Adopting a child in Ukraine by foreigners
Adopting a child is a responsible step for every family.
The procedure of adoption is extremely difficult, both from a legal and social point of view. The legislative process of adoption is regulated in a way that as a result of adoption adopters and person who is adopted carry out certain risks. There is a probability that the child will not mature appropriately for the proper upbringing and cares of the new parents. After all, except upbringing, a great or even a decisive influence on the formation of personality has genetic heredity.
The procedure of the adoption of children by citizens of Ukraine
People wishing to adopt a child have to:
- apply for taking them into registration of prospective parents to services for children affairs at the place of residence;
- add the package of documents prescribed by the procedure of adoption to the application form.
In case of a positive conclusion by the services for children affairs, the applicants will register as candidates. The next stage is the introduction of candidates with information on children who can be adopted and issue them appropriate referrals.
Information on children who can be adopted is provided to prospective parents in personal meeting in the affairs service of children affairs and includes:
- information about the name, age, gender;
- legal basis for adoption;
- information of the health, physical and mental development;
- information on the child arrangement form;
- information about the presence or absence of siblings, their age and child arrangement form;
- showing photos of the child.
If potential adopters wish to meet with the child personally, they are issued directions to acquaintance. Its duration is ten working days from the date of issuance and may be extended by no more than 10 working days.
The purpose of this phase is to establish contact prospective parents with a child. Candidates become acquainted with the child and the documents contained in the personal file of the child, medical card, history of life, features of growth, behavior, abilities, character traits etc.
Rights of potential adopters
Candidates are entitled daily within the term of direction to visit a child according the place of residence or stay and interact with him/her in the allotted time.
Thus, candidates have up to 20 days to communicate directly with the child. But duration of these visits is limited. Therefore, in practice there may arise the situation that such acquaintance is quite superficial and there is no opportunity for getting know the nature of the child sufficiently.
If after this stage, adopters decided on adoption, they should turn service on children affairs at the place of residence or stay with the application for the adoption of a child. At the same time they are given the opportunity to learn about the child they intend to adopt. It should be noted that this information has limited character.
In addition, candidates have the right to conduct additional medical examination of the child (under certain conditions specified by law).
With regard to the personal file of the child, there is form of the child established by law. As for the information about biological parents, the child form has «Information on parents» containing the following data: name, surname, patronymic by mother and father.
In practice, potential adopters face the problem of interference and unwillingness of workers of services for children affairs to provide more information about biological parents. The reasons are as follows: such information is generally negatively characterizes parents. They may be people who suffer from drug or alcohol dependence, be subject to criminal charges or are prone to deviant behavior and more. Therefore, in future, adopters would not be surprised if their child after a few years will be issued to certain behaviors or hereditary diseases.
At this stage it is important to collect and explore all available information about the child and biological parents for a successful adoption. The company «Aleksey Pukha and Partners» provides advice of adoption and analyzes all possible legal opportunities and risks for potential parents. Lawyers of the company help to collect and prepare all the necessary documents for the quicker adoption of a child.
Cancellation of adoption
There may be situations that the court made a decision on adoption of the child who was taken to the new family, but over time new parents realize that their hopes for a long-awaited child are broken. It turns out that the child is poorly developed, heavily exposed to appropriate methods of education and training provided for children of his age has a disease, which was not mentioned in the medical report or in a few years gave its manifestation disease transmitted exclusively by inheritance from one of the biological parents.
The solution of the problem of «genetic effects» could be introduced by the institute of prior residence of the child in the adoptive family within a certain period with the right of following adoption. For example, this period may be 3 or 5 years by the criterion of balancing the interests of the adoptive parents, on the one hand, and protecting vulnerable psyche of the child, on the other. During this time, both sides could thoroughly understand each other and finally decide whether they can be family, not only formally. It requires a simple warning about the fact of child adoption and excludes the Institute of secrecy of adoption in the part of secrecy concerning the child adoption. Or restrict it if the previous residence set only in certain cases, such as when a child has reached 5 years or can realizes the adoption by the family with the possibility of continuation or when adopters refuse it themselves and are ready for immediate adoption of a child without canceling it in future, except on grounds provided by paragraphs 1 and 3 of part 1 of Article 238 Family Code of Ukraine.
Clients of «Aleksey Pukha and Partners» had never canceled adoption because all the details have been determined in advance. Individual approach to every client and detailed study of the provided case allows avoiding such negative situations.
Peculiarities of adoption by foreigners
Despite the fact that the adoption of children in Ukraine by nationals of the country is a priority it always remains topical issue of adoption of Ukrainian children by foreign citizenship. A child who has Ukrainian citizenship can be adopted by foreigners only under certain conditions. Firstly, he (she) should be registered in the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine; secondly, his (her) age should not be less than 5 years. In exceptional cases, adoption can take place without observance of the specified conditions.
Adoption by foreigners can be hold only with the consent of Ministry of Social Policy. Therefore, the Ministry of Social Policy sends a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine regarding the verification of foreigners on the presence or absence of information which could negatively characterize them in law enforcement of the foreign country and to the General Secretariat of Interpol.
Foreigners who wish to become adopters of the child living in Ukraine should submit their case to Ministry of Social Policy (for a list of required documents) to be registered with the adoptive parents. Then foreigner expects invitation for an interview, which takes place directly in the Ministry of Social Policy. After a successful interview, a person can familiarize with information about children and by stopping the choice on the particular child, get a referral for a personal dating and establishing contact with him (her).
If you have a desire to adopt, you need to submit an application to service on children affairs and get a conclusion on whether the adoption is relevant and meets the interests of the child.
A crucial step in this process is to obtain the consent of the Ministry of Social Policy for adoption the child. According to the legislation of Ukraine, the issue of adoption is solved by the court in order of special proceedings. Consequently, the final step is to obtain a court decision. The company «Aleksey Pukha and Partners» is ready to represent the adopters’ interests in the court.
The process of adoption is a complicated and durable process. The law company «Aleksey Pukha and Partners» has significant experience in family law. Specialists of the company successfully accompany the process of adoption by Ukrainian and foreign citizens. Lawyers of «Aleksey Pukha and Partners» will take over the entire process of documentation preparation and will help to accelerate the process of adoption.
