- Individuals or couples may apply to adopt a child or children
from a Ukrainian orphanage. The National Adoption Center (known on the Internet
as the AC) in Kiev handles all adoption applications. Upon acceptance of the
application, prospective parents are put on a waiting list before being called
to Kiev to meet with the AC staff.
- Waiting list times depend somewhat on what type of child is
being seeked. Boys are generally more readily available to be adopted than
girls, children over age four are more readily available to be adopted than
children under age four, and children with some type of physical or mental
condition are more readily available than perfectly healthy children. On
average, waiting list times range from two to four months. Consider also that
summer months are generally far busier than winter months at the AC. All of the
above variables will determine how long candidates will be on the waiting
list.
- The Government of Ukraine's first priority with children in
orphanages is to put them in families within Ukraine. Only children who are
registered with the AC and children who are eligible for adoption will be
considered for international adoptions. Children who are placed in orphanages
must be registered at the district level for possible local adoptions.
- After being kept at the district office for one month, the
application is forwarded to the regional office of the Ministry of Education.
This office has one month to find a Ukrainian adoptive family for the child.
- If the child still has not been adopted by Ukrainian citizens,
his/her application is further forwarded to the Adoption Center to be input
into its database. Once a child's application reaches the Adoption Center, the
Center has 12(twelve) months to find a Ukrainian family for the child. If the
legal status of the child changes, the guardian authority will have to notify
the Adoption Center for this change within 7 (seven) days.
- Children who, in accordance with the list of diseases of the
Ministry of Public Health Protection, are determined to be unhealthy are not
subject to the 'one-plus-one-plus-twelve month' waiting period and will be
available for international adoptions immediately.
- There are no service fees at the Adoption Center for adopting a
child in Ukraine. Adoptions are done independently by candidates themselves,
therefore there are no Ukrainian adoption agency fees, unlike many other
countries. To help you with the adoption process, you may hire a North American
agency who specializes in facilitating Ukrainian adoptions, or you can hire an
individual in Ukraine, called a facilitator, to assist you with all aspects of
the adoption when you travel to Ukraine. Although the cost of facilitators
vary, they are generally much cheaper than the fees of adoption agencies in
other countries.
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