The Adoption Process

The process for adopting from China involves three basic steps:

1. Paperchase: gathering the necessary documentation
2. Referral: the CCAA matches you with an orphan
3. Travel: fly to China to pick up your child

In order to adopt from China, you must meet certain requirements set out by the US and Chinese governments. China requires that both parents must be at least 30, a minimum income of $10,000 per family member (including the adopted child), and a maximum of four children in the home. Families are only able to adopt one child at a time, except in the rare case of twins or older siblings. Before families may adopt another child from China, the previous adopted child must have been home for a year. China will allow singles to adopt; however, there is a quota on the number of single people that can adopt each year.

For the paperchase, you need to have birth certificates, marriage license, physicals, financial statements, verification of employment, criminal history checks, approval from USCIS (the agency formally known as INS), and a letter of intent to adopt. All of those documents must be notarized, certified by the Secretary of State for the state in which they have been notarized, and then authenticated by the Chinese Consulate for the appropriate state. In addition to those documents, you also need copies of your passport, photos of your family life, and passport photos of the parents. Additionally, a home study must be completed on your family. This involves meeting with a social worker and telling all the personal aspects of your life, then having the social worker write a short biography about you and your fitness as parents (not as scary as it might sound). Once you have all your papers together, you are ready to submit them to the adoption agency.

The collection of papers is called a dossier. After your dossier has been reviewed by the adoption agency, it is sent off to the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). When your dossier is sent to China, you are DTC (Dossier To China). The month that you are DTC is an important month, as that determines where you paperwork is in the process in China. The first thing that must be done is for your documents to be translated to Chinese. Once the translation is complete, your paperwork can be in one of two rooms at the CCAA. The first is the review room, where, as the name suggests, your papers are reviewed to make sure that they meet all the requirements. Next you move to the matching room. This is the most important room, as this is the room where they match you with your child. Papers usually move in batches - everyone who is January DTC will move from one room to the other at the same time.

So, in the matching room, you are matched with a child. There doesn't seem to be any known formula as to how they match parents and kids, but it always seems to work out very well. One anecdotal story we have heard is that officials make a 'map' of the facial features of the parents and then try to match that map to a child based on the belief that your personality can be read in your facial structure. Regardless of the method, once you are matched with a child, you receive a referral. A referral is a brief description of your child, a couple of pictures (usually a few months old), and some medical information about the child. You are given a couple of days to decide if you want to accept the child. A majority of the time, parents accept their referrals, only rarely are they turned down.

The wait between DTC and referral is constantly changing. Any number of factors can slow down or speed up the process. Currently, the wait is about 8 months from DTC to referral. The wait has been as long as 14-15 months. There also are no firm guidelines as to when the next batch of referrals is to be issued. There has been about 6 weeks between referrals, but nothing is firm.

So, now you have accepted your referral and are anxiously looking at a picture of your new child. Next is travel. Again, there are no firm guidelines as to how long you travel after you receive your referral. Appointments have to be made with the American Consulate in China and you must receive travel approval from China. Typically, the wait has been 6-8 weeks. Right now the wait is about 90 days after referral. Some people are given plenty of notice regarding when they will travel; others receive about a weeks notice. But then comes the best part - you travel to China to meet your child!