Choosing a Country of Origin for Adoption

People choose to adopt for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from issues of personal health to deeply-held ethical or moral convictions. Some couples are not capable of having children for biological reasons, while others may feel compelled to provide a disadvantaged child with the familial basics of shelter, support, and love that every human being deserves.

Whatever the motivation, adoption itself is one of the most important decisions any parental hopeful can make. Those in such a position must ask themselves a number of exceptionally tough questions related to both mental and practical preparation, not the least of which concerns whether the child will come from a domestic agency or foreign nation.

Factors to Consider

Parents looking beyond our borders to adopt face their own unique set of points to address. Some of these include:

• Cost of adoption – it is an unavoidable fact that foreign adoptions will almost always significantly cost more than domestic ones. Expenses related to air travel, paperwork and documentation, weeks of lost work time, and dealing with often-difficult foreign authorities can quickly end up in the region of twenty to thirty thousand dollars. While it may seem cynical to approach adoption from a monetary standpoint, failure to do so is almost guaranteed to cause major headaches down the line.
• Length of time – Some countries simply take longer on average to process requests and slog through the red tape and official channels than others. Keeping patience in mind at all times is absolutely essential, as the whole process can take anywhere between six months and two years.
• Conditions of home country – For many adoptive parents seeking a child in a developing country for ethical reasons, one major point to be addressed involves the conditions and obstacles particular to that region. For instance, a couple concerned with the treatment of female infants may look to China.

Contact Us

For more information and resources concerning adoptions both foreign and domestic, contact an experienced San Jose divorce lawyer at the Law Offices of Daniel Jensen, P.C., today by calling 408-296-4100.