Adopting from Ukraine
Are children available for adoption?
Thousands of children across Ukraine, including some of those in Artemivsk, are waiting for a family.
Some children are not available for adoption for a varity of reasons. Some are in complex legal situations where one parent has not relinquished all rights. Some are still visited from time to time by a grandmother or other relative who are unable to keep them, but have not given permission for their adoption. Still others have older siblings who must approve their adoptions and resist. And another group of children, sadly, are not registered to be adopted because of errors in their paperwork.
In many cases, however, including those children who have been abandoned in the hospitals at birth, the children are available for adoption! For these children, a family is their best hope for a future and greatest dream.
Can I adopt a Ukrainian child from the U.S.?
Yes, the Ukrainian adoption program is open to Americans - both couples and single adults can adopt at this time. There is currenty a legislative debate in Ukraine about the future of single parent adoptions, however. We hope singles will be able to continue to adopt.
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IMPORTANT UPDATE: The quote
for adoption for 2007, 558 children, was reached the end of October 2007.
The State Department of Adoption will only accept dossiers for children
13 and older, children with special needs or siblings of previously adopted
children until December 1. After December 1, NO dossiers will be accepted
until after January 15, 2008. No details on the quota numbers for 2008
have been disclosed.
IMPORTANT
UPDATE: The trend in the last two years has been a reduction
in the number of younger, healthier children available in Ukraine (children
under age 4 with good health or correctable medical issues.) Many who
are now adopting are reporting being shown referrals on children age 4
and over. Those who are requesting children 3 or under are waiting long
periods for second and third referrals in Kiev in many cases.
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The Adoption Process in General
Children must live in the orphanage for a minimum of 14 months before they are available for international adoption. The first two months, the child is available for adoption only to local or regional Ukrainian adoptive families. After this, they are registered in the national database and are available only to Ukrainian families for another 12 months. It is an international adoption standard that in-country families are given a period of time to adopt children before they are available for international adoption, and is common in many countries.
Although the number of children adopted into Ukrainian families is growing, it is far, far below the number of orphans waiting, especially of children over the age of 4. There are still over 100,000 children living in orphanages, and an estimated 20% or more are available for adoption into a family of their own.
The Adoption Process Step-by-Step
Step 1: Homestudy. In this phase, you must find a licensed social worker to do a review of your home, your financial and emotional readiness for adoption, etc. The process can take from 2 months to a year - it depends on how quickly the social worker can schedule and prepare the final report, how quickly you can gather the needed documents, like marriage certificates, health forms, W-2 forms, and so on. Email us for more information on this step and how to get started! We DO NOT WORK IN ADOPTIONS but we can refer you to trusted adoption facilitators.
Step 2: The Paper Chase. In this phase, you must submit the necessary paperwork to the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly the INS), get your FBI fingerprints taken, and finalize all documents for your dossier (the whole set of forms, papers, and so on that comprise your entire application.) Once complete, you must have all documents apostilled, or stamped with a special stamp of the state you are in to verify their authenticity. This is similar to having documents notarized, but on a higher level. It is required.
Step 3: Dossier Review. This is also vital. Some people choose to do this on their own, and others choose to use the services of a document review specialist, someone who is very familiar with the dossier requirements for a Ukrainian adoption. Those using an agency often have the agency do this step, thoes who choose independent adoption can employ the services of people who do this for a very reasonable fee. Why do it? If any of your papers are incorrect, missing something small, and so on, your ENTIRE dossier can be sent back, costing you many months' delay and/or even more money. It is very wise to go through this step!
Step 4: Choosing a Facilitator (this can be done concurrently with Step 1 and is recommended at that time.) A facilitator is someone who meets you at the airport in Ukraine, arranges your accomodations, travels with you, translates for you and serves as your 'guide and negotiator' in the process. It is absolutely vital, at least at this point in Ukrainian adoption, that you choose a facilitator who has an excellent reputation, is knowledgeable and who is trustworthy. A tall order!! But there are many out there who have adopted and have a good idea of who is and who is not qualified. If you work with an agency, you will most likely not have a choice in this step, although often, the same facilitator works with families from agencies and those who go independent! Choosing a facilitator is a process you might want to start contemplating and researching during the homestudy phase.
Step 5: Submitting Your Dossier. Once officially translated, your facilitator must submit your dossier to the SDA. In 2007, this has taken from one month to five months due to a new system for submission that very seriously limited the number of dossiers accepted each week from American families. The status of that system for 2008 is not known, though most believe it will change. Once the SDA receives your dossier, they have by law 20 business days, or about one month, to review all documents. Again the actual time it will take for this process has varied in 2007, from the usual 20 business days to 40 business days. Once approved, you receive a travel date. Again, the length of the wait between approval and travel can fluctuate. In 2007, this wait was between two months and four months after approval on average.
Step 5: Traveling and Adopting. You travel to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and meet with the adoption authories to receive your referral on a child or children than most closely meet your requirements. They will show you the file or files of children who are legally available and are the closest to what you've requested. Some families are offered several files (up to six) and some are offered only one or two, depending again on what children are legally available for adoption on the day of their appointment. This part of the process is unpredictable. There are SOME exceptions to this process for children with special needs or older children (over age 7.)
You visit the child at his or her orphanage, interact and then determine if you want to adopt them. If so, you then move through the local legal paperwork, get confirmations from Kiev, and have a court date. After this court date, and the mandatory 10-day waiting period following the court decision, your adoption is final. You must wait in the local city for your child's Ukrainian passport (can take from three to ten days - your child must leave Ukraine with this Ukrainian passport, but will become a U.S. citizen upon landing in the U.S. on your return trip!) You return to Kiev with your new child or children, they have a medical exam by a U.S. Embassy-approved doctor, and the U.S. Embassy in Kiev processes the immigration paperwork. And then, you're homebound!
What
ages of children are available?
Girls or boys?
Generally, the youngest children available are 14-18 month, though it is was very difficult to adopt a child this young in 2007, as fewer were available. There are many more boys available than girls, though it is possible to adopt either sex. More child abandonment is happening during the toddler or older years, and combined with the long process for the child to be registered followed by the mandatory 14-month waiting period for international adoption, this means there are MANY more children in the preschool and school age groups available for adoption.
Important: many families have adopted 'older' children from Ukraine - from ages 4-16 - and have had wonderful experiences doing so. Overall, the Ukrainian orphanage system is well-run, well-staffed and children are often better adjusted than those coming from many other adoption systems. Adoptions of older children are extremely rare by Ukrainian families, and less common among foreign adopters, so that a child's chance of being adopted into a family after the age of 5 is less than 2%.
Iif you are considering adoption, please consider this option. Thousands of wonderful, bright, loving children over 5 deserve a family who loves them, proper nutrition and a future. Without adoption, their futures are very bleak. Look at these statistics.
Can I adopt more than one child?
Currently, adoptive families may adopt more than one child only if those children were siblings. Some adopters report that they have been allowed to adopt two or more non-related children, but only in cases where the children are older and have a very close bond in the orphanage, like siblings, or had severe medical issues. This is an exception and not a rule, however. Generally, to adopt two non-related children, two seperate adoption trips and processes are required. This should be discussed with your in-country adoption facilitator.
What makes the Ukrainian adoption program a good one?
There are many reasons, including:
- The lower than average caregiver to child ratio means children receive more personal attention and have stronger emotional bonds from early on, making for an easier transition into an adoptive family.
- The program is independent - YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE AN ADOPTION AGENCY. This makes the process less expensive than adopting from many other countries.
- After being approved by the Ukrainian government, you travel to Ukraine and receive referrals on a child or children that match what you are looking for. You actually go to the orphanage where the child/children resides and spend time with the child/children before accepting the adoption. You have the legal right to have an independent medical examination of the child as well.
- Right now, the
process is, in general, about 4-7 weeks in duration
and requires just one trip. (Parents can chooes to
break this into two trips if they wish, and both leave after court.
One parent must return to file for the passport, do Embassy work and
bring the child home.) After the court date (week 2-3 unless there are
complications), one parent may leave Ukraine.
>> Please email us with any questions and we will assist you in any way we can.
Although
we do not do anything official with adoption, we have been able to help
hundreds of families get the information they need to pursue Ukrainian
adoption. We can also make recommendation of facilitators we know and
trust
in-country.
We do NOT benefit in any way, including financial, for providing any referrals or help. We strongly believe that providing aid and doing adoptions together in Ukraine is a conflict of interests.
NOTE:
WE DO NOT HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON THE LEGAL
STATUS OR ADOPTABILITY OF ANY CHILD IN THE ORPHANAGES WE WORK WITH.
PRE-SELECTION
OF CHILDREN IN UKRAINE
IS
NOT LEGAL.
Learn more by reading the pages below:
Why are there so many orphans?
What is life like for these orphans?
