China

CHINA NEWS: China opens door for single women to adopt. Click here for information.

Look Who Just Came Home from China – April – October, 2011

Look Who Just Came Home from China – November, 2011

Read the Latest IFS CHINA LATELY Newsletter – December, 2011

Breaking News from China!

Approximately 1800 children have been placed in the new Special Focus (SF) category on the List of Waiting Children.  These children have waited on the list for several months without being placed with a family for adoption.  So the CCAA has removed some of the barriers for adopting parents to allow the children to find their forever families. CCAA will also allow any family to adopt two children at the same time as long as one of the children is a SF child. Now you can begin looking at files of waiting SF children as soon as you sign up with IFS. No waiting!

When you are almost finished with your home study and while you are preparing paperwork for China, you can receive a referral of a beautiful child.

And remember, as always, IFS has no waiting list of parents.  As soon as you are ready to receive a referral, we will help you find a child to adopt from the China list.  We are passionate about finding families for every special child in China. We will be posting new children from both the SN and SF groups on our website every week so keep coming back for the latest info. We invite you to let us help you change a child’s life forever!

Read on to learn more about the IFS China Program.

China is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations, consisting of provinces and cultures dating back many centuries. It has the world’s longest continuously used written language system, and is the source of what are referred to as the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China: paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing. China is home to one fifth of the world’s population and tens of thousands of orphaned and abandoned children.

China also provides one of the most consistent, fast, and reliable international adoption programs available – the China Special Needs Adoption Program. These are children who desperately need to be nurtured in a stable, loving home. Yet parents who adopt these dear children so often report that they (the parents) and the siblings of the special child are the ones who receive the greatest blessing.

The China Special Needs program is very fast and affordable and predictable. Ordinarily parents will travel to bring home their new baby in a year or less from the time they began their adoption.

The words “Special Needs” may be a bit scary or troubling to parents who are seeking to build their family through adoption. But we encourage you to set aside any preconceived ideas about these children because each child’s situation is unique. Consider these different types or degrees of special needs: minor special needs, fixable special needs, manageable special needs, and older children with NO medical special needs.

Minor special needs
There are some children waiting for homes who are young, basically healthy, and developmentally normal, but who have a minor medical or cosmetic problem that will not limit the child or your family.

Fixable special needs
There are also many children available for adoption who are developmentally normal, but who have a medical or orthopedic problem that is not minor, but is fixable with surgery . Often these are children who will have no special needs at all after the initial surgery or procedure. The most common fixable medical need is a cleft lip or cleft lip and palate. Most of these children will be healthy and normal in every way after their clefts are repaired, though they may need orthodontics and speech therapy.

Manageable special needs
On the lists of waiting children we will frequently see a child with on orthopedic or medical special need that is not minor, nor fixable, but is easily manageable and which will not significantly affect the child’s or your family’s quality of life. An example would be a child who is smart and delightful, but who is missing a finger, or who has a deformed ear, or who is deaf in one ear or blind in one eye. Some children have tested positive for Hepatitis B; others have diabetes or severe asthma or other manageable conditions.

Older healthy children
Many perfectly healthy children have been placed on the special needs lists simply because they are older (age 7-13.) If a couple is older than 55, often the CCAA will allow them to adopt one or more older children.

More significant special needs.
Of course there are also children on the lists who have more profound medical needs or who have developmental delays. Many very special families have chosen to adopt one or more of these very special children and have found a great blessing in the experience.

There are several practical advantages to the Special Needs Adoption Program:

• It is quick (usually less than nine months)
• It is affordable.
• The Chinese officials are willing to consider allowing a couple to adopt who does not meet every requirement perfectly, when they are willing to adopt a child with special needs.

Some of the requirements are:

• Adoptive parents must be older than 30 and younger than 55.
• Only married couples may adopt (no singles.)
• Neither parent may have an arrest record or any record of child abuse or neglect.
• Parents must be healthy with a normal life expectancy. Any use of psychotropic medications needs to be discussed.
• Ordinarily there can be no more than 4 children living in the home before the adoption, some exceptions are made.
• $10,000 income per family member, including the child to be adopted; $80,000 net worth is required for each family.
• Each parent must have at least a high school education.
• Neither parent can have a body mass index (BMI) above 40. For help with calculating your BMI, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index

For Special Needs adoptions the process goes like this:

• You apply to IFS and receive your confirmation of acceptance.
• We coach you through the process of preparing paperwork for the adoption, including:

1. Passports
2. USCIS form I-800A (immigration pre approval)
3. Home Study
4. Dossier (paperwork required by the Chinese government) NOTE: As part of your Processing Fee, IFS staff will do the work of authenticating your dossier for you. You pay only the fees charged by the different government agencies and the Chinese consulate.
5. Letter of Intent (paperwork required to accept a child referral)
6. Travel and child’s immigration documents

• After your I-800A is approved and while you are preparing your dossier, we will match you with a child for adoption. Then you have two months to complete your dossier.

Additional Facts
Within three to four months (sometimes less) of when your dossier is submitted, you will travel to China to finalize your adoption and bring home your child. Travel Time is approximately 14 days.

Our bilingual staff will meet you at the airport, travel with you, and walk you through each step to assure a safe and stress-free trip. Tours and sightseeing can be arranged prior to or during your trip to China.

China is a Hague Convention country. This means that after April 1, 2008, agencies which conduct adoptions from China must be accredited by the U.S. Department of State (via the Council on Accreditation). Additionally, as of October 1, 2011, China requires that all home studies be conducted by an accredited agency.

IFS is a COA Hague Accredited Agency.

Under our accredited status, IFS can accept new applications as a primary, accredited provider from families who want to adopt from China. An adoption from China will be considered a Convention case if the family has not submitted an I-600a application to U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS) prior to April 1, 2008. An I-171h approval of such an application must be kept current (by applying for renewal) in order to maintain transitional status.

IFS’s prospective adoptive parent(s) who lose their transitional status under the Hague Convention must convert their adoption to a Convention case with IFS. Additionally, the home study provider (either IFS or another agency) will charge extra for the rewriting of the home study report to qualify under the Convention regulations.

The information information in this program description is subject to change without notice.