Although there are many children in England who are looking for an adoptive family, there are also children in other countries who need homes. Intercountry adoption may be their only opportunity to have a permanent family. For humanitarian reasons, the Government allows intercountry adoptions to proceed where:

Please use the links provided to find your area of interest.

News items

26 July 2010 – Philippines update

The Department for Education has been advised by Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB) that it is happy to report that an increasing number of regular adoptive families for the Philippine Intercountry Adoption Program have become more open to accepting children (single placement) of up to eight years of age. With this positive development, ICAB has modified the age of a child to be considered as special needs or hard to place.

For the Philippine Intercountry Adoption Program, the age of a special needs or hard to place child for Special Home Finding has been set to nine years old and above. Children below nine years old who do not belong to a sibling group and do not have any medical issues are now considered regular children.

The definition of a special needs child may be accessed in the ICAB website.

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23 July 2010 – Philippines update

The Philippines Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB), has notified the Department that after careful review, the Board has decided to further modify the current checklist/form Type of Child Acceptable to Family to include some additional developmental/medical issues which are not in the current form, but which they believe is essential in the matching or judicious pairing of children with the adoptive families. The Board wish to note that it has been two years since the form was last amended. All new prospective adoptive parents should use this form from 1 September 2010.

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23 July 2010 – China update

The Department has been advised by Bridge of Love Adoption Service (BLAS) that there has been a fee increase. The donation to the orphanage should be 35000RMB. The registration, notarisation and passport fee amount is different in every province, but the total amount of these three items will not be more than 5000RMB. Regarding the visa fee, you can check this on the UK in China website or call 40088 55899. You may also wish to see our country requirements page on China for further information.

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29 June 2010 – Philippines update

The Philippines Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB) has notified the Department to clarify that further to its advisory note, dated April 23 2009, which stated that it had placed a moratorium for prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) wanting to adopt 0- to 2-year-old children, it shall only consider applicants for children of 3 and above. However, during the Global Consultation on Child Welfare Services held last August 2009, the Board confirmed that the moratorium is for PAPs wanting to adopt children from 0 to 24 months and therefore, only adoptive applicants for children of 25 months and above are accepted. ICAB has apologised for not communicating this change to the Department.

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23 June 2010 – Kazakhstan update

The Department has been advised by the Embassy of Kazakhstan: 'Having joined the Convention, the Republic of Kazakhstan, as prescribed, started the process of bringing its national legislation, including the Marriage and Family Code, in compliance with the Convention requirements.

In this regard and to avoid any mistakes and confusion in the process of building the dossiers for prospective adoptive families due to the ongoing legislation reform, the Embassy temporarily suspends the acceptance of dossiers for adoption until further announcement.

The Embassy apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.'

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18 June 2010 – China update

The China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) introduced a new online system for its Special Needs programme in 2009. The new system requires the adoption agency in the state of origin to facilitate the matching process, although we understand that the rest of the adoption process remains unchanged. The adoption agency must first be registered for the Special Needs programme with the CCAA. The Department has discussed the new system with the CCAA and a number of voluntary adoption agencies and local authorities. At present, no agency is in a position to undertake this function and register to operate this programme. The Department is not an adoption agency and cannot undertake this function. As such, the China Special Needs programme is not available to UK adopters at this time.

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3 June 2010 – Nepal update

The Hague Bureau published the report of its technical assistance mission to Nepal in November 2009 which looked at the intercountry adoption processes in Nepal. It recommends to the Nepalese Government a temporary suspension of adoptions while the necessary reform of the intercountry adoption process is undertaken.

Following this new evidence, an Order was made to suspend adoptions from Nepal by British citizens. The Order came into force on 3 May 2010.

A copy of the Hague report can be found at:
http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=publications.details&pid=4958&zoek=Nepal

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14 April 2010 – Adoptions from India

The Central Adoption Resources Agency (CARA) has suspended all the activities related to the intercountry adoption agency Preet Mandir, Pune (recognised placement agency) until further notice.

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11 February 2010 – Thailand Update

The authorities in Thailand have notified the Department that due to the limited numbers of children available for adoption in Thailand, it is unable to receive new applications in 2010.

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19 January 2010 – New requirements for prospective adopters Re: Philippines

The Department has been advised by the Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB) of the following information:

After careful deliberation, the Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB) has come up with the following list of new requirements for prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) with medical and psychological concerns.

Effective November 1, 2009, foreign adoption agencies should no longer accept families for the Philippine program who have the following medical and psychological issues as they will no longer be accepted by ICAB:

List of unacceptable medical issues:

1. Diabetes Mellitus
2. Obese (BMI of PAPs should be 35 and below)
3. Cancer
4. Kidney transplant and any major transplant (heart, lung, liver)
5. Pacemaker/stroke/myocardial infarction
6. Multiple sclerosis and other degenerative muscular disorder
7. Autoimmune disorders
8. Risk factors that will impede care for the child (e.g. blind, deaf, wheelchair bound)
9. Hepa C

List of unacceptable psychological issues:

1. Psychiatric disorders
2. Mood disorders/major depressive disorders
3. Anxiety disorders
4. Substance use disorders
5. Sexual disorders

ICAB requires that all applicants to be adoptive parents to a Filipino child seek a full psychological evaluation from a competent practitioner.

ICAB expects the psychologist to employ a reasonable combination of assessment processes when preparing the psychological evaluation report – clinical interview, evaluation of collateral information and psychological testing among others. The psychological evaluation report reflects the practitioner’s synthesis of all the gathered data.

The psychological evaluation report, therefore, shall include, but not be limited to the following:

1. Early experiences (e.g. childhood or adolescent years) that played a significant role in their development as individuals. How did
those experiences shape their development? Will unresolved issues, if any, likely impact the applicants’ parenting capability?
2. Functional assessment.
3. General coping mechanisms and problem-solving strategies as individuals and as a couple.
4. Clinical impressions.
5. Objective tests administered. Briefly describe what each test is meant to measure. State the results and their implications on the individuals’ capability as prospective adoptive parents.
6. Conclusions and recommendations.

The following are the psychological tests required for PAPs (note: the psychologist is expected to have access to valid and reliable psychological tests within his/her jurisdiction).

1. Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF)
2. Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III (MCMI-III)
3. Rorschach and Projective Personality Tests
4. Bender Gestalt Test
5. Fired Sentence Completion Test
6. DAP and RBE 2
7. 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire*
8. Parent Awareness Skills Survey*
9. Hare Psychopathy Checklist-R*

Note: *optional tests

ICAB will be expecting a more comprehensive psychological and medical assessment for PAPs who intend to adopt a regular child from the Philippines. PAPs seeking a relative or a special needs child will be assessed on a case-to-case basis.

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15 January 2010 – Indian adoption applications for Preet Mandir

We have been informed that an adoption agency in India, Preet Mandir, is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation in India following allegations of adoption malpractice. Information on the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) website, which is the Indian Central Authority, suggests that Preet Mandir’s licence continues to be valid. This means that Preet Mandir can continue to process adoption applications. The Department has written to CARA seeking reassurance that it is content for Preet Mandir to continue to process applications, and we have asked to be updated on the outcome of the investigation. We will continue to review the situation following CARA’s response. Any updates will continue to be published on this website.

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