Who Can Be Adopted from Cote d'Ivoire

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Source: flickr.com.

In addition to U.S. immigration requirements, Côte d’Ivoire has specific requirements that a child must meet in order to be eligible for adoption:

Relinquishment: Children placed in an orphanage by the biological parent(s) for financial inability or other personal reasons are not available for adoption unless the parent(s) irrevocably relinquish their parental rights and consent to the child’s adoption in accordance with the law.

Abandonment: Foundlings, directly placed in public orphanages, are considered abandoned if the biological parents cannot be located after three months of police investigation.

Age of Adoptive Child: With regard to full adoption, the law states that the child must be under 15 years old. However, the maximum of age for an orphan placed in a public orphanage is 12 years old. Important note: U.S. law requires a child to be under the age of 16 at the time the petition is filed to qualify for a U.S. immigrant visa, unless the child is the natural sibling of another child who was adopted by the same parents while under the age of 18.

Sibling Adoptions: Sibling adoptions are allowed. No priority is given to prospective adoptive parents adopting siblings.

Special Needs or Medical Conditions: A medical examination is required for an orphan before the child can be released from the orphanage. The medical examination is the responsibility of the prospective adoptive parent(s).

Waiting Period or Foster Care: The law requires a mandatory six-month period for foster care but in practice it is not always enforced.

Caution: Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that not all children in orphanages or children’s homes are adoptable. In many countries, birth parents place their child(ren) temporarily in an orphanage or children’s home due to financial or other hardship, intending that the child return home when this becomes possible. In such cases, the birth parent(s) have rarely relinquished their parental rights or consented to their child(ren)’s adoption.

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