According to the Chinese Adoption Law and current practice in China, in order to adopt from China:
- Both adopting parents must be at least 30 years of age and under 50 years of age.
- For the Waiting Children Program, both adopting parents must be between at least 30 years of age and under 55 years of age.
- Each parent must be at least a high school graduate.
- A stable marriage of at least two years should be evidenced. If either parent has been divorced, you must be married for five years. You may have no more than two prior marriages each.
- You must be financially stable, with an annual income that exceeds $10,000 per household member (including the child you plan to adopt).
- You must have a net worth of over $80,000.
- Families with fewer than 5 children at home are permitted to adopt. (Families with 5 or more children in the home may be eligible for the Waiting Children Program.) The youngest child in the home must have reached 1 year old.
- Neither parent can have a criminal history with severe outcomes no less than 10 years ago. No history of alcohol abuse unless more than 10 years has passed.
- Both parents must be healthy, without evidence of any mental or physical illness that will affect their life span or ability to parent in any way, including conditions that require permanent medical treatment or medication. No medication for depression or anxiety for the past two years will be allowed. We have found that no history of cancer at all will be accepted.
- Adopting Parents must have a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 40. You can determine your BMI by following this link: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/bmi_tbl.htm
Single Parents
Effective March 15, 2011, China began allowing single females to adopt special needs children designated as "Special Focus" children. Single parents must meet the above guidelines as well as those listed below:
- May only adopt one Special Focus child at a time, with an interval of at least one year between two placements.
- Applicants over 50 years old must have an age difference of no more than 45 years with the child to be adopted.
- Applicants required to provide statements of being single and non-homosexual, divorce certificate if applicable, or death certificate of spouse if applicable.
- Net worth should be a minimum of $100,000 and applicant should have good insurance that would cover the adopted child.
- Applicants should be experienced in child care, or work in child-related fields; with a preference to experience with special needs.
- Can have no more than 2 children under 18 in your home, with the youngest child being at least 6 years of age.
When your daughter or son is assigned or referred to you, you will receive her/his picture and all available health information. At that time you will be asked to confirm to the CCAA and to FTIA in writing your acceptance of your daughter/son. If for any reason you refuse to accept the child assigned to you by the CCAA, the Chinese officials have the discretion of making a further assignment or refusing to do so based on their judgment. Please note that the CCAA officials have worked with us on several occasions to assign another child to a family.
You can request a child as young as possible or you can request an older child. If you want to adopt an infant the Chinese Adoption Officials consider children up to 18 months infants. Most infant referrals are for children between 8 - 15 months.
Foreign Service Providers
FTIA does not utilize foreign service providers in China as all adoption services are provided by the Chinese government.
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