Intercountry Adoption: Where Do I Start?: Deciding Whether Intercountry Adoption is Right For Your Family

This information was taken directly from Child Welfare Information Gateway

Deciding If Intercountry Adoption Is Right for Your Family

Intercountry adoption is just one way to build a family through adoption. Other options include adoption from domestic foster care and domestic infant adoption. Many families consider the following issues when deciding whether intercountry adoption is right for them:

Adoptive parent requirements.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which must approve all intercountry adoptions, has two basic eligibility requirements for prospective adoptive parents: Prospective adoptive parents must be U.S. citizens and, if unmarried, must be at least 25 years old when they file the petition to adopt. For married couples, USCIS has no age requirement, and only one spouse must be a U.S. citizen. Persons applying to adopt from a Convention country also must reside habitually in the United States. (For a definition of “habitually resident,” visit http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=8:1.0.1.2.8&idno=8%20-%208:1.0.1.2.8.3.1.4 and scroll down to §204.303).

Timeframe.

Like any adoption, intercountry adoption involves some uncertainty. The length and predictability of the process vary depending on the country, adoption service provider, and individual child involved, but it generally takes from 1 to 5 years to complete an intercountry adoption.

Reason the child needs to be adopted.

Children in other countries need adoptive families for many of the same reasons children in the United States need foster care and adoptive families. These reasons may include poverty, illness or death of the parents, abandonment, or family issues such as substance use or child maltreatment. Other factors that contribute to the child’s need for a permanent family include the country of origin’s government policies on population control, the country’s economy, war, famine, natural disasters, and others. It is helpful to understand what these factors are in the specific countries you are considering.

Child’s age.

In 2012, 10.4 percent of children adopted internationally were younger than 12 months old, 42.7 percent were ages 1 to 2 years, 15.0 percent were ages 3 to 4 years, 23.7 percent were ages 5 to 12 years, 7.7 percent were ages 13 to 17, and less than 1 percent were 18 years or older (U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Office of Children’s Issues, n.d.-a). In 2003, 45.8 percent of the intercountry adoptions were of children under 1 year, but the international adoption of children less than 1 year of age has become increasingly less likely over time. A variety of factors have contributed to the recent demographic changes in intercountry adoption, but two of these factors are the internal social changes in countries of origin (i.e., the country from which the child was adopted) and the rise of a vibrant and economically more independent middle class. With the growth of the middle class in some large countries, more families residing in those countries seek to domestically adopt newborn and healthy children. This may be a result of factors in the country of origin, such as changes to government policies in favor of domestic adoption or political choices limiting adoption with the United States.

Another possible factor is the Convention’s focus on the principle of subsidiarity. This principle states that a child should be placed with his birth or extended family whenever possible and that other permanent forms of family care in the country of origin should be considered prior to intercountry adoption. Intercountry adoption is not a last resort, however, as it is viewed as preferable to the child being placed in an institution or a series of temporary foster homes (Hague Conference on Private International Law, 2008).

According to U.S. immigration law, children must be younger than 16 years old on the filing date of the immigration petition in order to be eligible to immigrate to the United States for purposes of adoption. (There are some exceptions to this. For additional information, refer to I am a U.S. Citizen: How Do I Immigrate an Adopted or Prospective Adopted Child or Help My Adopted Child Become a U.S. Citizen or U.S. Permanent Resident? at http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/A3en.pdf.)

Eligibility for adoption and immigration to the United States.

U.S. Immigration laws (the Immigration and Naturalization Act and the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000) require children entering the United States for purposes of adoption to be classified as “orphans” (if they are from non-Convention countries) or as “Convention adoptees” (if they are from Convention countries), as defined by these laws. (For more information, refer to I am a U.S. Citizen: How Do I Immigrate an Adopted or Prospective Adopted Child or Help My Adopted Child Become a U.S. Citizen or U.S. Permanent Resident? at http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/A3en.pdf.)

Adoption of Relatives

Prospective adoptive children who are related to the petitioner(s) (i.e., the prospective adoptive parent(s)) must qualify for adoption and immigration to the United States under all the same criteria as unrelated children. Relatives may be able to adopt if the children qualify as orphans or Convention adoptees. The requirements depend on the country in which the relative live (Information regarding specific requirements can be found in I Am a U.S. Citizen: How Do I Immigrate an Adopted or Prospective Adopted Child or Help My Adopted Child Become a U.S. Citizen or U.S. Permanent Resident? at http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/A3en.pdf.)

Continue to Determining From Which Country to Adopt

Return to International Adoption (Glossary)

Resource

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2014). Intercountry adoption: Where do I start? Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.