 Vietnam
Adoption FAQ
How
do I know if I qualify to adopt from Vietnam?
Vietnam allows
married couples and single women to adopt from their country. Single women
must be at least 25 years old and all adopting parents must be at least
20 years older than the child they adopt. Any restrictions for adoption
by prospective adoptive families are set by the standards of Vietnam.
How
much does it cost to adopt from Vietnam?
An adoption
from Vietnam will cost approximately $21,500 to 25,000 by the time the
adoption is completed and you are back home. For more detailed information
please refer to the cost breakdown chart on WIA’s Vietnam web page.
What
services does your agency provide to your adoptive families?
WIA will
everything possible to make your adoption journey as pleasant as possible.
We will:
- Assign
a dossier specialist to you as soon as your application is approved
and your signed contracts are received. This dossier specialist will
help you with all of the paperwork necessary to assemble an adoption
dossier.
- Assist
you with obtaining home study services if you are not living in Minnesota
or Utah. For those who do live in Minnesota or Utah, WIA will provide
services for the home study and post adoption evaluations.
- Assist
with the authentication process in order to complete the dossier.
- Submit
your dossier to the Vietnamese officials to begin the adoption process.
- Work closely
with foreign officials in order to match you with your child.
- Assist
with travel and hotel arrangements when it is time to go to Vietnam
to pick up your child.
- Assist
with travel to Vietnam and lodging while in Vietnam.
- Meet you
when you arrive in Hanoi, and assist you with all that is necessary
to complete the adoption in Vietnam.
- Assist
with obtaining your child’s U.S. visa at the U.S Consulate in
Hanoi, and wave goodbye to you at the airport in Hanoi when you catch
your flight to return to the U.S.
- Assist
you with the post adoption requirements and help you with any post adoption
issues that may arise upon returning home.
What
kind of documents do I need for the adoption dossier?
You will
need the following documents:
- Home
Study
- Marriage
certificate/license
- Results
of a medical examination
- Employment
and income letters
- Local
Police Clearances
- Photo
Page of your U.S. passport
- Passport
photo’s
- USCIS
approval to adopt a foreign born child (I-171H)
- Commitment
to provide post placement reports
- Confirmation
letter
- If you
are single (never married, divorced or widowed) an Affidavit of Single
Status
- Letters
of Reference
Please do
not begin gathering these documents until you are assigned a dossier specialist.
Our staff will work with you to gather the documents you need for your
dossier and will provide you with specific forms and examples of documents
that need to be used in the dossier.
How
do I get these documents authenticated?
When your
dossier documents are all gathered up and ready to be authenticated, WIA
will help you through the authentication process. The cost for state authentication
will vary from state to state. When each document is state authenticated,
your documents will then be sent to either the Vietnam Embassy in Washington,
D.C. or the Vietnam Consulate in San Francisco to complete the authentication
process. The charge for the Vietnam authentication is $50 per document.
If you wish to have this process expedited, it is an addition $20 per
document, totaling $70 per document.
Regardless
of which location you choose to authenticate your documents, we strongly
suggest using a courier service. The courier service will charge a fee
but will hand carry your dossier documents to the Consulate or the Embassy,
and will pick them up when the authentication is completed. It is usually
worth the extra fee to have someone watching over your documents when
they are submitted for this last authentication process.
Where
in Vietnam does WIA work?
WIA has
agreements with orphanages in the Northern Province of Phu Tho Province,
but are actively working towards agreements with orphanages in other Provinces
throughout Vietnam.
What
are the children like who are available to adopt?
Usually very
young children are available under the age of 18 months old. There are
older children available also, but there may be a longer wait to get a
referral for an older child. The children are very beautiful with dark
brown or black hair, they have brown almond shaped eyes, and are usually
slight of frame. The children live in small orphanages or care centers
and have been abandoned by their birth parents most likely because of
poverty and the inability to take care of the child.
Can
I request either a girl or a boy, can I ask for a specific age of child,
and how will I receive a referral for a child once my paperwork has been
submitted?
The prospective
adoptive family will submit a dossier that will include a request for
either a boy or a girl, and will also list an age range for the child
desired. Although WIA cannot guarantee that all your requests will be
met, we will try as much as possible to match the prospective adoptive
family with a child as close to the family’s request as possible.
If a prospective adoptive family desires to adopt a special needs child,
the prospective adoptive family must be pre-approved to adopt a special
needs child by their social worker, WIA, and USCIS. Families will not
be referred a special needs child without these prior approvals.
How
long does it take to receive a referral once our paperwork has been submitted?
It can take
up to 6 months to receive a referral once you have submitted your authenticated
dossier to Vietnam. Once a referral is received, prospective adoptive
parents have up to 14 days to make the decision to accept or reject the
referral. If the prospective adoptive parents decline the referral, it
could take up to 3 months to be issued a new referral. For more detailed
information regarding the withdrawal of a referral, please go to the following
link - http://www.wiaa.org/referralprocedure.asp.
Do
I have to travel to Vietnam to complete the adoption and pick up my adopted
child?
Yes, you
will have to travel to Vietnam in order to sign the paperwork and complete
the adoption. The stay in the country is usually about 14 to 18 days,
depending on how fast the Provincial officials complete the paperwork
and the U.S. Consulate officials approve the adopted child’s U.S.
exit visa. It is possible to apply for an expedited passport for your
child, but the cost ranges anywhere from $300 to $400 to do this. While
in Vietnam you will find that hotels and food are very reasonably priced
and you are comfortable and safe while in Vietnam. Families travel to
Vietnam individually and not with a group of other adoptive families.
Do
both parents have to travel to Vietnam to complete the adoption?
According
to Vietnamese law, it is preferred that both parents travel to Vietnam
to sign the documents that complete the adoption process. However, if
it is not possible for both parents to travel, one parent can complete
the adoption process in Vietnam. However, the child must then be readopted
upon entering the United States and then the adoptive family must apply
for U.S. citizenship for their adopted child. If you are a single Mother
adopting from Vietnam, then you must travel to the country to sign the
papers and complete the adoption.
How
long do we have to stay in Vietnam?
The stay
in Vietnam can be as short as 14 days and as long as 21 days, depending
on how fast the Provincial officials and the U.S. Consulate offers take
to complete the adoption process. You can request an expedited passport
for your child, but the cost of having this passport expedited can range
from $300 to $400 and must be paid by the adopting parents when the request
to expedite is made.
Who
will take care of us while we are in Vietnam?
WIA has an
office and staff in Vietnam who will take care of you the entire time
you are in the country. They will meet you at the airport, take you to
your hotel, and will help you throughout the adoption process. You will
never be left on your own without assistance while you are in the foreign
county. Our staff is very qualified and very responsive to our adoptive
parents’ needs and will represent you when meeting with both Vietnamese
officials and the officials at the U.S. Consulate. We assure you that
you will be taken care of while away from home.
What
does Vietnam require from parents who adopt children from Vietnam once
they return home?
Vietnam asks
that parents who adopt children from their country provide a post placement
report once every six months for the first three years after coming home
to the U.S, and then a yearly report from the fourth year until the child
is 18 years of age. A social worker must complete the first 3 reports,
and WIA will help the parents complete the remaining reports required
once the 3 social worker reports are sent off to Vietnam.
Helpful
Links and Information
Families
with Children from Vietnam: http://www.fcvn.org
This is a national organization for Vietnam adoptive parents and prospective
parents. The site provides listings of FCV support groups around the U.S.,
over one thousand children's photo's, a family directory, resource links
and adoption stories.
Adopt
Vietnam: http://www.adoptvietnam.org
This is a resource guide to Vietnam adoption and provides over 200 articles
on Vietnam adoption, parenting, Vietnamese culture, health and medical
issues related to Vietnam adoption, personal adoption stories, Vietnam
travel information and guidance, and much more.
Chao
Ban Vietnam Adoption Newsletter: http://www.chaobannewsletter.com
This quarterly print Vietnam magazine is a great resource for families
who have adopted or are adopting from Vietnam. The newsletter provides
up to date information on Vietnamese culture,adoptive parenting, and adoption/Vietnamese
news. Recipes, contests, children's activities, poems, and news alerts
keep families entertained and educated throughout the year.
Comeunity:
http:///www.comeunity.com
This well known website provides indepth information for adoption, special
needs and parenting. Hundreds of articles cover important topics such
as adoption in society, adoption health, special needs adoption, adoptive
parenting, adoption stories from many countries (including Vietnam), plus
original adoption book reviews of the best books for adoptive parents
and adopted children.
If
you are interested in more information about adopting from Vietnam, please
email kathy@wiaa.org. |
