Ukraine is an independent country, located in southeastern Europe and bordered on the east by Russia, on the south by the Black Sea, on the north by Belarus and on the west by Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. Ukraine is slightly larger in area than France and has a population of about 47 million people. The capital of Ukraine is Kiev where our adoption program is headquartered. International adoptions have been taking place since about 1992, with occasional interruptions to allow changes in the adoption laws. (For more information about adoptions from Ukraine , refer to the Department of State web site at (http://www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/country/country_343.html). For general information about the Ukraine, visit FACT web site at http://www.uazone.net/Ukraine.html or Ukrainian Embassy web site at http://www.ukremb.com).
CHILDREN
Both boys and girls are available for adoption, from a minimum age of 13 months. Prior to this age, children are registered with the government and available only for adoption domestically. These waiting requirements may be waived only if the child has been diagnosed with the severe special needs listed by the Ministry for Public Health. There are no limitations on the number of children to be adopted. Families may adopt more than one child at a time. Only one dossier is currently required in order to adopt two- or more related or unrelated children from Ukraine. Some children eligible for international adoption will have medical or developmental disabilities. Due to the different medical system in Ukraine, some children will have challenging medical diagnoses in their medical history. In order to understand the difference between the US and Eastern European medical systems, please refer to Russian Adoption Medical Report Interpretation article at http://www.russianadoption.org/adoptionfaq.htm. In general, limited information is available regarding the child’s birth parents.
ADOPTING PARENT(S)
Only married couples are eligible to adopt from Ukraine. (Single women have adopted, but legislation is currently under consideration to ban this.) While there were no specific maximum age criteria in Ukraine’s adoption law, on March 20, 2007, the Parliament of Ukraine passed bill #2562 on Legislative Amendments to Ukraine's Laws (regarding adoptions). This bill introduced the following changes to current legislation:
- The minimum age of prospective adoptive parent must be at least 21 years old;
- The maximum age difference between adoptive parents and adopted children cannot exceed 45 years;
- Unmarried foreign citizens cannot adopt Ukrainian children.
If the bill is signed by the President, the age requirements will apply to both parents in the family. The bill will only come into effect following the President's approval. There are no restrictions regarding the number of children already in the family’s home or the length of marriage. Adopting parents must complete a home study by an agency (or independent social worker in some states) licensed for international adoption. It is important to utilize a good home study agency to be thoroughly prepared for international adoption. Both spouses need to travel to Ukraine for the adoption, although both do not have to remain during the entire adoption process. The presence of both parents is absolutely required at the Ukrainian State Department for Adoption and Protection of Rights of the Child (SDAPRC) and the court procedure. Then, one of the parents may leave, and the other parent stays to obtain the child’s immigrant visa and accompany the child to the US.
PROCESS
International adoptions from Ukraine allow you to travel in 4-6 months after completing your dossier. Once your dossier is sent to Ukraine, it will be translated, notarized and submitted to the SDAPRC, the only legal Ukrainian authority for adoptions (under the Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports). There it will be checked for completeness within a period of five to ten working days. If any mistakes are found, the dossier will be returned. If the dossier conforms to all requirements, an application will be approved, and we will receive a confirmation of registration. The prospective adopting parents will receive a letter of invitation to visit the SDAPRC on a specific appointment date. You will make a decision on adopting a particular child only after seeing the child in person and reviewing medical and developmental information. Pre-travel videos and photographs of available children are not available for adoptions from Ukraine. The only exception is photos of children coming to the U.S. for a camp and hosting program.
The official referral is made in Kiev by SDAPRC. The SDAPRC maintains the database of adoptable children available for both domestic and international adoptions. When adopting parents arrive in Ukraine, the SDAPRC shows them information about orphans available for international adoption within the parents’ specified age range. The SDAPRC then issues a letter of referral to allow the prospective parents to visit an orphanage to meet, select, and establish contact with a child. The family travels with an escort/translator to the town/city where the child is located. The decision is made after meeting the child in person. After choosing a child it takes from 10-14 days to appear in the court for a hearing. All the paperwork will be completed by attorneys working in the Ukraine. At your court appearance, the judge will set the 10-day waiting –“appeal” period. The judge's decision is announced the day of the hearing. Parents should be prepared for the 10-day appeal period to be in effect.
1st option: One 3-4-week trip. One parent may return to the USA after the court hearing. If family wants to complete adoption in one trip of approximately 3-4 weeks, they will need to spend 10-days after the court hearing in Ukraine – visiting a child, but not having any paperwork activity going on during that time. One parent may leave Ukraine right after the court hearing. (Prior to departure, the parent who leaves earlier must visit the US Embassy in Kiev to file some paperwork). The other parent needs to stay to finalize the adoption, obtain the child’s immigration visa and accompany the child to the US.
2nd option: Two trips: First trip- approximately 2 weeks with both parents present and second trip of 1 week with the presence of only one parent required.Two trips may be a desirable option for many families.
The local ZAGS office (Ukrainian abbreviation for Office of Vital Records) issues a post-adoption certificate of birth for an adopted child based on the final court decree and the original (pre-adoption) birth certificate. The next step is to obtain a passport for the child at the local OVIR (Ukrainian abbreviation for Office of Visas and Registration). At the time the passport is issued, a special, mandatory stamp is put in it showing that the child is departing Ukraine for permanent residence abroad.
After the completion of the legal process, the US Embassy in Kiev will issue an immigrant visa for the Ukrainian adopted children. The medical for the orphan visa will be done in Kiev at the Medical Center of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Flight arrangements from the US should be changeable (or open-ended). The following airlines are the most frequently used for the flight from the USA to Ukraine: KLM/Northwest, United/Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways. This list is not exhaustive and other airlines can be used if convenient.
AFTER RETURNING HOME
Upon return to the US, adoptive parents must have their child registered with the Ukrainian Consulate in the US (either in Washington, DC, New York or Chicago) within one month. In accordance with Ukrainian Law, the Consular Office of the Embassy of Ukraine should include your child (children) adopted in Ukraine in the list of Ukrainian citizens permanently residing in the USA. Application forms for the registration of a child with the Ukrainian Consulate and the procedure for registration are available on the internet at: http://www.ukremb.com/. Go to “Consular Information”, then to “Adoption of Children”, and click on “Consular Registration”. In addition to the registration, families must for 3 years annually submit post-placement reports, providing information about their child’s health, development, adjustment and educational process, to the Ukrainian Consulate in the US, with a copy of this report submitted to your agency.
COSTS
Available upon request.
Additional Expenses Are: Travel expenses (international and in-country airfares, accommodation, meals, telephone and faxes home, etc.), medical examination of the child/children at the Medical Center of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) (currently $100.00), and the US visa fee for the child, payable to the U.S. Embassy, are not included in the program fee. The legal firm we work with in Ukraine has substantial experience in international adoptions, mostly adoptions to the United States.
APPENDIX
Important changes in the U.S. immigration requirements related to the intercountry adoption process: The new version of Form I-604.
The new version of Form I-604, Determination on Child for Adoption (previously referred to as "Request for and Report on Overseas Orphan Investigation"), which went into effect on October 30, 2006, requires consular officers to certify that the adopted child fits the suitability criteria noted in the home study report, Visas 37 cable/I-600A approval notice, or approved I-600A as appropriate for age, gender, special needs, number of children, etc. Therefore, in order for an I-600A to be approved and an immigrant visa to be issued, the child must meet the eligibility criteria as recommended in the home study. A home study report does not have to set such limitations, but if there are any, the adopted child must meet all these criteria. For example, if a family is approved for adoption of an infant child, they cannot receive an immigrant visa for a five-year old adopted child without USCIS authorization. Even though each case is considered on its individual merits, any significant discrepancies (e.g., age difference over one year) may mean that the family needs to obtain an amended USCIS approval.
Given that Ukraine does not allow pre-selection of children eligible for intercountry adoption, most American prospective adoptive parents do not know the exact age, gender, health condition and sometimes even the number of their prospective adopted child(ren). If the child will not meet the eligibility criteria recommended in the home study, we recommend that adoptive parents initiate the process of obtaining an amended USCIS approval as early as possible. To do so, adoptive parents first have to obtain a short addendum to their home study from their agency or social worker, which then should be submitted to the appropriate USCIS office. Only after the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv receives an amended approval notice (or Visas 37 cable) from USCIS will the Embassy be able to process an immigrant visa for the adopted child. We strongly encourage the family to leave their options open and ask the social worker preparing your home study to not impose strict limitations on the age or gender of the future adopted child.