What You Need to Know About Adopting from Ukraine

Resources and information for present and future adoptive parents of children from Ukraine including agencies, independent adoption guidance, legal considerations, and procedures.

Legal Requirements

Ukrainian adoption regulations are very specific on these (and other) points:

Pre-selection is not allowed.
The law does not provide for the adoption of "known" children. "Under Ukrainian law, disclosure of information on children available for adoption to agencies or private citizens by Ukrainian officials is forbidden." (Source: U.S. State Department)
Parents must maintain the child's Ukrainian citizenship until age 18, register them with the Ukrainian Embassy or Consular office within 30 days of their arrival home, and provide annual reports on the child's well-being.
The dossier submitted by adopting parents contains their "commitment, if granted an adopted child, that he/she must be registered with Ukrainian Embassy or Consulate in their home country within one month. You will need to supply information (at least once a year) about the adopted child's living conditions and educational process to the Ukrainian consular office (see sample report), and arrange for Ukrainian consular officers to keep in touch with the adopted child, and retain the child's Ukrainian citizenship until 18 years of age." (Source: U.S. State Department)

Points to Remember

Ukraine, and every other country, has the right to do whatever it feels best to protect its children, and to expect compliance with its laws;
Parents in the process of considering or adopting from Ukraine shouldn't panic; wait to see what develops. Even if the current National Adoption Center is closed, another agency will most likely be set up to handle adoptions. Reports are that parents in Ukraine are proceeding with their adoptions.

The most important point to remember is that you do have it within your control to adopt responsibly. It may take a little more time, a little more reading, a little more talking, but this is a lifetime at issue.

Your Responsibilities

As an adopting/adoptive parent, it is your responsibility to:

Know and abide by the law;
Research your agency and/or facilitator;
Listen past what you "want" to hear, and
Whether you have a good or bad experience, share it with others to help them make their best decisions.

Best Resources:

U.S. State Department Adoption Fact Sheets: The best place to learn the details of each country's adoption program and legal requirements;
International Adoption at Adoption.com: In-depth information on country programs.

Mary Lib Mooney, an advocate for adopting parents, cautions:

"It is your responsibility to find out the laws in the country you are adopting from. You are only hiring an adoptionworker to guide you, and you are responsible for anything you do, such as pre-selection. Even ifyour child was pre-selected and you had a good experience, that does not make it right to break the laws of other countries."

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about the tightrope adopting parents are often asked to walk, part of which bears repeating:

"As too many adopting parents have learned the hard way, just because someone says it's legal doesn't make it so. And just because someone says it's ethical doesn't make it so. More and more, adopting parents are finding themselves in the position of investigated (homestudy) as well as investigator, as they try to sort through the maze of legal and ethical practices, risks, and potentially fraudulent situations. Balancing these responsibilities with the emotion of the adoption process is, indeed, akin to walking a tightrope."

Comments

i was just wondering what stance the Ukraine has on gay singles adopting as im looking into adopting from the country at present.

Posted by: existo solvo at 04/01/2007 12:51 PM

This has to be a good thing for the children. If the parents are not following the requirements that Ukraine set out for adoption, then what else is going on in the home? I can understand forgetting for a little while, but don't you think that it would pop into your mind that you need to let the Ukrainian government know what is going on with the child that they allowed you to adopt? There should be strict requirements for any adoption and if this is one of the requirements that you knew about when you adopted the child, then you should definitely abide by it.

Posted by: conservation at 11/15/2005 04:35 PM

I really think it's a good thing to see that adoption professionals somewhere are starting to get stricter about reporting policies, etc. I know that in the US, it can be very difficult to enforce reporting and "checking in" of any sort once a child is placed; most parents are so happy to have finally had the opportunity to adopt that once they add a child to their family, they tend not to take the time to check back with the agency and complete follow-up reports that can really help agencies improve the system for future adoptive and first parents, and ultimately could help decrease the amount of time, in the case of older children adopted, that children spend in foster care (which as has been discussed previously, is far too long!). And often because agencies are so inundated with work, and have so many children to keep track of, they give up and don't enforce some of the policies because there just is not enough time and money to do so. While this will make international adoption more difficult for those in the US, perhaps it will start making it a habit for adoptive parents to complete necessary paper-work instead of something that is forgotten, and ultimately help the system for everyone, and, particularly for the children.

Posted by: avalanche at 11/01/2005 08:55 AM

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