Has anyone every considered adopting a foreign born child? I hope I'm posting this on the right board! Me and my fiance are interested in adopting a child, maybe an american child or maybe a foreign born. Does anyone know around how long it takes ?

i am not really familiar in adoption ... but i would think your 'length of marriage' would be taken into consideration.

i do believe that foreign adoptions are quicker (and sometimes cheaper) than american adoptions.

best of luck to you both!

My co-worker adopted a baby girl from China. The whole process (from decision to adopt to bringing their daughter home) took 18 months.

This is probably not the right message board, I'm sure there are ones that focus on adoption specifically. Unfortunately, I don't know any.

Be a patriot, adopt American!

i wanted to adopt from guatmalla which is supose to be pretty fast but my husband said it is forbidden in islam to adopt so he refuses.

I am 99% certaion that is wrong, but him not wanting to adopt may well be correct.

It is NOT forbidden in Islam to adopt. Children who are orphans should go to their extended family first, and if they do not accept that child, then the child can be adopted. Since we are muslim we would prefer adopting muslim children. However if you do decide to adopt muslim children you can never tell them that you are their real parents and the child has to keep their original fathers last name. Hope this helps.

There's no such thing as a "Muslim child". Religion is not passed through DNA.

If their parents are muslim, it's moreeeeeee than likely their parents intended for the child to be muslim. you can't just raise a child with no set of religious values and expect them to make a decision when they turn of age.

Yes, but it's going to be your decision and nothing to do with the child's biological parents and their intentions.

Just be careful if you adopt from China, the Washington Post had an article a couple weeks ago ... basically people in the West still think there are tons of baby girls who are left to die in China so lots of Western couples go to China to adopt them; but that's not really true anymore, so people are kidnapping baby girls to fill the demand by Western couples who want to adopt a baby girl from there. Western couples pay something like $3000 per adoption, so orphanages want to keep that money coming in so they buy babies with forged papers and stuff.

There were interviews with families whose baby daughters were kidnapped right out of their strollers, and also with American parents who found out the paperwork saying their daughters had been abandoned was probably forged. It was really sad, but there's no way to trace back and find out where the baby actually came from—some Chinese couples who were interviewed said the police wouldn't even take a report.

The whole concept always struck me as odd, after all a few hundred years ago buying people was called slavery.

wow.

the insensitivity of a couple of you on this thread just turns my stomach. obviously, you have not experienced the heartache and devestation of infertility.

firstly, and MOST importantly....no one is BUYING these children. the fees paid in foreign adoptions go to the orphanage to cover the cost of raising the child up to that point. (children adopted overseas are usually over at least 1 year old).

secondly, comments like, "adopt american" are insensitive and ignorant. if there were more babies available for adoption in the US, i doubt many folks would subject themselves to the uncertainty and hassles of foreign adoption. unfortunately, if a woman in the US gets pregnant and doesn't want the baby, she can have it sucked into a sink for $300. and for the record...the cost of domestic adoption is MUCH higher than the cost of foreign adoption.

lastly, considering the nature of THIS visajourney board...i'm pretty sure people here should understand...going overseas to adopt a child is really not much different than going overseas to find a spouse, now is it?

iceyspots, i wish you all the best in your adoption journey!

1. I do not understand why you would have to pay the orphanage anything, after all you are taking an ongoing cost off them.

2. If you pay them anything then the potential for corruption mentioned above is not only possible, it is pretty much a certainty.

3. As far as I am aware there is no shortage of children requiring adoption within the US, I know my Town has a month long campaign every year trying to get people to come forward.

4. Obviously there is a problem if you can buy a child outside the US for less than it costs to adopt here.

5. With a Spouse you have consenting adults, who take a view where they want to live, obviously this boards deal with those going to the US, but the 'trade' goes both ways.

http://adopt.org/servlet/page?_pageid=289&...schema=PORTAL30

I am sure there are many, many more, first up on google.

did you notice that those children are all about 9, 10 and 11 years old? i'm not saying that there's not good reason for them to be adopted...but c'mon. it's sad but true...most of these kids have grown up in very abusive homes...many are drug-exposed before they're born...nearly all of them have deep emotional problems.

there very well may be many people who would love to adopt these kiddos. but can you fault someone for wanting to adopt a BABY?? c'mon. you can't possibly be *that* insensitive, can you?

Now we get to the chase.

So the child has to meet certain specifications before its acceptable.

And presumably comes with some sort of warrenty?

Is there a Lemon law for adoptions?

So your point why go for pre owned when you can import a new one for less price.

Perhaps motivations need to be examined.

Hi

We do want to adopt pretty young, between 1-3 years old or from baby. The reason behind wanting a foreign born child is because, well, a lot of foreign born orphans have it much much worse than american born orphans. Depending on the country people adopt from (Usually the 3rd world), children not only face the same problems as american children, they often face food shortages, grossly inadequate to no health care, unclean water.. etc...

That motivation I can recognise.

The rest is just weird self justification, if you were really concerned about getting the maximum benefit for your dollar for sych children, then a lot more could be done by sending money and helping many, rather than bring one to the US.

I still do not like children being looked on as a globally traded commodity.

Me personally I never looked at children like a globally treated commoditity. Me and my fiancé wanted to adopt a child because we didn't want people think we were adopting a non-muslim child to convert that child or something. We didn't want to feel that we were imposing a religion onto that child that some would say that isn't what they were naturally meant to be. I do say that when children become of age they should have their own choice, but a lot of times if religious education isn't started early, it's not likely it's going to stick with them later in life. Of course our decision isn't going to come until later. I just feel if we raise our child without any religion and let them decide later, by the time they've made their choice of religion (or lack thereof), if the child decided to be muslim they probably have already engaged in a lot of big no-no's. How many American children have experimented with drugs, wearing trendy (and oftentimes revealing) clothes, or have had pre-marital sex? I'm not trying to demonize American youth, but particularly if we have a daughter and we let her wait to decide until she is 18 to be muslim like us, and she has engaged in these activities, it's not very likely that she will be marriageable.

I'm going to skip right past the posts that other people have made in reply to this thread. We've started looking into adoption and the first thing I found out is that you have to have been married for at least two to three years before you'll be considered suitable parents - they need to see a stable loving marriage. You do not have to both be US citizens yet, but one of you has to, and the other parent can be a LPR or a foreign national.
Adoption is EXTREMELY expensive and the process takes anywhere from 18 months upwards. A lot of people wait four or five years before a successful adoption is finalised.

It is NOT 'buying a child'. You can't just pick one up at the corner store or walk into an orphanage and say 'I'd like that one'. They do an extensive home-study and you have to do a training course and pay fees and wait patiently... and an overseas adoption requires several expensive trips to the foreign country to complete.

Things you do NOT have to be - rich (as long as you can find the adoption fees somewhere) You just have to be managing comfortably on your income and have enough left over to support a child. There are various charities and organisations that will help to pay adoption fees for suitable parents who can't afford it, and if your adoption goes through successfully Uncle Sam will give you a ten thousand dollar tax credit that goes a long way towards helping out...

There are lots of message boards dedicated to adoption and I'd suggest you go and do a google search for them and start investigating your options...

You keep saying that, but seriously, children are NOT naturally meant to be ANYTHING.
No-one will blame you for wanting to raise your child Muslim, except maybe the child himself.

My wife and I, both American citizens are near the end of the adoption process of her neice., now our daughter,...3 years old. Her visa is being processed in the US Embassy in Manila, Philippines right now. The international adoption process is very difficult, but not impossible to do without a lawyer. I would suggest that you go to www.adoption.com and look under international adoption. I would also suggest that you go to uscis.gov and read about the rules that USCIS has concerning international adoptions. They are extremely complex, and no one will tell you what you need to do, you're basically on your own without an attorney.
We hired an attorney in the Philippines to process our adoption, and we had to make 3 appearances in a foreign regional court to get the adoption finalized for the Philippine Government. It was only then that we were granted an approval for our I-600 petition by USCIS. We had to prove that the child's mother abandoned the child, and that her father was too sick to work to support the child. I would have to say that this process is about the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, but I'm glad we did it. It has taken us 3 years at this point. I've become a miniature expert on the foreign adoption process, USCIS and their rules, and the difficulties of getting a passport for your adopted child in a foreign country. You will, or should spend hours researching this on the internet before you decide to do this. Good luck, and feel free to message me if you need any help........