($2500 flat fee for one or both children) for 2 children, 9 and 12 years old. They were my wifes grandchildren. It took 9 months to complete the adoption procedure in the Philippines. No US agencies or international agencies involved. Once we recieved the Certificate of Finality, I submitted the INS paperwork and in 30 days it was approved and the interview with my wife and the children was about 5 months later. The key is to get an offical court Legal Guardianship before starting the process. There is a 2 year cutody period for the US and the legal guadianship proof will be needed as well as photos, videos of you and the child, etc. Failure to get the legal guardian paperowrk up from my mean you wait 2 years after the Cert of Finality. WE have a house in the Philippines and a caretaker as well as 12 yars of videos of photos with the children with us. Our grandchildren always called me "Daddy" and was recorded in the videos. Also the biological parents cannot be the caretakers of the children for the 2 year custody requirement. The Embassy will investigate and disqualify them for immigration if you are not the primary caretakers, even if you have to have another relative care for them if you are not always in the country. Watch Citizen Pinoy and they give excellent advice. Our children have been here for 2 years now and are 100% American now. They love it here. Destiny is a fantastic cheerleader and they travel with me all over the USA.

Hi K! I am also doing the same thing only I am in the US and I am holding off getting naturalized here in the US until I get this whole adoption process done. :) I agree with you re the Hangue convention stuff. I have actually made a ton of phone calls both to the USCIS and our adoption agency re going through local adoptions and both were very consistent with their answers about compromising the child's immigration to the US if we insisted on going through the Philippine Family Court.Basing from what you shared, I am glad that the time frame doesn't seem too long, I was thinking 2-3 years or longer. But seems like as long as our ducks are in a row, it wouldn't take as long as expected. Here in the US, we still have to go through an adoption agency that is in the same state as us who can handle international situations, I guess is the only difference. Everything else seems to be relatively similar.

Hi ayveerandolph, thanks for your message! We happily brought here in Canada our little boy last July 2013! Immigration process was surprisingly very quick. Probably because Immigration Canada did not find any reason to delay since we complied with all requirements. We just finished our 6months of trial custody within Canada as required by ICAB of the Philippines and today we will send them our final report thru SAI. We look forward to receive ICAB's Affidavit of No Objection to the Adoption in a few weeks. Then, the final adoption judgment awarded by the court here in Canada, followed by the child's change of name and Canadian citizenship process within the next few months! Pretty good! Meanwhile, our little boy is enjoying to the fullest his first six (6) months within Canada. He is loving his first winter ever (though, it is really harsh this time with lots of snow storms and freezing). He is adjusting well to his new environment! For our learning purposes, in the case of jerrystroud getting legal guardianship thru the Philippine court, that is legally acceptable if adoptive parents are in the Philippines for the long term due to a job or business and within such period got actual custody of the child/children therein. Their chosen path sure brought the kids to the US but it cost them $2500 just for legal fees alone, so probably more, plus the many years (12year?) they established roots in the Philippines for the purpose(?). Though, we have a house in the Philippines, we did not severe our ties from Canada and we were still considered as Canadian residents during our bid for adoption, besides being Canadian citizens (though, I have dual citizenship). Obviously and understandably, it is unacceptable before the Canadian Law for us to proceed with the adoption thru the Philippine court. I guess, it will be the same in the US under the same scenario. We choose to avoid the path that jerrystroud took. We avoided the cost of Philippine proceedings as the end result of which was kind of doubtful since we wanted the child to come with us here in Canada sooner than 12 years. From start of our home study in January 2012 to the time we brought our boy here in Canada including immigration process, it only took us 18months, so much shorter than expected, not 12years or maybe never! We are at peace with the Law, the process we embraced, and the path we have chosen. All these brought us good results and we are together with our little boy for good! A great blessing! Best regards to all, k

Hi Paps2012, I just want to contact you privately to ask for advice, I'm also a Filipina and married for 21 yrs. no luck to have a child of our own and now planning to adopt my newly born grand nephew from the Philippines, We are both Canadian Citizens and on the process of applying for dual citizenship, we are currently residing here in Etobicoke Ontario Canada. I already sent a request to you to be my friend on this adoption.com site can you please accept me and if you don't mind can I call you privately?

Hi, Ay.I have a question. I have a granddaughter in the Philippines which I want to adopt. I just got my US Citizenship last Feb 2018. What is the fastest way to get her here in US? Should I apply for dual citizenship? She's 12yo, mother is my daughter who is a single mom and has another child. I'd been supporting them since in their mother's womb and they're living in our family house in the Philippines. Thank you for any help. Godbless.

Hi Jerrystroud, Have a good day to you Sir,I read your comments Sir. Me and my husband are so confused of what we are going to do first for the adoption. We are planning to adopt my granddaughter but all of the information that we got from the agencies are so confusing and frustrating. We are currently in a vacation now in the Philippines and we want to start the process by adopting my granddaughter while we're here in the Philippines. I am a US citizen and I don't have my dual citizenship. My husband is an American. Can you please help us how to start our journey adopting my granddaughter. You can email me at nissi2021@gmail.com. I really appreciate it if you will give us some information. Thank you.

Hi Sunshine SC, I want to know how/where you start processing the adoption? We are planning to adopt my husband’s niece. We are both Filipino, I am currently here in North York, ON Canada. And my husband is in the Philippines with his niece. I am currently processing for my PR application. I hope you can give me some advices for this. Thank you.