Looking for information on adopting from the Dominican Republic

We are also interested in adopting from the DR and I can't find any information on anyone who has actually done so recently. The program with our agency is a pilot program. I think there are a lot of reasons why most people do not adopt from here... being able to spend 3 to 8 months in country with your child... and the process may take 3 years before you ever get a referral. We are just in the beginning stages, but I hope to have a story to share eventually! What agency are you going with?

We aren't with any agency yet. We've looked into Adoption Ark and LifeLine, but there aren't any agencies local to us. We will probably start with a homestudy through a local agency and go from there. I do know some DR adoptions don't use an agency, but instead work straight with the Law Firm in the DR who works with all the adoptions and CONANI. I agree, there are a lot of requirements - especially the 3-8 month stay in country - which prevent more families from adopting from the DR. However, this is where our heart is, so we are hoping to be able to meet these requirements. What agency are you with?

Hello,Did either of you follow through with your adoptions from the DR? Were you successful? My husband and I are interested as well, but it seems like there is no information out there. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello. I see your post is old but I am able to give you some information. First of all, you are you are talking about an adoption from another country. I am new here but I am going to guess you are in the United States so let me make a few comments that will help you. First of all, do you speak Spanish? If you are of Hispanic descent which I think not, you must try to understand that everything you are thinking about is biased by your cultural, educational, and sociological background. No offense but the thing to think about is that is that the first part of the process is going to be conducted by people in another country that do not think in English. The Dominican Republic is a country that is a former colony of Spain, as opposed to the US that gained its independence from England. First of all, the legal system is based on Roman Law, that is the laws of the former Roman Empire. These legal ideas were the basis of law in the Spanish Empire and consequently their colonies. Specifically, in the Dominican Republic, the laws of France, or Napoleonic Codes, (also from Roman Law) are the Law. This means that everything you know about law, in the US does not apply. Secondly, as you noted few adoptions have taken place from the Dominican Republic (about 235 in the past fifteen years) because the process is not organized in a way that offers much information to foreigners. The idea of an adoption "agency" is not very common - the country has a population of ten million people. Therefore, adoptions are run by attorneys, generally. Thirdly, the government that controls the process, CONANI, is not so user friendly. As one of my friends, an American attorney, said, attorneys in hispanic countries do a lot of "clerical" work. That is because locals are not usually well enough educated to survive in what we call bureaucracy. That is the reason lawyers do the required work. I guess in conclusion, I would say that you certainly can consider adopting here, but do not expect to go through an actual agency. The reason for that is that making a business in the DR is expensive. The most basic business to open requires around $5,000 US dollars to open because of the laws and regulations to comply. A corporation needs over $600,000 to form, so without a good possibility of earning a return precludes the formation of a regular agency. You will need a little advice from a local to help you through this but I think it is a good option. Feel free to write if you have any further questions.

Yadira,We did follow through with our adoption from the DR! We came home as a family of six this past May (2017)! We spent about 5 months in country to complete the adoption process and we used Lifeline as our placing agency here in the US. I would highly recommend them if you are still interested in adopting from the DR.

John Wilson,Yes, I do speak Spanish fluently and it definitely was helpful for our 5 months in country to have advice from a local. We were blessed to have connections with our sister church in East Santo Domingo and our placing agency here in the US (Lifeline) also has an in-country liaison that assisted us as well. Knowing Spanish was definitely an advantage for us, but I also know most of the families that adopted before us through Lifeline were not fluent in Spanish. Our agency does work with a lawyer, who did a lot of the direct contact with CONANI. All international adoptions from the DR must go through CONANI. I am happy to report we left the US in December as a family of four and came back to US in May of 2017 as a family of 6. We loved our time in the DR and my husband still says he wants to move there more permanently. It definitely has a piece of our hearts and we hope to be able to return from time to time.

Thank you, Luvumoo, for the information. Congratulations on your new additions. I'm originally from the Dominican Republic, so I am fluent in Spanish. Unfortunately, my husband and I are not in a position to spend that much time out of country (work). It makes me very sad that this requirement is so rigid. Thanks again!Yadira,We did follow through with our adoption from the DR! We came home as a family of six this past May (2017)! We spent about 5 months in country to complete the adoption process and we used Lifeline as our placing agency here in the US. I would highly recommend them if you are still interested in adopting from the DR.[/quote]

Congratulations Luvumoo. You were lucky to have the church connection; I am sure they were able to help you a lot. Having someone to advise you in a foreign country, especially DR is priceless. I was going to say to Yadira that the requirement for presence in DR is I think only a month or two because after that, your attorney can represent you to take care of some of the paperwork. If you are a native, you already know of the frequent delays (like the power going out or lack of internet) but your being Dominican relaxes some of the requirements for your adoption. You can see that CONANI has a set of rules for Dominicans and another for extranjeros (foreigners). Most rules (and their enforcement) is affected by the feelings of the bureaucrat who is working on the case. You should think about talking to relatives and friends there to help find a prospective adoptee. The process will be much easier, and cheaper if you found a child to adopt and then try to initiate things yourself. Being from DR, you know about "hermanos de crianza" - I would not even attempt to describe this in English because it would require two pages of writing and a heated discussion of the cultural differences in foreign countries. I live in DR half of the year and have accepted these differences. The important part here is to feel comfortable with your attorney there, because you know that everything in the Dominican Republic takes time.

Josh and Yadira,Actually, CONANI has strict rules that you CANNOT have a prior relationship with a child, unless they make a special exception. They say this is to prevent child trafficking. That being said, I have seen them make an exception, but it created years of delay in the process before having the children placed in their care. They even were quite hesitant about allowing us to Skype with our children after we were matched before we travelled. As far as we are aware, we were the first family our US agency had seen be granted permission to see the orphanage they were from during the socialization week. Yes, the attorney can represent you in applying for birth certificates, much of the back and forth with CONANI and picking up the adoption decree. Our attorney also had to be present with us when we applied for passports for our children, but we did the US Embassy appointments on our own.Our general timeline in country was this: -Week 1: Socialization week (we spent 2 hours Monday-Thursday meeting and getting to know our children, including one day going to the orphanage.) Friday of this week they were signed into our physical care and we became their physical guardians. That Friday is they day they moved into our care 24/7.-After socialization week we continued our 60 day cohabitation period. We were able petition to reduce ours to 30 days due to medical special needs and it was granted, but expect 60 days because you cannot petition a reduction until they are in your physical custody.-At the end of the cohabitation period we then waited for an appointment to meet with the judge where she interviewed us to be sure we understood adoption children receive the same rights and privileges of biological children and once the adoption was finalized it is irrevocable. She also asked how cohabitation went and how we felt the children were doing, etc.-After meeting with the judge, she then set a court date to sign and approve the adoption decree. At this point the adoption was finalized, we became their legal parents and they gained our last name. However, we could not return to the US until we had all of the documents needed to an immigrant Visa. After this meeting, my husband was allowed to return to the US for work while I stayed in the DR with the children until the remaining steps were completed.-Once the decree was signed there was a 30 day "no contest" period to ensure there were no errors and before we could apply for their new birth certificates with our names as the parents and their new last names.-Birth certificates have to go through La Junta and they are notorious for long timelines. In our case it took 7 weeks from applying for the birth certificates after the 30 day no contest period of the adoption decree and being granted permission to pick up the birth certificates (our lawyer did the application and all of the steps in the birth certificates, including picking them up and getting them apostled.) We were told this was faster than expected, as the last family took much longer.-Once we had the birth certificates, the last steps were very quickly (less than two weeks). The remaining steps were:-Apply for passports - thanks to a connection our attorney had with someone in the Migration office, we were able to get them same day, but usually it takes 2-4 days from applying to picking them up for minors.-Once we had passports and birth certificates in hand, we were able to go to the US Embassy Medical physical. This is actually two appointments 2 days apart because they have to test for TB. Sometimes they can give you the results at your second appointment if you are willing to stick around to wait and other times you pick them up a few days later.-As soon as you have the results you can then do your Embassy Interview. In our case it was an open appointment, meaning we could go any morning Monday-Thursday. In other cases, they will give you an actual date and time.-After the Embassy interview they can issue the immigrant Visas. This could be same day or could be a few days later.-Obtaining the immigrant Visa was the last thing we needed before we could travel home to the USA with our children. Just an FYI, be sure to have birth certificates, VISA and passports readily available at the airport in the DR and upon entering the USA. You will have to go through immigration agents at both ends.Hope that helps! We were in the DR for exactly 5 months from the day we met our children to the day we flew home.