One wonders if the whole thing is purely an exercise in bureacracy and paperwork.
It is not called a Paper Chase for nothing.
For months and months, and even years, you will be chasing various documents from all sorts of sources and trying to make sure you have them all, that they are all valid, current and up to date.
The documents themselves are not complicated, it is the acquisiton of these documents that sometimes feels neigh impossible. You must be prepared to be shocked, astounded, frustrated, angry, annoyed. After all you are dealing with bureacracy and the state.
For those of you coming from a fast paced and efficient world, be prepared. Care, competence, speed, efficiency, organisation, education, initiative, concentration to detail, manners, and hard work are not in the lexicon of many of the organisations you will be working with.
That being said the documents are what it is all about. It is only through documentation that councils, governments, medical professionals, legal professionals, adoption agencies, foreign departments, orphanges, high courts and home agencies can relate to each other and you can reach your dream.
One of the problems with the complexity of international adoptions is that no one is sure of what the other one needs - and it is you who has to be the puppet master co-ordinating the entire performance. Do not expect your social services to provide the DfES with all the correct documentation, the doctor to know which is the right form, the notary to know what to do. It is you who has to ensure that they have been signed, dated, have the correct address, the right wording. And that it goes to the right place at the right time. If you are aware of this half of your battle will be won. You have to keep on top of the documents and on top of the people providing them. Do not trust when someone has said that they have sent a document - ask them when they sent it, how they sent it, and follow on to ensure that the receiving body has actually received it. Believe it or not some documents sit in LA's in-trays for 3 weeks 'until the in-tray is full, as we don't have the staff to stand in the queue at the post office' - and that is when you have paid them thousands of pounds.
You have to become a top negotiator. Your country wants x and your accountant can only provide Y. You have to convince your country to accept XY and your account to provide YX. This requires diplomacy and tact. And it is required for almost every document you are asked to provide.
So documents is what it is all about. And chasing them is your job.
Timing is important - some countries do not want documents to be older then three months, this means that you will have to repeat several of the documents over and over again as they run out of date. You initial medical for your homestudy will have run out by the time you get to deliver your papers to your countries officials, they will need a new one, then by the time you have received your referral and need to complete your adoption they have again run out and you will have to get a new one. Keep organised and on top of things - you don't want the adoption to be halted because you don't have an up to date document.
Then there is the changing requirements. You have to keep up to date on what is required from you. Sometimes this information is not publicised and then you will find your self scrambling to find 8 doctors to sign a form, or a character reference from a voluntary organisation, an offical guardian's letter, a photograph of you with all your family. Expect this to happen and be prepared.
What adds to the confusion is that the documents all have different names/titles depending on who is referring to them. They may mean the same document but they call it something different. Yes, confusing.
And the costs, some documents will cost you money to prepare. Some doctors charge for the medical, in fact you even have to pay £7 for the form itself, your accountant will charge you for their letters, etc. Then the notary and appostille charges, postal charges, courier services - it all adds up. Unexpected charges like having to catch a taxi to pick up a document from one place to take it to another to be signed and then back again. When you are working to deadlines it is usually requires spending money to speed things up. And of course everything needs to be translated into the language of your country, and then notarized again, all of this costs. It is the services that you need to call on to complete an international adoption that costs you the money. Remember, though, at all times, that the actual adoption of the child does not cost you anything.
What are the first documents I require?
International adoption happens in three stages. There is the UK side, then the foreign side, and then the UK side again.
UK proceedure
It goes from your decision to adopt, notification to the local authorities, preparation course, social workers visit, references interviewed, BAAF medical, police clearance certificate, accountant or employers letter, verification of home ownership/rental agreement, letter of intention to adopt, support tree, copy of passport, home study report, panel decision, ratified panel agreement. This all goes to the DfES in a bundle.
The DfES puts all these documents together, checks them and then if everything fits their criteria they will issue a Certificate of Eligibility.
All these documents then need to be notarized and appostilled. This means that the notary guarantees that the documents are bone fide and the signatures are from the people they say they are. This gets a bit tricky as you have many documents from various people. Some countries like Russia require that each document is individually notarized at £180/hr this gets very expensive. Other countries like China and India only require that the whole 'dossier' or 'bundle' is notarized. Once the documents have been notarized they need to be appostilled. This is a confirmation from the Foreign and Commonweath Office that the notary is a bone fide notary. Each appostille now costs £19.
In-country procedure
Once you have your completed dossier from the UK side, and you have celebrated, now it is the foreign side.
The documents need to be translated. If you are lucky you will be able to find your own translator, which will bring costs down. Other times you will be required to send these documents to your agency who has their own translators and who will be charging a premium. Differences are great from 500 euros to £1500 for a Russian dossier. Ensure that you are au fait with the countries requirements - in some countries the translator has to be authorized and known to the notary. So you may feel that you are cutting corners but then discover that you have to pay additional fees for having the correct signature on them.
Once the appropriate foreign country has recieved your documents, they will go through them with a very fine tooth comb and ask for additional documents to be provided.
Each countries requirements are different - in time International Adoption Guide will try to provide a comprehensive list of all the documents needed. However, no one really knows what is needed until it is asked for. Even in the same country, such as Russia, the requirements are different depending not only on what Region you are in but what judge you have. So although we will try to give you a through list - it will not be the 'definitive' list.
Once the country is satisfied that they have all the evidence that you will make suitable parents they will proceed in finding you a 'referral'. A child that fits in with the criteria you have asked for eg. male under 6.
This is the fun part, where you can leave behind the nightmare of 'paper' and enjoy what it is all about - the child. Depending on what country you are adopting from there are different procedures. If adopting from China you will receive a photgraph and some details and an invitation with a date to come and pick her up and bring her home. In Russia you will be invited to come and meet your child but will not be able to bring him/her home for several months - in this case you apply for a court order for adoption.
The Hague Convention has designated and undesignated countries when it comes to adoption - those whose laws they recognise and those who they don't. Depending on the status of your adoptive country you will have different requirements, and depending on your route to adoption - agency, faciltator, lawyer, independent you will have to provide different documents. Like any legal proceedings there are documents and more documents. Dossiers for Russian adoptions are almost 6 inches deep!
Once you have satisfied your countries legal requirements and you are now the parent of your child - you need to bring them back into the UK.
UK Immigration:
To bring your child back into the country you need to satisfy the Home Office that the adoption is ligitmate, the child is legally yours, and that you have the backing of the DfES.
Your child will be issued with a passport of his home country and will need a visa to enter into the UK. This is applied for at the British Consulate/Embassy within the country. They require photographs, passport, adoption decree, birth certificate, your details, Certificate of Eligibility. They have to contact the DfES to check if you are bone fide before they can issue your child a visa. Depending on the Consulate and their experience with international adoption this is usually a formality and can be done in 3 days. However there is no guarantee that even though you have adopted your child legally in a foreign country that the Home Office will allow you to bring the children into the UK. A Sri Lankan couple adopted two siblings through the Sri Lankan courts but were not allowed to bring them back into the UK because 'they had not contacted them enough through the adoption process' ?!
Once you have all the documents, and your child, it is time to fly home. The immigration officials at the airport flying out will want to see the court decree, birth certificate, adoption certificate, and UK visa and when you arrive in the UK the immigration officials will want to see all the documents as well. You will then be sent to the Port Authorities at the airport who will check everything and contact the DfES. They will take a record of your child entering the UK. These measures were stepped up when a recently adopted child from Africa was found abandoned in a shopping centre car park.
And now you can relax and enjoy your new family - for less then 14 days! Within that time you have to notify the Local Authorites in writing that you have returned with your child. Failure to do so will result in a £5000 fine or imprisonment(!).
You may also have to register your child with the Embassy in this country.
If you have adopted from a non designated country you will have to readopt the child in the UK courts..more paper. You cannot apply for an adoption order less than 6 months after bringing the child home. You will need to fill in an application to adopt order, have medicals for you and your child, and will have a guardian come and do home visits.
Before then your child is a 'ward of the borough' and is treated like any other child in care. This means that the social worker will come and visit you on a regular basis to check that everything is alright. You do not have to pay for these visits.
Depending to on your country of adoption you will have to provide Post Placement Reports. These are reports written up by the social worker on behalf of the LA to show to the country of origin that their children are doing OK and are being well looked after. Again depending on which country they can be at 6 months, 12 months, 2 years, 3 years. Of couse also need to be notarized, appostilled, translated, notarized. Failure to fulfil your obligation of post placement reports puts the whole process of adoption from that country in jeopardy.
And I think that is it. Once your adoption has been ratified by the High Court you can forget all about documents and concentrate on bringing up your young one. Phew!
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