International Adoption

WHO ARE THE INTERNATIONAL WAITING CHILDREN?

Children of all ages, infants and up, wait in orphanages in developing countries such as China, Hong Kong, Russia, South Korea, India, Ethiopia, and others in South America, Eastern Europe, and Africa. FCCA can provide home study and post-placement/post-adoption services for almost any country that allows adoptions.  

 

FCCA has a direct placement program in Hong Kong for very special needs children.  FCCA families who want to adopt from any country besides Hong Kong must select a child-placing agency (sometimes called a Primary Provider or child referral agency).  This agency will be responsible to provide you with a child referral, assist with travel arrangements, and coordinate the finalization of the adoption in the foreign country, if applicable.

 

Each child-placing agency and country has its own requirements for adoptive applicants regarding the adoptive parent's age, marital status, number in household, minimum income, etc. FCCA does not set these requirements, so adoptive applicants should research carefully to determine whether they meet the criteria for the country and the child-placing agency selected by them.

 

Click Here for a list of child-placing agencies commonly used by FCCA families. This is not an exhaustive list of all agencies that provide child-placing services, but are the ones with whom FCCA already has a written cooperative agreement. Families should conduct their own research and select a reputable, licensed, and preferrably Hague-accredited agency to assist them with the child referral and placement process. Families may select a child placing agency that is not on this list, provided that this agency and FCCA can enter into a written working agreement, as required by law.

 

Once you have selected a country and a child-placing agency, FCCA provides you with pre-adoption education, a home study assessment, and directions for completion of the necessary immigration paperwork. Your child-placing agency will send a list of documents needed for your "dossier," which is a large packet that includes your home study report, identification documents, and other items required by the country from which you are adopting. FCCA will assist you with the dossier preparation, including free notarization of the documents at any of our branch offices. The entire packet is usually sent to the California Secretary of State's office for apostilling and authentication, then to the child-placing agency, and then to the child's country.

 

Your child-placing agency will coordinate your travel dates and your experience in the child's country of origin. After you return home with your child, the FCCA worker will complete a minimum of one post-placement or post-adoption. In most cases, three to six visits will be required, over a period of six months to several years, depending on the child's country. 

 

After all the required visits have been completed, FCCA assists California families with finalizing the adoption in court. If the adoption was already finalized in the foreign country, FCCA will help the family re-adopt the child in California. Readoption is important for several reasons. First, it is required in some cases for the child to become a U.S. citizen. Second, even when it is not required, the readoption process results in a new California birth certificate - in English! - naming you as the parents of your child. This is an extremely valuable resource to avoid having to produce a foreign birth certificate or foreign adoption order whenever identification is needed throughout the child's lifetime.

 

Even after the adoption process has been completed, FCCA is committed to supporting your family. Whether you need referrals for specific services, or just want to talk about bonding issues, or you want to share an exciting milestone - we are here for you. We hope you will stay connected to us for long time!