Intercountry adoption

The legal and practical arrangements for intercountry adoption are complicated (and expensive!) and much depends on the country from which you choose to adopt.

Applicants will be expected to identify one country from which they wish to adopt and should have a good understanding of that country's culture and be able to demonstrate that understanding. Ideally, placements from overseas should be with families, which reflect the child's heritage i.e. their ethnicity, culture, religion and language, but many of the non-relative placements from overseas are transracial and transcultural placements.

Most adopted children feel some confusion of identity and being transracially adopted is an extra dimension which adopted children have to face. Applicants will be expected to bring up any adopted child in the knowledge that s/he is adopted and to preserve and promote the child's cultural and ethnic origin.

Often when you adopt a child from overseas, you will have very little background information. The child may have apparently been abandoned with nothing known about his/her family of origin, so there will be no medical /genetic history.

Adopting a child from overseas will be very demanding on your time, especially if the child has moved from place to place or been cared for by many different people, as such children are likely to find it difficult to make attachments. Children adopted from overseas need consistent care from their new parents and a regular, established routine.

All applications to adopt from overseas undergo the same process as for domestic adoption in that a preparation course, homestudy and adoption panel discussion takes place. After this the papers are sent to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) for approval and processing.

There is a charge for the assessment process (currently £4,000), which is paid in two parts, 50% before the homestudy and 50% before presentation to the Adoption Panel.

If you are interested in adopting from overseas, please approach us for an information pack and if you wish to follow this up, we will arrange for our specialist intercountry adoption social worker to come and see you.