Overseas Adoption
Who can adopt from overseas?
People can adopt from overseas, but there is no right to adopt. It's about making sure, first of all, that you go through the assessment process and are approved as a suitable person to adopt, and then it would be satisfying the country of origin of the child that you're a suitable person to adopt a child from that country.
Will I meet the child before the adoption is complete?
Yes, that would be standard practice to meet the child.
Is adopting from overseas expensive?
It can be quite expensive to adopt from overseas because you have to pay a number of fees and charges. You'll certainly have to pay for the assessment to be carried out, and the home study in the name of that assessment. That may cost several thousand pounds. You'll also have to pay any fees, notarization fees, perhaps translation fees, other legal fees that the country of origin may require in order to comply with the documentary requirements. You'll have to pay to actually travel to the country of origin of the child, you may have hotel fees, you may have legal fees, court fees that you need to pay once you're there. All of those things will certainly add up and the cost may be ten, fifteen, twenty thousand pounds, or perhaps more.
Why do people choose to adopt from overseas?
They may choose to do that for lots of different reasons. It may be that they feel a particular affinity with a country, it may be that they feel they want to do something that they feel is really good for that country. There may be a perception that young children aren't available for adoption in this country, which isn't true. It may be that they have other links with a country. Perhaps they have relatives there, or maybe they have had family there in the past. People's motivation to adopt varies enormously, but the important thing to say is that in the UK only about 300 intercountry adoptions from overseas take place every year, whereas in England alone nearly 4,000 children are adopted every year from our caste system.
