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China Adoptions. Due Diligence, Due Diligence, Due Diligence.

By Dan Harris on Posted in China Business

Lawyers are fond of saying there are three keys to any deal: due diligence, due diligence, and due diligence. Though one does not typically think of an adoption as a “deal, adoptions (particularly international adoptions) too should not be undertaken without thorough due diligence.
There has been a lot of press the last few days about the woman in Tennessee who “returned” her seven year old adopted son back to Russia, claiming he was not as promised. I have no way of knowing what went wrong there, but I do know that thorough due diligence in an international adoption helps reduce risk.
There are a lot of places where an international adoption can go wrong and due diligence is required at each step.
First off, find out what you can about the U.S. agency you are using. What is its record? What sort of experience does it have with the country from which you are seeking to adopt? Talk to other parents who used that agency.
What about the orphanage from where your prospective child will be coming? What is its reputation? Again, talk to other parents.
What about the child you are considering for adoption? If you that child’s mental and physical well-being will be a factor in whether you adopt him or her, you should consider retaining a physician and a mental health professional (in the country from which you are adopting) to independently assess the child you are considering for adoption.
On the legal front, the key (of course) is to make sure your adoption, and every step of it along the way, complies fully with the laws of the country from which your child comes and the country in which you live.The United States Department of State has an incredibly thorough and informative website setting out what it takes to adopt a child internationally and from China. It makes for a great starting point.

  • S

    I have adopted from China. In China, adoption is a sensitive issue, as are many issues. :) You will not be given the option of choosing an orphanage/child, and there is virtually no possibility of knowing what your child has been through. Was your child sold? Mistreated? Etc. They will never admit that.
    So, what is comes down to is whether you can just reject a match based on the probability that an orphanage has been corrupt.
    For parents that have waited years, that is incredibly hard.

  • Robert Pepples

    Definitely some good advice. We adopted our daughter from Korea ten years ago and we mostly did what you say to do here. It worked. She is our pride and joy.

  • Mao Mao

    Its all about the parenting, not the law. I don’t think lawyers can take much credit for successful adoptions. Russia is upset with US adoption agencies btw and is considering banning them – see from Businessweek two days ago: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-09/russia-may-ban-u-s-adoptions-after-abandoned-child-sent-home.html

  • pingping

    The U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman adopted a Chinese girl years ago from an orphanage in Yangzhou. The couple chose this girl with the help of facial feature matching technique, as some newspaper said.

  • Doug

    My wife and I adopted a special needs child from China slightly more than two years ago. We used a very reputable US adoption agency, who hand held us at every step and sent our paperwork to the Central Chinese Adoption Agency. We were fortunate in that our son was at a private foster home outside of Beijing that cares for children with special medical needs that the child’s home social welfare institute is unable to care for. Since we knew where he was at, we had some unofficial contact with the managers of the foster home. We also received fairly good medical packet that we were able to show to the top surgeons who later were able to work to correct the congenital defect. Our agency also grouped us with other of their families traveling to China and had local Chinese on the ground at every stop we made so that nothing was fouled up.