Adopting the child: everything about the process, costs & possible hurdles

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:

(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.

(Here you can read the full legal text.)

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.