If all options are exhausted to get a biological child, the adoption of a child can be a way for couples to make their desire to have children come true. But how does an adoption work, what are the prerequisites, how much does it cost and who can a child adopt?
Table of contents
- Adopting the child - how does that work?
- This is what the Civil Code (BGB) says:
- How long does it take to adopt a child?
- What does it cost to adopt a child?
- What's next and what is adoption period?
- Who can adopt a child at all?
- Can homosexuals adopt a child?
- What do you have to consider when adoption abroad?
- Often adoptions abroad take place in the child's home country
Reproductive medicine is already able to do a lot today, but it is also limited. For some couples, this means that they give up their desire to have children and deny their lives without their own children. For others that they want to meet the desire to have children using an adoption.
Adopting the child - how does that work?
Adopting a child means giving you a home, accepting it, loving and accompanying it for the rest of his life. Not an easy task. Therefore, potential adoptive parents are put through their paces.
At the very beginning of an adoption, contact with an adoption agency is. Public adoption places are located in the local youth welfare office. During a first conversation, it is important to advise and clarify women and men who consider adoption of a child in detail. What does it mean to adopt a child, which hurdles have to be overcome, what does we really come up with? It is important that couples who want to adopt a child are sure that this is the right way for them.
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If the decision is made to adopt a child, the application for adoption must then be made. The following documents and documents are necessary for this:
- The application for adoption and a personal application letter in which the adoption parents justify why they want to adopt a child
- Birth and marriage certificate
- The partnerships of the partners
- Police certificates
- Proof of earnings and assets
- Proof of debt
- Health certificates
In addition, there is also a questionnaire in which questions about religion and educational ideas are asked, for example, but also, for example, what would happen in the event of a separation. If the first bureaucratic hurdle is in the adoption process, the aptitude procedure follows.
Listen now: Thorsten Beyer about his experiences with adoption
This is what the Civil Code (BGB) says:
(1) The assumption as a child is permissible if it serves the child's well-being and can be expected that a parent-child relationship arises between the acceptor and the child. […]
(2) If you are not married, you can only accept a child alone. A couple can only accept a child together. A spouse can accept a spouse on his own. He can accept a child alone even if the other spouse cannot accept the child because he is incapable of business or has not yet reached the age of 21.
How long does it take to adopt a child?
In the aptitude examination procedure, as the name suggests, the parents are checked for their suitability as adoptive parents in discussions with the youth welfare office. Individual and couple talks take place with a social worker in which questions about one's own childhood are asked, to relationship with each other, the desire to have children and the future ideas.
It is important to find out the personal limits of the potential adoptive parents, because a non -physical child that may have a difficult start in life and may be very different from the adoptive parents can lead to rejection. It is important to find out what is important to parents and, above all, what to do with them.
In fact, the aptitude procedure lasts between 4 - 9 months. If the suitability of the couple has been determined, it exists for 2 years. At the couple's request, a social report can be created that is necessary if a child wants to adopt them abroad.
Because the examination procedure takes so long and also because the suitability of the couple only applies for two years, it is important that couples maintain regular contact with the youth welfare office. There are around eight times as many couples in Germany who want to adopt a child as children who can be adopted.
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What does it cost to adopt a child?
Visits to a public adoption agency of a youth welfare office and the aptitude test there are free of charge. Only those who contact an adoption agency in the free sponsorship - which have a corresponding approval of the central adoption centers of the state youth offices - and passes the aptitude procedure there, costs around 1000 euros.
What's next and what is adoption period?
If the parents have successfully passed the test for suitability, it is common for them to take a foster child. The so -called adoption period lasts one year on average and can be seen as a test phase for adoption. That year the child lives with the adoptive parents, but the rights and duties of the biological parents are not completely overridden and the child's representative is the youth welfare office for this time.
If a good parent-child relationship between adoptive child and parents has formed in the adoption period, the child can be finally adopted.
Who can adopt a child at all?
Married couples, but also individuals, can adopt a child. For a child to be adopted in Germany, the potential adoption parents must have reached the age of 21. It has also been shown that you shouldn't be older than 35 if you want to adopt a baby or toddler.
With unmarried couples, only one person can adopt the child.
Can homosexuals adopt a child?
Homosexual couples have been able to get married in Germany since 2017. This gives you the same rights as heterosexual couples, including the adoption of a child. Life of same -sex couples in a registered civil partnership, only one of the two can adopt the child. Nevertheless, the other partner can also adopt into the child, but only after the adoption already completed. One then speaks of a successive adoption.
What do you have to consider when adoption abroad?
Because the number of couples who want to adopt a child in Germany is many times higher than the number of children to be adopted in Germany, some consider adopting a child from abroad. But here too it is important to consider some things!
If you want to adopt a child from abroad as a married couple, one of the partners must be at least 25 years old, the other must be at least 21 years old. It is not possible for a married couple to adopt the child, both always have to make the application.
It is best to turn to adoption abroad first to recognized clubs or agencies. Because here it is best to know which documents are necessary, which costs are roughly available and in which country what legal provisions apply.
As with an adoption in Germany, couples must also report to the adoption agency for adoption abroad and go through the aptitude procedure. With a positive aptitude test, the parents receive the social report and are legally able to adopt a child from abroad.
Often adoptions abroad take place in the child's home country
The documents must then be translated and transmitted to the responsible adoption centers abroad. These can then make an adoption proposal that is checked by the German placement agency. If all positions of the adoption agree, it may be that the child is entrusted to the parents in Germany for care. The actual adoption then also takes place in Germany.
However, adoptions are more common in the child's home country. Adopting a child abroad is often associated with the fact that the potential adoption parents also spend a long time with him in his home country. If the adoption is valid in the child's country of origin, the parents also need entry documents and the approval of the German immigration office and then the adoption must also be recognized in Germany by the responsible family court.
The cost of adoption abroad is higher than for adoption in Germany. The biggest expenses for lawyers and trips are to be added.
Those: Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection
Important note: The content of this article only serves the information and does not replace a diagnosis at the doctor. If uncertainties, urgent questions or complaints arise, you should contact your doctor.
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