The program is open to married couples of which both husband and wife are between 30 and 50 years old. The couple must have been married two years on application to China -- five years if either was previously divorced.

There are other requirents regarding issues such as financial resources and health. Detailed requirements can be found under the "CCAA" button on the home page.

Children offered by China for international adoption are children that have been abandoned. Most of these children are girls who have been abandoned at birth and who, when adopted, are typically under 1 year old. There are a few boys and a very few slightly older children.

The birth parents of these children are unknown so no genetic information is available.

A profile of the child prepared by the orphanage is presented to the prospective parents when CCAA proposes a specific child. The profile includesthe results of common medical tests, a mental-physical developmental report, and a brief biography.

 

The family budget for the process is in the area of $24,000 which includes all costs associated with the process including the cost of the prospective parents’ adoption trip to China.

Adoption from China is a two stage process. A family wishing to adopt first applies to their provincial government for approval to adopt a child from China. The time to provincial approval varies by province – 3 to 6 months is typical.

Once approval has been granted, the family prepares an application to China. China reviews the application and will propose a child that China feels is a match to the applicant family. Beacuse there is currently a very large backlog of applications in China that are waiting for children to become available, it is very difficult to give a credible estimate as to how long the wait from submission of an application to a child referral will be. Estimates in the China adoption community range from 4 to 7 years.

If one of a couple was born in China, Hong Kong or Taiwan, (or both parents, or all four grandparents, were born in China, Hong Kong or Taiwan), China will expedite the couple’s application. In expedited cases, from submission to child referral is expected to be less than two years.

About 7 to 8 weeks after accepting a child proposal, a family can expect to depart on the escorted China adoption trip along with 5 to 10 adopting families. The trip is a 12 day trip in China during which the child is formally adopted. Four nights are spent in the capital city of the province where the child resides. During this time, the child is formally adopted and documented. Seven nights are spent in Beijing where the family acquires Canadian citizenship for the child.

The program is open to married couples where both husband and wife are between 30 and 55 years old. The couple must have been married two years on application to China -- five years if either was previously divorced.

There are other requirents regarding issues such as financial resources and health. Detailed requirements can be found under the "CCAA" button on the home page.

Children in the Waiting Child program are children that China identifies as having a minor or correctable medical condition, or are of school age. Children in the program are boys and girls with ages typically ranging from infant through 60 months – some school age children are also available.

The most common affliction is congenital Cleft Lip & Palate. Other common medical conditions are Hepititus B and congenital heart disease.  Less common are orthopaedic conditions such as leg length differences and club foot. Many other conditions appear.

Orphanages have access to funds from the federally sponsored “Tomorrow Plan” which is devoted to providing surgeries for orphaned children. It is common for children in the Waiting Child program to have had surgical repairs particularly if they are older than infants.

The family budget for an adoption of a child from the Waiting Child program is similar to the budget for the normal program. Because often families to spend a few days in a city other than where the main travel group will be travelling, the family should be prepared for some additional costs of perhaps $200.

Families that adopt a child over two years old are required to purchase a one-way fare from China to Canada (as opposed to an infant-in-arms fare). This is likely to cost about an additional $1000.

An applicant family must follow the same provincial process and prepare a similar application to China.

A family wishing to adopt a child from the Waiting Child program is placed on a list maintained by FOI. The list ordered on the date that families received provincial approval to adopt a child from China’s Waiting Child program.

From time-to-time FOI receives a set of child profiles from CCAA (selected by CCAA from CCAA’s pool of special needs children) with the authority to find homes for these children to families. FOI will match children to families according to the parameters (age range, gender, medical condition) expressed in the family’s provincial Letter of Approval. CCAA is contunually reviewing and assessing the Waiting Child Program -- administrative changes are common.

Time from acquiring the Letter of Approval to a child referral varies widely. The wait on the list is highly dependent on the family’s stated age range, the specified gender, and the medical conditions that the family is willing to accept. Generally the wait is shorter if the family is willing to accept a boy, or is willing to accept a child older than 30 months.

On receiving a child proposal, a family submits a formal “Letter of Intent to Adopt a Special Needs Child” to CCAA which will review the family’s full dossier in the context of the Letter of Intent. CCAA usually responds within 4 months and travel to China is typically 7 to 8 weeks later; the trip is a 12 day trip in China during which the child is formally adopted; Canadian citizenship is granted to the child before the family leaves China. The trip is arranged so that a family usually travels with other families although it will likely be the case that the family will spend four nights in a city other than the city where most of the travel group is staying.