China Waiting Child Program

(Hague)

Since February 2003, the CCAA has allowed our agency to work with families who are interested in adopting children with special needs (minor handicaps and/or health problems). They believe it is a fundamental right of all children to be part of a loving family. Most frequent special needs files received in the recent years have been cleft lip/palate, cardiac problems, congenital malformations of hands/feet, deafness, hepatitis B and/or other health problems. Some children are simply older, healthy children (usually boys over the age of 8 years).

Dossier Preparation: CAFAC prepares all dossiers, after the family has gathered the required documentation for the country. Dossiers require notarization and authentication by Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Embassy. All dossiers are submitted to the China Center for Adoption Affairs.

Parent requirements: Only couples who have been married for at least two years are admissible, common law couples are not accepted. If either spouse has been previously divorced, the current marriage must be of at least 5 years. Applications by single applicants are not possible. For the adoption of children with special needs, both parents must be between 30 and 54 years of age. China requires that the family employment income be a minimum of $10 000 USD per year per family member, including the child to be adopted. The couple must have a net worth of at least $80 000 USD. Both parents must have completed a high school education. Both parents must have a Body Mass Index (BMI) below 40.

Children:Many of the children available for adoption are girls but there are boys as well, parents need to be open to either gender.
All are of Asian heritage, and range in ages from 9 months old to 4 years old at the time of proposal. All are tested for HIV, Hep B, and Syphilis. There are waiting lists of children that are registered with the China’s Centre of Adoption Affairs with healthy children under three years of age. Child proposals come with as much information as is known about the child, medical examination results, laboratory findings, and photos. The family has 30 days to consider a proposal and then must reply to the CCAA. For more information on China’s Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) please visit their website: www.china-ccaa.org

Waiting Child Program: There are waiting lists of children that are registered with the China’s Center of Adoption Affairs; with medical and special needs children of all ages, or healthy older children. In addition, children with special medical needs can be applied for through the Waiting Child Program. If you are interested in the Waiting Child Program please contact us directly and we will forward specific information to you.

Waiting Time: Currently families are waiting between 12 to 24 months for proposal, depending on openness of acceptance. Families then travel to the country 8-12 weeks later.

Travel: Travel to the country is compulsory. At least one adoptive parent must be present for the adoption ceremony and finalization process, this parent must be the sponsor for immigration. Stay in the country is usually 14-21 days in length. All travel, tours and adoption processing are assisted by CAFAC’s Chinese facilitators, China Oriental Dream Travel Service. Families have someone with them from the moment they arrive in China, throughout the adoption process, until it is time to return home. These services are excellent. The adoption is finalized while in the country.

Cost: Couples report that the cost for the complete adoption process range from $30,000-$35,000 CAD depending on exchange rate, price of plane tickets, length of stay in China and the province in which they reside in Canada.

Immigration: The Canadian High Commission that manages the Immigration files is located in Beijing, China.

CAFAC works with an agency from Quebec to work in the Waiting Child Program, Formons Une Famille, www.formonsunefamille.com they have been licensed since 1991. This agency has helped to bring home 3000 children in their regular program and waiting child program together.

The Facilitator that CAFAC works with is China Oriental Dream Travel Service and they can be found at: www.Iwanttovisitchina.com

For more information about the China program, please contact the office at 204-867-5556