Overseas adoption?

Question

My husband's sister and her husband have been waiting to adopt a baby in China. Their paperwork has been processed and sent to China more than a year ago. It seems as though they will never get their baby. Is it normal to take this long???

(I know of another couple who have adopted through a different country and they already have their baby.)

Answer 1

Ditto what Spydermomma said.

Answer 2

Current wait times for China are between 2 and 3 years or possibly longer for non-special needs children. I know of people that adopted from China in December and their paperwork was sent to China in December of 2005, and the waits are getting longer each month.

This is because of many factors, but a big one is that fewer non-special needs children are available for international adoption. I feel for your sister and family, but I think this is a good thing! More Chinese children are staying with their families, and more are being adopted in China -- both good things for the kids.

Waiting adoptive parents can drive themselves crazy wondering about this, although I think that has actually calmed down a lot since China has been referring children more slowly. If you really want to obsess on how long an adoption from China might take, then this is the site:

http://chinaadopttalk.com/

Many other countries that people adopt from are currently faster than China. But certainly not all. If someone were to start an adoption  from Guatemala now, for instance, it might just never happen. And in a lot of cases it should not happen because many Guatemalan adoptions have been horribly unethical -- babyfarming, etc. It would be hard to find an adoption agency to start an adoption from Guatemala now, though, which is as it should be. But even before things were shut down, the process from Guatemala had been very hard to predict, with shady paperwork and shady lawyers and changing stories. Sometimes it went pretty quickly. Other times it took years or the adoption never went through because the children were not really available for adoption. Russia and the Ukraine stopped processing adoptions for many months, and some families were caught in the middle of that. Some agencies that used to work in Russia were not reaccredited. For this coming year, the Ukraine will accept only 32 dossiers from the US for the adoption of non-special needs children under 6 with no siblings. Some adoptions from Vietnam went very quickly when the country first reopened in 2006. Since then things have slowed down, and also there have been increasing reports of corruption, including baby stealing for adoption. Some children have been adopted in Vietnam and then denied visas to enter the US  because it was not clear that they were legal orphans (or it was clear that they were not).

So basically, what I'm saying is that international adoption is complicated. And the parents have a big job, because the children have lost not only their first parents, but also their culture and language and many times are being raised by parents of a different race. So maybe the wait is good -- your sister and her family can work on learning Mandarin, and learning about Chinese history and culture, and making Chinese American friends. Yeah, I know, it is hard to look at it that way, it would be for me also, but doing that stuff will be worth it once they adopt a Chinese child.

Answer 3

It depends where they are in the process of their paperwork etc, if they've met all the requirements and what agency they went through. Each agency has it's own timelines etc, most agency's for China, the average time is just over a year, if everything goes well with the paperwork etc.

Each country is different when adopting, China being the strictest and most difficult to adopt from, and also usually having the longest wait times for the adoptive parents.

I hope this answers your question, my husband and I have looked into adoption (for the future), we would like to adopt over sea's so I have a lot of info for adoption etc.

Good luck to them,

Toni Lynne  =)

EDIT: Why did I get 2 thumbs down?? I know what I'm talking about, my husband and I are planning on adopting from China, I don't understand why I got thumbs down??

Answer 4

China is a lot less inexpensive as compared to other countries, but yet, it can take quite some time to get your baby from there.

For instance, Russia takes about 9 months.

Ck out this country comparison sheet:

http://www.adoptionark.com/public/pag52....

btw - good luck w your sister's situation!! : )

Answer 5

Yes, this waiting can be for several reasons.

Please verify if the people who did agree the adoption did change their mind.  In most cases they might have agreed with apprehension.

If you were trying to adopt from an orphan home.  Then it is quite normal for them do work lethargically.

You need to push them to get things done.  Follow them chronically.  Literally, you must do everything instead of them with them having to do just the final signing part.

Answer 6

Yes,  it is normal.  China's wait times are very long right now.

Answer 7

Yes it takes a long time. My good friend's sister just adopted one and they had to go to China and stay a few weeks even before they were allowed to bring her home. But it was so worth the wait, she is so pretty and adorable :)

Answer 8

From my experience, it all depends on the agency. Sorry they are having to wait so long. Best wishes.

Answer 9

i think so my parents had to wait a year for me and i'm adopt from china