Adopting a Child

capital said:
It sounds like the process is quite fast. In Canada to adopt a baby from china it takes a while and the baby is at minimum 6 months old, and very often much older. It sounds like it would be a lot faster, and you may get a younger baby if we were to go to hong kong and apply from there.

Does it matter what ethnicity and nationalility you are? I am Canadain born and raised (caucasian), but my husband was raised in Hong Kong (chinese), but living in Canada since age 19 and holds canadian citizenship, but still has his hong kong ID card, but no chinese or british passport anymore, and I am guessing the only way to get a chinese passport would be to renounce his canadian citizenship, which of course we would not do.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, I would think that it doesn't matter what passport you have when you adopt a child. And why would he want to get a chinese passport. In HK at this point of time, a passport is just a travel document, it doesn't automatically gives you citizenship. There are people here that have multiple passports.
 
I just spoke with Social Welfare a few weeks ago concerning adoption and the one thing that prevents us is our income level. :( According to what I was told... they don't budge on this so you may want to know how much you need to bring home.

Has anyone had any experience in getting around this? My DH is a Pastor and the chances of him getting a raise is fairly slim... at least for another 2 years and we want to adopt so badly.
 
Do you work? If not you'll need to get a job. If you do you'll probably need to find a better paying job or get a raise if your husband can't himself.

It's a bit sad when they use how much you earn as a means of determining eligibility but I guess they have to have a few baseline guidelines. It IS expensive to raise children these days.
 
Hi Sunniefaith & Capital,
How far along the adoption process are you? Have you been to a parents session yet? I'm enroled for one in July.
 
loraine said:
Hi Sunniefaith & Capital,
How far along the adoption process are you? Have you been to a parents session yet? I'm enroled for one in July.
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We're delaying the adoption process now. Hubby is thinking of taking a year off next year to do his MBA and we're worried that we may not have enough money for the kid. Anyway, how much do you have to earn before you can adopt?
 
to capital, you can't just "come to hk" to adopt. you need to be here for 18 months before they will even start to process your application. then it can take up to a year afterwards to get the baby.

one thing in your favour is that your hubby is chinese. if at all possible, they prefer to place chinese babies with chinese(or even partly chinese) families. you would be even higher on the priority list if you could speak chinese. the fact that you don't by no means disqualifies you, it just means that you are a little further down the list.

every single person i know here that has adopted has gotten a baby within about six months of being approved.(and i know about 10 couples that have adopted...some even adopted more than one child).
 
carang said:
to capital, you can't just "come to hk" to adopt. you need to be here for 18 months before they will even start to process your application. then it can take up to a year afterwards to get the baby.

one thing in your favour is that your hubby is chinese. if at all possible, they prefer to place chinese babies with chinese(or even partly chinese) families. you would be even higher on the priority list if you could speak chinese. the fact that you don't by no means disqualifies you, it just means that you are a little further down the list.

every single person i know here that has adopted has gotten a baby within about six months of being approved.(and i know about 10 couples that have adopted...some even adopted more than one child).
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We're both Chinese from Spore. We should be in Hong Kong for the next years min. I'm concerned with what the min monthly income we need to have before we can apply to adopt a kid as hubby is going to take a year off, I'm hoping that with my income, it'll be enough to adopt a child. We've been here for about 8 months. Thinking if we should put in our application regardless if hubby is going to take time off to do this mba.
 
sorry my post was directed at the person in the US that was looking to adopt in china or HK... i may have misdirected it.

now this may sound a little harsh, it is not meant that way, only very truthful.

Adopting a child should be your first priority. The raising of a child should be put BEFORE EVERYTHING else, even an MBA. If you or your hubby are not prepared for that, you should not consider adoption.A child will irrevocably change your life and your priorities. If you are fully prepared for this, then it shouldn't even be a question. you will do what needs to be done to get your baby.

If you decide that havign a baby is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to you, then I'd suggest your hubby put off doing his MBA until after you have the baby. Use this time now to save all your $$$ so that once you have your little bundle of joy, your hubby can still take the time off of working to do the MBA. This will also allow your hubby some time to bond with the baby once the baby is placed with you.

I'm not sure what the $$$ criteria are from the social welfare dept regarding ability to adopt, but i can assure you, personally, YOU WILL NEVER feel financially ready to have a baby. you need to just take the plunge and know that everything works out. You will ALWAYS make sure your child has enough to eat, even if you don't. Your child will always get the clothes needed before you buy anything for yourself. That's just the way you change when you become a parent.your own wants and needs automatically fall down the list of priorities when you have a little one dependent on you.

if i was in your position and truly desperate to adopt, i'd tell hubby to put off school and keep working. this would most likely bump up your income to an acceptable level for social welfare dept. then once you have the baby, he can go to school. afterall, they are not going to take the baby away from you once it is placed. (at least that would be very unlikely!)
 
ps. capital's post says she's caucasian from canada, not chinese from singapore.....so my post WAS directed to her as it says originally.
 
carang said:
ps. capital's post says she's caucasian from canada, not chinese from singapore.....so my post WAS directed to her as it says originally.
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No worries. My concern with money is that I'm hoping that I can meet their financial requirement. You're right about being ready for a child. We've been talking about it and we want to be really sure before adopting a child. Having a child is a huge, huge commitment. That I know as I work with kids and I've seen how some families mess up their kids. And in no way, I want to raise kids in that situation. Therefpre we want to think through it before actually doing the application.
 
i'm sure your are thinking it all through very carefully sunniefaith, as you know it's not something that once accomplished you can walk away from.

good luck with your decision!
 
carang said:
i'm sure your are thinking it all through very carefully sunniefaith, as you know it's not something that once accomplished you can walk away from.

good luck with your decision!
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Thanks Cara,

I remember once watching Dr Phil. There was a couple who wanted to return their adopted child because the child had learning difficulties and Dr Phil was livid! He said something to the effect of, 'This is not a product that you can return if you're not happy with. It's not something that have a return if you're not happy within 30 days sort of guarantee. An adopted child is for life!' And I am with him on that. I want to adopt a child to give him or her a better life....Not to mess him or her up!
 
An update. Finally, I made the call to the social welfare department. And we're booked in Sept to go for the info session. This is all very exciting!
 
tzechuk said:
So exactly how much do you have to be earning to be able to adopt a child in Hong Kong?
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I really don't know. But I did clear their min requirement just based on my income alone. But you do have to be in HK for at least 18 mths but they do make exceptions.
 
New to HK adoption

We just attended our first briefing session on adopting from HK. We have only lived here 1 year and were told we could attend after 1 year. If anyone has recently adopted, I would love to chat with you. We have one child who was adopted from Guatemala while we were living in the US. He is now 3 1/2 yrs. old. We are familiar with the process while living in the US but not sure different it is here.
 
mander said:
We just attended our first briefing session on adopting from HK. We have only lived here 1 year and were told we could attend after 1 year. If anyone has recently adopted, I would love to chat with you. We have one child who was adopted from Guatemala while we were living in the US. He is now 3 1/2 yrs. old. We are familiar with the process while living in the US but not sure different it is here.
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It's interesting to hear that. I made the call to the social and welfare department and was told that we can qualify even though we've been here for about a year. We should have a meet up for ladies who have adopted or who are going to adopt to talk through stuff. But then again, with HK, they change rules all the time.
 
Mander,

It was nice meeting you yesterday. Was just telling Faith about you. You girls should definitely meet up for a chat.

Faith, I think someone told me the wait time for non-Chinese is a bit longer. They want families to become familiar with Chinese culture/customs before the start the adoption process
 
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rani said:
Mander,

It was nice meeting you yesterday. Was just telling Faith about you. You girls should definitely meet up for a chat.

Faith, I think someone told me the wait time for non-Chinese is a bit longer. They want families to become familiar with Chinese culture/customs before the start the adoption process
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Really, that's interesting...Remember May? She adopted baby before the 18 months were up. But then again, she came to HK from China so the department probably took that into consideration,
 
Daizy said:
We adopted our son in Hong Kong and we didn't live here for 18 months. We used to live in China and I spoke to the person in charge because I didn't feel the reasoning behind waiting just to familiarize myself with hong kong for 18 months was a good reason for me. Anyway, they gave me the green light to start with the procedures and in exactly 9 months time we brought our baby boy home :)
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Faith, they made an exception for Daizy.
 
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