International Adoption: The Closing Window

After tripling over fifteen years, the number of adoptions by Americans of children from outside the United States has declined sharply. International adoption has never been easy. People who choose to build their families through international adoption have to go through an extensive process that often includes lengthy foreign travel, interactions with social workers and adoption agencies and complex government bureaucracies. The entire process can cost $30,000, or more. Language barriers, cultural differences and jurisdictional issues may compound the difficulties in the process. Waiting times to adopt may extend to years and countries sometimes choose to halt or delay adoptions even when they are in process. Newly tightened laws and regulations have now placed an estimated 5,000 international adoptions at risk of suspension in mid process.

The Hague Conference Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect to Intercountry Adoption is the primary cause of the new restrictions. This Convention, which was promulgated in the worthy effort to protect children and adoptive parents from possible abuses in the largely unregulated field of international adoptions, was signed by the United States in November 2007. The United States now has joined seventy other countries in an effort to regulate and standardize adoption practices across borders. Countries from which adoptions are originated must be part of the international regime. The formal effective date for US accession will be April 1, 2008.

The decline in visas for adoptions granted by the US government is evidence of the effect of the change. In response, China has established strict standards for adoptive parents which set an upward limit on age (50) and standards for education and parental body mass index, as well as eliminating adoptions by singles. Russia, which had suspended adoption agencies, has recently re-opened the field to agencies -- but long waiting lists now exist. Adoptions from Guatemala, which have surged in recent years, will be affected by the suspension of private adoption agencies and higher standards to control the fear of abuses resulting from the very low per capita income in that country.

Advocates for the convention believe that in the long run, these rules will benefit both children and prospective parents by ensuring higher standards for international adoption. In the meantime, those considering international adoption are faced with a more arduous and uncertain route and much to think about.