Adoption Services

Bulgaria Adoption

China Adoption

Dossier Preparation

Ethiopia Adoption

Guatemala Adoption

Haiti Adoption

Kazakhstan Adoption

Taiwan Waiting Child

China Adoption FAQ

What are the children from China like?

There are many thousands of little girls living in orphanages in China who are waiting for a home and a family. Little boys are occasionally available, but many times even when adoptive families ask for a boy they are referred a girl. The reason male children are not available is that boys are preferred over girls in China, and since China has the one child per family policy little girls are abandoned so the family can try again to have a boy to carry on the family name. The children from China come from orphanages located in Provinces all over China. The orphanages in China that are allowed to place children are carefully scrutinized by the Chinese government and must meet high standards of care to be one of the orphanages that can place children. The children are usually well cared for and are in good physical condition when placed with their new adoptive families. All children are screened for Hepatitis B, HIV, and other communicable diseases, and the medical reports given to adoptive families are quite comprehensive.

How long will the process take?

Once your dossier is submitted to China and your documents are received at the CCAA office, your documents are stamped and registered at CCAA. This registration process can take up to 6 weeks, depending on the workload of the workers at CCAA and the number of dossiers submitted. When factoring in local holidays and the number of dossiers submitted, it could take as long as 18 months after your dossier is registered with CCAA before families receive a referral of a child. After receiving this referral and the medical information about the child referred, families must sign an acceptance letter stating they want to adopt the child assigned to them. After the acceptance letter is received by CCAA, it is usually around 6 weeks before a Travel Invitation is sent to adoptive parents inviting them to come to China to complete the adoption. This timeline can vary and WIA will do our best to keep adopting parents up to date with the changing timeline. The entire process, from beginning to end, can take up to 2 years before an adoption from China is completed and the child is home.

How do I find the child I want to adopt?

All international adoptions in China are overseen by the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA), which is a government office. The officials at CCAA will review your application and home study and find a child registered on the data base of available children who they feel meets your request. The workers at CCAA are very sensitive to the requests of adoptive families and try very hard to “match” the children to families by reading carefully through the information provided to them about the adopting family and the information provided to them about the available children. Once a referral is given to a prospective adoptive family, the family has up to 14 days to make a decision to accept or decline the referral given to them by CCAA. If there appears to be a medical problem with the child, the CCAA will reassign the adoptive family another child, but otherwise adoptive families are expected to accept the referral given to them by CCAA. For more detailed information regarding the withdrawal of a referral, please go to the following link - http://www.wiaa.org/referralprocedure.asp.

Can I adopt more than one child at one time?

China will only allow families to adopt one child at a time. However, if you wish to adopt a second child another dossier can be submitted to CCAA 12 months after the placement of the first child. CCAA requires 2 post adoption reports to be submitted by the adopting parents, and so all adoptive families must be up to date with their post adoption reports if another dossier is submitted for a second child.

Do I need to travel to China to pick up my adopted child?

Yes, you must travel to China to finalize the adoption and bring your child back to the United States. Although only one parent must travel, both CCAA and WIA feel that both parents should make an effort to travel to complete the adoption. However, when that is not possible, one parent is required to be in China to sign the adoption documents. The stay in China is approximately 12 days.

Do I qualify to adopt from China?

The CCAA has some very specific regulations adoptive parents must meet in order to qualify to adopt from their country.

• You must be at least 30 years old and no older than 49 years old. If adopting a special needs child, you can be no older than 54 years old.
• You must be a married couple and have been married for at least 2 years before you can apply to adopt a child from China.
• CCAA will accept couples who have been divorced, but there are restrictions:
  • Neither spouse can have been divorced more than 2 times.
  • If either spouse has been divorced and remarried, the couple must currently have been married for at least 5 years before applying to adopt a child from China.
• Each spouse must have at least a high school education.
• You cannot have more than 4 children under the age of 18 years old living in their home at the time they apply to adopt a child from China. The youngest child in the family must be over the age of 12 months at the time the family applies to adopt a child from China.
• You must have a steady job and should earn at least $10,000 per person in your family annually, including the child they will adopt. If only one of the adopting parents hold a job, this person must meet these income requirements for their family.
• The couple should have net assets of at least $80,000 including their home and stock dividends.
• The couple’s weight index should not exceed 40. The formula for finding the weight index is weight in kilograms divided by the height in meters squared. An example of the weight restriction would be if a man is 5’9” tall, he cannot weight more than 268 pounds. If you have questions regarding the weight index, please call our office.
• You cannot have a criminal record, including DUI’s.
• Prospective adoptive parents should not be taking psychiatric/mental health medication. Applicants who have not taken this type of medication for the past two years may be considered on a case by case basis.

If you meet these qualifications, you are good candidates to adopt a child from China.

What does it cost to adopt a child from China?

It usually costs approximately $17,000 to $22,000 to adopt a child from China. This estimate includes the travel to China and the accommodations while in China. Adopting from this country is a great option because the costs are not as high as some other countries.

If you are interested in obtaining more information about adopting from China, please email Kathy Junk at kathy@wiaa.org or call our office Monday through Friday during regular business hours.