New and need advice on Phillipine family adoption

i found a couple of places that might be of help to you in your search. holt international adoption agency. pearl s. buck child services and there is another name that came up in this discussion that you posted to last night... a place called "chrysalis house". [url]www.chrysalishouse.com[/url] i don't know if that is the website, but it is based out of california. also, if you read the other postings on this thread, you will see that most phillipine adoptions have to go through the inter-country adoptions board -- an agency based out of the phillippines. there were several other people in your position on earlier messages on this forum, so you should really read through them for other contact information. good luck.

I've been reading a lot about adoption since my widower sister passed away last Dec 4, 2002 and left 3 kids (ages 16, 13 and 11 yrs old). Now we just sent our preliminary application to Catholic Charities of Baltimore. We are in the waiting game now. If you are planning to adopt in the philippines. You can email ICAB (Inter-Country Adoption Board),tell them your intention to adopt, history of the child and how the child is related to you. You can address it to: Lourna Laraya, MD she is the executive director of ICAB and the email add is icaba@skyinet.net. It will take a week before they will respond. I will advise you that check also their website of ICAB and INS, you really have to do your own homework, to know the policy of each government. this is for you to know if the child is qualify for an ORPHANS VISA. ICAB website is : [url]www.skyinet.net/~icaba/[/url] You will see everything in this website including the recognize adoption agency. You also have to check the US Embassy :[url]www.ins.gov[/url] and check what is the form I600 Im very thankfull for this website the Adoption .Com

PI does allow RELATIVE PRE-IDENTIFIED child adoptions...so your very blessed that you're related to this child....they allow you to go up to the 4th generation....if you weren't related, you can pretty much forget about it from what I can tell right now.... The ICAB is very much involved like Rena said....just be careful to do EVERYTHING RIGHT and what they ask for... IMPORTANT--in order for the child to be able to enter the U.S. --our US requirements--any inter-country adoption, the child must be deemed an orphan in order to be recognized here.... How is your process going? I'm sure you know alot by now, seeing that your post was from February...how are things going???? I can also tell you, DO NOT USE AN ATTORNEY BY THE NAME OF REYNALDO BERNARDO in the Philippines...my husband and I (we live in the United States) were using him, he was referred to us by a family in PI and he basically just lied to us and took our money.....He had told us we COULD adopt privately, a pre-identified (non-relative) child, which the birthmother from PI, who lives in PI, she chose us to raise her baby here in the states, now we're finding out we CAN'T.....and our hearts are broken.... But, we're praying for God's mercy and His favor....and we're trying to be hopeful..... We'll also keep you in our prayers... Melody

Hi Melody, The paperwork of the children are still in the DSWD office in Manila. They interviewed the children last Feb 14 so it's been five months already. My mother called the DSWD office two weeks ago and they said that they are still reviewing it. So, what we are waiting for here is that the DSWD should declare these children ADOPTABLE, before we start anything else (homestudy, I-600 etc..). I know and I respect that they have their own rules/regulations to follow, that's why we are patiently waiting. Our agency here advise us not to do the Homestudy yet until we receive a word from the DSWD. I think the idea is, IF they find this children are NOT ADOPTABLE, we just waisted our time and money for the homestudy. I understand that our agency wants to be in the safe side. I really want to start our homestudy since Feb. Even though I told them that this children are FULL ORPHANS they still don't want us to do it. Speaking of being adoptable, all my brothers and sister are leaving permanently outside the philippines, so they don't have anybody in the house, we ask one of my Aunt to move with the children so somebody can watch them. And my Mom decided to go back in the phils she's leaving with me. I have a good faith that one day we will receive the goodnews. I'm just putting this way, now that I read a lot of experiences about their paperwork being expired, so I'll just wait. I prepared a three brown envelop, one is for the homestudy requirements which I got from the website, [url]www.ohiohomestudy.com[/url] . The second envelop is for ICAB Dozzier which I got from their website. And the third envelop is for the I-600 INS form plus the Affidavit of Support. I started gathering all the document for all of this specially all the birth cert. and marr cert. The document that has expiration date I will not get it yet. But I know already is to where we need to go for our Psychological Eval. and that is covered by our insurance. My problem is, I still don't know where to get the child abuse clearance here in VA. specially here in Va. Beach. I constantly checking/playing with this document, and sometimes I just cried, I remember my sister............ We are prepared too for our Autobiography. I will keep you posted. Since I posted here, several people has emailed me, asking how did I start the process of relative adoption. I have one more thing to share to everybody. This is a link to the website of US Embassy in Manila. [url]http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/rp1/wwwh3205.html[/url] Goodluck to us

If you are really interested to pursue a relative adoption in the Philippines you can do it provided that you are eligible to adopt based on the provisions of the Philippine Inter-country Adoption Law of 1995 and that the child to be adopted is really a relative (that is, within the 4th degree of consanguinal relationship). The bithparents and child circumstances has to be assessed whether the birthparents are aware of the consequences of adoption and decided to relinquish the child for adoption. There are adoption agencies which are accredited with the Philippine government (Inter-country Adoption Board -ICAB) which you can connect and ask information. You can try browsing the webpage of ICAB You will find there guidelines and procedures to comply with. It is not that difficult to adopt in the Philippines through the inter-country adoption route (that is the filing and finalization of the adoption is in your country of residence, in your case-USA) if one is patient enough, cognizant that it is the life of the child that is at stake and therefore decisions should really be judicious and that it is the child's needs that will be paramount and not the needs of the prospective adoptive parent. Hope i was of help. thanks, marivir