Chinese Adoption Procedure

1. A CCAA-licensed agency may submit adoption applications directly to the CCAA for consideration. A listing of CCAA-licensed agencies can be found on http://www.china-ccaa.org/ Included with the application should be all the required documents along with authentications and translations. In addition, each application should indicate any preferences the prospective adoptive parents may have about the child’s age, sex, physical/medical condition, or region of origin within China. The application package should also include a cover letter, written along the lines found at the following web site: http://www.gwca.org/adoption/faqs/p_faq.phpωfaq=30.

2. The CCAA reviews the documents and advises the prospective adoptive parent(s) – either directly or through their adoption agency – whether additional documents or authentications are required.

3. Once the CCAA approves the application, it matches the application with a specific child. The CCAA then sends the prospective adoptive parent(s) a letter of introduction about the child, including photographs and the child’s health record. This document is commonly called a ‘referral.’ Prospective adoptive parents who still have questions about the child after reviewing this information may follow up with the CCAA either directly or via their adoption agency.

4. Prospective adoptive parent(s) then either accept or refuse the referral and send the document to their agency, which forwards it to CCAA. CCAA requires a response on a referral within 45 days of sending a referral to a family. If prospective adoptive parent(s) are considering refusing a referral they should discuss with their agency the possibility of getting a second referral. (Please note that all communications with CCAA must be done via the adoption agency.) CCAA will only accept referral rejections if there is a justified explanation provided. If the reason for the rejection is considered justifiable (such as a medical problem), then CCAA will refer the second child to the PAPs within a month’s time. If CCAA regards the rejection as unreasonable, the PAPs will have difficulty obtaining a second referral and CCAA is more likely to suggest that the PAPs withdraw their application for adoption in China.

5. Prospective adoptive parents who have accepted a specific referred child will receive an approval notice from the CCAA ("Notice of Coming to China for Adoption"). This document will bear the "chops," or red-inked seals of the CCAA. Prospective parents must have this approval notice in hand before departing for China to finalize the adoption.

Important Note: Prior to traveling to China, prospective adoptive parents must also already have been in contact with the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and must have an approved I-600A form. (See the “U.S. Immigration Requirements” section below for additional information.)

6. With the CCAA’s sealed approval notice in hand, prospective adoptive parents arriving in China may proceed directly to the city in China where the Civil Affairs Bureau with jurisdiction over the appropriate Children's Welfare Institute is located.

Although the CCAA is headquartered in Beijing, prospective adoptive parents will not be required to travel to Beijing during this process. The CCAA will have already forwarded a copy of the adoption approval notice to the locality where the child resides. Local Child Welfare Institutes, provincial Civil Affairs officials and Chinese notarial offices will not process adoptions unless they have seen this notice allowing the prospective adoptive parents take legal custody of the child.

Americans adopting in China will usually meet with a notary in the provincial capital for an informal interview before they notarize documents such as birth certificates or abandonment certificates. Chinese Adoption law does not require notarization of the adoption documents (birth certificate, and abandonment), but the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou does. The notary may conduct a brief interview with the prospective parents prior to notarizing the documents. This is not uncommon. A Chinese notary is not comparable to a notary public in the United States, but rather is an official
with broad responsibilities. An interpreter supplied by the Child Welfare Institute is usually present. Meetings are held in the notary's office in a non-courtroom-like setting. Common questions relate to the prospective adoptive parents’ motivations for adopting a Chinese child; whether the family already has other children and if not, why not, and what assurances China has that the child will be treated appropriately.

In all cases an interview at a registry office is conducted. According to Chinese Adoption Law, adoptive parents must meet with the adoption registry office to finalize the adoption. Sometimes prospective adoptive parent(s) are asked to write a paragraph or a page on the reasons for the adoption and their plans for the child. Sometimes the local notary in the city where the Children's Welfare Institute is located meets with the parents and conducts a final interview in which questions similar to those posed at the provincial level are asked. In some instances, the notary or registry officials have indicated to American prospective adoptive parents that Beijing's approval had been sought and obtained for their adoptions, in accordance with the procedures of the CCAA.

Prospective adoptive parents may request to see the child before completing the adoption. If such a visit with the child leads them to have additional questions about the child’s health, background, etc., it is important to resolve these before finalizing the adoption. Please note that although U.S. law requires that a physician from the U.S. Embassy or Consulate General's list of physicians will examine the child before a visa may be issued, the lack of legal custody or guardianship under Chinese law before the adoption is finalized makes it highly unlikely that prospective parents will be able to take the child to a distant city such as Beijing or Guangzhou for a pre-adoption medical examination.

7. The next step, after the prospective adoptive parents have completed their interviews with the various Chinese government offices, is to complete the adoption. At this point, the adopting parents will be required to make a fixed “donation” of US$3000 to $5000 to the Children’s Welfare Institute where the child was being raised prior to the adoption. [Note: This is not a bribe, and U.S. prospective adoptive parents should not consider it such. As was noted earlier in this flyer, individual Children's Welfare Institutes may charge this fee as a combined donation to the institution and as compensation for having raised and cared for the child up to the point of adoption. It is the experience of the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou that the assessed fees are reasonable based on the local economy and the costs associated with raising a child in China.]

As part of finalizing the adoption, prospective adoptive parents will have to sign agreements with the Child Welfare Institute, register the adoption at the provincial Civil Affairs Bureau, and pay all of the remaining required fees. When the notarial office in the child's place of residence approves the adoption, that office issues a notarized certificate of adoption, a notarized birth certificate and either notarized death certificate(s) for the child's biological parent(s) or a statement of abandonment from the welfare institute. The adoptive relationship goes into effect on the day of the notarization. Once the adoption is final, the adoptive parents are fully and legally responsible for the child.

8. The final step in the process is for the Child Welfare Institute to obtain a Chinese passport and exit permit for the child from the Public Security Bureau with jurisdiction over the child’s place of residence at the time of the adoption. The adopting parent(s) rarely have had to take care of the paperwork or visit the Ministry of Justice offices in this regard. Both of these documents will be required at the time of the U.S. immigrant visa interview in Guangzhou and in order for the child to be able to depart China with his/her new parents. The local Public Security Bureau will normally expedite Chinese passport issuance for a stated fee.

Note: Many adoption agencies are very familiar with Chinese adoption procedures and may have specific advice for their own clients, such as on how best to submit applications to the CCAA or when to travel to China. In addition to reading this carefully for a basic outline of Chinese and adopters’ country procedures, check with your particular adoption agency to obtain more information about its own procedures during the Chinese adoption process.