US Citizens Adopting While Living Abroad
Domestic AdoptionAdoptive parents will have to comply with laws in two countries to complete an intercountry adoption while living abroad: the United States and the country in which you live. You will need to research the immigration laws and rules regarding the granting of visas to US citizens and their children.
The adoption will be processed in the State in which you claim legal residence: where you are registered to vote, or the State that issues your driver's license. You will be required to locate a social worker or agency in your home country to perform your homestudy, although the placement may be handled by a US agency. Your State Adoption Specialist will need to verify that the homestudy is accepted for a placement in your State.
Intercountry Adoption
Adoptive parents will have to comply with laws in three countries to complete an intercountry adoption while living abroad. You should follow the above information, but investigate procedures in the US, in your home country, and in the country from which you are seeking to adopt.
For more information about adoption procedures, see our Introduction to Adoption. You may search the National Adoption Directory to locate contact information for State Adoption Specialists or adoption agencies in your State.
A helpful tool in pursuing any intercountry adoption is the Report on Intercountry Adoption, published by International Concerns for Children, Inc. It costs $25 when mailed to US addresses, and the cost includes 10 updates per year. It will save you hours of research and phone calls, because it lists US agencies willing to work with expatriate Americans, and US agencies working in a specific foreign country. The Report allows you to compare agencies in the following areas:
Age and type of children available
Estimated time for referral of a child
Estimated time until travel to the foreign country to complete the adoption
Fees charged
Any programmatic restrictions that might exclude you from participation (required length of marriage, marital status, religious affiliation, etc).
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Adoptive Parents Residing in Ethiopia: Adoptive parents residing in Ethiopia face a few issues not faced by those living in the United States.
There is a sole social worker who is authorized to conduct a home study for the purposes of satisfying the requirements of USCIS’ I-600A application and I-600 petition processes. To request a home study, prospective adoptive parents resident in Ethiopia may contact social worker Malahat BAIG-AMIN at 251 11 371 3307/3334 or cell phone number 251 91 131 5299. Prospective adoptive parents may also contact an accredited American agency to see if/when the agency may be sending a social worker to Ethiopia. The social worker can conduct a home study, but it takes a few months after the social worker returns to the United States before the home study is finalized and received by the adoptive parents in Ethiopia.
I-600A applications are sent to the Officer-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, United Nations Avenue, Gigiri, Nairobi. The embassy telephone number from Ethiopia is (00254-20) 363-6500. Before the I-600A is sent, it should be brought in to the Consular Section along with the filing fee to obtain a fee receipt. DHS Nairobi will act on the application as quickly as possible, but may take a month or more to respond. Prospective adoptive parents can contact DHS Nairobi directly via fax 00254 20 363 6103.
ADOPTION FEES IN ETHIOPIA: Before the Adoption: Adoptive parents can expect to pay fees for authentication of U.S. documents for use abroad and for translation fees. All English-language documents submitted to the Ethiopian court must be accompanied by a translation in Amharic. The U.S. Embassy understands that translation services run about $1 per page, but check with your adoption agency for up to date information on translation costs.
MOWA and the police charge no fees for services creating dossiers on the parents and the child, investigating whether the child is a bona fide orphan, meeting in committee to review the case, and making their recommendations to the court.
Courts charge no fees for services in accepting adoption petitions, making judgments, and issuing decrees.
MOWA often asks for a letter from the U.S. Embassy supporting the parents' desire to adopt. If the Embassy has received the petition approval from USCIS, a letter can be issued supporting the adoption. This service is free.
If additional documents are required by MOWA, the agency/parents can submit certified copies. Cost for certification by the U.S. Embassy is $30 per grommeted package, or single document.
After the adoption: The services of MOWA in issuing a letter to the U.S. Embassy attesting to the orphan status of the child, and issuing requests so that the child's new birth certificate and passport can be issued, are free.
The issuance of a local birth certificate costs about $2; for expeditious or same day service, add about $5.
To have a birth certificate or other document authenticated at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it costs about $16 for Ethiopian parents, about $35 for foreign parents.
Ethiopian Passport issuance is about $35.
Orphanages run by religious organizations, and the large government run orphanages, charge nothing for their services to prepare and sign adoption contracts.
The Department does not know what the licensed adoption agencies charge to process an Ethiopian adoption. Local unscrupulous adoption facilitators have been known to charge adoptive parents additional costs beyond what prospective adoptive parents believed they would be charged, often after they have arrived in Ethiopia and already have their children in their physical custody. Some of these parents indicated to the U.S. Embassy that the costs ran thousands of dollars more than they expected to pay.
ADOPTION PROCEDURES: MOWA identifies orphans in need of a permanent family placement through international adoption. In general, Ethiopian orphans identified for intercountry adoption have been abandoned by their parents or have lost their parents to disease or other misfortune. MOWA places abandoned or orphaned children in orphanages or foster homes, pending adoption. When a child is abandoned, by law it comes into the custody of the government. When a child is found to have two HIV/AIDS-infected parents, or one living HIV/AIDS-infected parent, the government routinely declares that the child is an orphan and assumes legal guardianship of the child. Many AIDS-orphaned children adopted by Americans come from the HIV/AIDS hospice run by the Missionaries of Charity in Addis Ababa.
Please be aware that it is common practice for the Government of Ethiopia to require that a child be resident in an orphanage for three months before they can be adopted.
MOWA has responsibility for all activities regarding children in the country, including welfare, foster care, domestic and intercountry adoption, and investigation of neglect and abuse. When an orphaned or abandoned child comes into the custody of the government, the police and MOWA create the child's dossier.
Note - An adoption agency’s U.S. and Ethiopian-based staff manages the adoption process in Ethiopia. American citizens who are adopting privately must complete all of these steps unaided by adoption professionals.
Step One - Prospective adoptive parents must take or send all of the required documents (see document list below), already certified and authenticated, to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C. for additional authentication. Once the Embassy has completed its authentication, the completed packet is returned to the adoptive parents. Then the prospective adoptive parents forward the documents to:
Ministry Of Women’s Affairs (MOWA)
Children and Youth Affairs Office, Adoption Team (CYAO)
P.O. Box 1293
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
MOWA reviews the documents for completeness and creates a dossier on the adoptive parent(s).
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