What are adoption requirements and info for third world countries?

Brian

The requirements for each country change regularly, so you need to check dates on published information. The best thing to do is to find US adoption agencies that have programs in the countries you are considering. BTW, my personal feeling is that Ethiopia is a great place to adopt right now. The agency does not need to be located near your home - you can do this all by phone and email.

Note that in most countries, it's very difficult to get a child less than 6-9 months old. I'm not sure about Ethiopia. Note that with an older child, you get the luxury of medical reports and usually pictures and videos (from which a pediatrician who specializes in international adoption like orphandoctor.com can look for signs of issues common in that specific country).

red elephants

Each country will have its own requirements for everything. Some are fine with international adoptions while others do not allow any. Some will have age requirements, marital requirements. Some long waiting periods and others fairly short. You really need to narrow your search down to a couple locations and then go from there.

If you are in the US one website for you to look at is the US State Departments page on international adoption. It has a lot of great information and a list of countries and there requirements, etc.

http://adoption.state.gov/

International adoption can be pricey and comes with some issues that domestic adoption does not (dealing with a different culture, language barriers, etc). Starting ahead of time and doing lots of research into the process (not just legal process but emotional, etc) is always a good plan. Often you will not get a newborn but 9-1 year old range when doing international adoption. There are lots of legal requirements that must be gone through before the children are available for adoption in their own country. Some countries and agencies are more reputable/ethical than others. When you are making your final decision on who to go through looking at information in that regard is important also.

cmc

You can't adopt a newborn internationally as far as I know. Usually an effort is made to place children within their own country first and the youngest children are usually 6 mo old, and often closer to a year old. For info on international adoption in various countries you can look at:
http://adoption.state.gov/countryinformation.html

Randy B

I believe your State Department website, assuming you are American, has the info you need. The US has programs in place with certain countries that they recognize for international adoptions. Check through the site and you should find the start point you are looking for. The age, financial and wait requirements are often different for each country, as are the exorbitant costs, depending upon how they set them.

monkeykitty83

Adopting a newborn internationally is almost impossible, because of the paperwork and procedural time involved. Even if the child you initially got a referral for was a newborn, by the point you were able to finalize the adoption, time would have passed. Most of the children awaiting international adoption are not newborns anyway, so you should expect an older baby at the youngest. A child aged 2-4 years would not be at all uncommon.

You can find information about the requirements of all countries with international adoption programs serving US citizens at the US State Department's website. http://adoption.state.gov

For discussion about the ethical, emotional, and psychological implications of international adoption, I recommend the Informed Adoptions site for further reading. http://informedadoptions.com

Please bear in mind that you would need to help your child have an understanding and appreciation of his or her culture of birth. You would need to provide those connections, as a parent. So please don't just try to adopt from any "third world country" (that term really isn't used anymore, by the way) but one with which you are willing to establish permanent ties. Make sure to avoid any programs with allegations of corruption, and do your best to make sure the child you adopt truly needs a home, and cannot find one without the disruption of leaving his or her own country.

Independ"ant"

Not sure...maybe you can call Madonna's publicists.

.........on second thought don't ask them.
She's in court trying to bribe the judge so she can buy herself another Malawian toddler just for PR. Too bad she just doesn't listen to the Human Rights Consultative Committee asking her to go away....her parenting services aren't needed. They believe there's more to life then money and fame.

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