Country Information

Country: China
Location: Asia

Children Available for Adoption:
Infants
Toddlers
School age children
Children with special needs

Parent Requirements:
China has recently announced very strict parent requirements. They are as followed:
Parents must have a healthy marriage of at least two years. If there has been a divorce in the past, in which there can have been no more than two, then parents must have a healthy marriage of a least five years.
Both parents must be between the ages of 30 and 50 years old. In the case of adopting a child with special needs both parents must be between the ages of 30 and 55 years old.

Both parents must be considered healthy, both physically and mentally. For an adoption through China this means that parents may not have:

• AIDS
• Mental handicap
• Infection disease
• Binocular blind, parallax blind, monocular blind, ocular prosthesis
• Severe diseases
• Afunction or dysfunction of limbs or trunk caused by impairment, incompleteness, numbness, or deformation
• If there has been major organ transplantation surgery it must have occurred 10 years ago or more
• Parents must have free from medication for mental disorders, depression, mania, anxiety, etc. for more than 2 years.
• Parents may not have a Body Mass Index greater than 40

One out of the two spouses must have received a high school diploma or higher and hold steady employment. For each member of the household, including the to be adopted child, there must be an annual income of at least $10,000 with a minimum of $80,000 net asset value.

If adopting a healthy child the prospective parents may not have more than 5 children currently at home. If adopting a child with special needs this family size limitation is not applicable. Parents must wait until their youngest child is at least 1 year old before adopting a child from China.

Both parents must have proof of good character demonstrated through a clean criminal history. Parents with a history of any type of abuse or drug addition may not adopt a child from China. Parents with a history of alcoholism must demonstrate that this was overcome a minimum of ten years prior to beginning the adoption. In situations where one parent has a criminal history for minor events China will consider allowing an adoption on a case-by-case basis.

Travel Requirements:
China requires that at least one parent travel to China to escort their child home and fill out necessary documentation. The trip to China is an estimated 10-14 days.

Timeline:
In China there is a large amount of children available for adoption. Most of these children are girls and children with special needs. Adopting a girl from China may take 1-2 years from submission of the dossier. This time is generally shorter for parents adopting a child with special needs.

Hague Convention Status: China ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption in 2005. China will continue to work with the United States as the ratification takes place in the U.S. during the year 2007.

Even though there is a longer wait for children from China the program is a very stable and well-established one. China is one of the most popular places to adopt from for United States citizens. 7, 906 adoptions took place in 2005! There are many infant and toddler girls in need of adoption as well as children with special needs. The children have had a good level of care and many of them were able to form an attachment to caregivers providing them with the foundation for healthy attachments to their adoptive parents.