Adoption path
Adoption path
Adoption of children from aboard
Peculiarities of adopting children evacuated from institutions abroad:
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine will be able to adopt orphans and children deprived of parental care who were evacuated from institutional care abroad due to the war. This decision of the Government allows children to find a loving family, despite the fact that they are temporarily in another country.
The innovation simplifies the process for Ukrainian families and allows part of the procedure to be completed online. However, a personal meeting with the child is still mandatory - the future parents or at least one of them must go to visit the child abroad
The path of adopting a child from abroad
- Important
Adoption of a child evacuated abroad is available to citizens of Ukraine who already have the status of candidates for adoptive parents. That is, first you should go through the preliminary stages of the standard adoption procedure: submit an application and a package of necessary documents to the service for children, undergo an examination of housing conditions and training for candidates for adoptive parents and receive an appropriate conclusion (see the section “The path of an adoptive parent”).
After successfully completing these steps, the actual procedure begins, which concerns the adoption of children evacuated abroad.
- Step 1
Getting information about the child
1. Contact the regional children's service or the State Service for Children, inform them of your desire and readiness to adopt.
2. If you have contacted the regional children's service, wait for an invitation to the children's service to receive information about the child. The invitation will be sent to the email address specified in your application, in order of priority. After that, you will have 2 days to respond (in writing to email or by phone) and agree on a date for a meeting at the children's service.
If you contact the State Service for Children, the date and time for you to get information about the children is agreed upon in the working order (by phone or email).
Important: To simplify the procedure for adopting children abroad, it is allowed to familiarize prospective adoptive parents with information about the child online.
3. Get acquainted with the information about the child. You will be shown their photo, introduced to their story (what happened to their parents, whether they have siblings, what their health conditions are, and what country they are in).
- Step 2
Referral for introduction
Get a referral to meet the child. It will be issued by specialists from the Children's Service or the State Service for Children if you express a desire to start the procedure for adopting a child. The referral can be picked up in person or received by e-mail.
Important: The validity period of the referral for meeting a child who is abroad is 15 working days and can be extended for the same period.
- Step 3
Online introduction
A preliminary online introduction is carried out at the request of the candidate for adoptive parent.
First, you will talk to the head of the institution where the child is staying and the persons accompanying the child abroad. You will be provided with additional, more extensive information about the child, recommendations on how to communicate with the child. After that, the child is invited to the conversation.
The format of online acquaintance with a child depends on their age:
- young children can simply communicate with the carer, and you can observe to reconsider whether to go abroad to meet this child;
- for older children, you can tell about your family (where you live, what you do), ask the child what he likes, what he does.
- Step 4
Offline acquaintance
You, as a prospective adoptive parent, must travel abroad on your own and meet the child in the presence of the employees accompanying you.
Employees of the Children's Service are allowed not to travel abroad, but to observe the acquaintance process online.
Important: Personal acquaintance abroad is mandatory. If you or your spouse are restricted in their right to leave Ukraine during martial law, in this case, acquaintance with the child abroad is carried out by one of the spouses. The others participate in the acquaintance via video conference, and after the child returns to Ukraine, they meet in person.
If the prospective adoptive parent is not married and has restrictions on traveling abroad during martial law, they will not be able to adopt a child who is abroad.
The costs of travel abroad and back, accommodation and meals are borne by the prospective adoptive parents.
- Step 5
Returning a child to Ukraine
After meeting the child abroad in person, the adoption procedure can be continued in one of the following ways:
- you, as a candidate adoptive parent, will be appointed as the child's guardian/custodian. This is a temporary solution that allows the child to be returned to Ukraine to continue the adoption procedure. In this case, the child will be transferred to you and will live with your family until the adoption procedure is completed;
- the child is returned to Ukraine by the head of the institution or a person authorized by him and remains in institutional care until the adoption procedure is completed.
- Remember
Which of these two ways to proceed with the adoption procedure - is your decision. However, consider that being in a family environment usually has a better impact on the child's development and emotional state, meets his or her interests and promotes the fastest possible integration into family life than waiting in an institution. Establishing guardianship/custodity allows the child to adapt to a new family faster, receive individual attention and care, which is especially important during the period of waiting for the adoption procedure to be completed.
Features of the appointment of a candidate for adoptive parent as a guardian of a child evacuated abroad:
candidates for adoptive parents who wish to take a child evacuated abroad under guardianship/custodity with subsequent adoption do not need to undergo additional training provided for guardians/custodians;
guardianship/custodity is established for a period of three months and may be extended until the court decision on adoption comes into force;
the decision on establishing guardianship/custodity is made by the guardianship and custodity body at the place of residence of the candidates for adoptive parents;
if within three months after the establishment of guardianship/custodity, the candidates for adoptive parents do not submit an application to the court for the adoption of the child, it is considered that they have refused to adopt the child. In such a case, the guardianship and custodity body will place the child in another family or institution.
Care line
Remember
At the consultation stage, you can ask any questions you might have about adoption, or about welcoming a child into your family. It is an auxiliary tool for potential adopting parent candidates to obtain more information, and make the best decision for a child and the potential candidate’s family.
By signing up using the Diia Portal, you can select a convenient date and time for an offline consultation.
