International Adoption: India

Overview
Children Available
Family Characteristics
Process
Travel
Post Placement

Crossroads is approved by the government of India to place India children. The Central Authority and Resource Agency (CARA) is the sole authority to approve the prospective adoptive family and the child referred to that particular family.

OVERVIEW: India welcomes married couples and single women to India to adopt a child. India is divided into States just like the United States. Each of the states may add to the overall requirements of CARA. Most states prefer families to have no more than one child, unless the children in the home are boys. Families who are no older than 45 years older than the child are preferred. The children available are usually girls over the age of 1 year. Boys and girls with medical needs are always available. The wait for referrals is approximately 14 - 18 months. The time between referral and placement is 12 - 14 months. Adoptive parents are required to travel to India to receive custody of their child, staying one week. In very limited cases, the government will allow a staff person of Crossroads to escort the child. Please click through the tabs across the top of this page for further information.

Crossroads works with several voluntary licensed child caring agencies to place Indian children in adoptive homes. They provide for the welfare of children from economically deprived backgrounds by providing education, nutrition, recreation, medical care, daycare for children of working mothers and health check ups. They provide love, care, comfort and seek suitable parents so that the abandoned child can be ensured a bright and secure future.

The beauty of India greets you through the faces of the children. Most infants available are girls. The children usually have been abandoned at the child-care facility or near a police station or a busy intersection. The children available can range from children 12 months to 10 years of age. Older boys and boys with medical needs are available for adoption. Crossroads also receives information about specific waiting children. These children may be older or have medical special needs. Families will receive a photo, medical information and a description of the child.

The child facility cares for the child for three months which is the time required by Indian law to give the birth family the opportunity to claim the child. The facility advertises in various media in search of birth family. At the end of the three-month waiting time, the facility diligently looks for an Indian family residing in India. Should the agency be unsuccessful in matching the child with a resident Indian family, verifying paperwork is submitted to the local government agency to obtain a release for the child. This release is required before a child can be linked with an adoptive family in another country.

The culture and people of India attract the adoptive family and makes this sometimes challenging adoption worth while. While Indian law provides for adoption by both married couples and single parents, each state may set forth its own parameters. A good general rule is that states will place a child with a married couple who has no more than one child unless the children in the home are boys. Most states prefer that the adoptive parent is no older than 45 years older than the child. A previous divorce is acceptable. Some states refer children to married couples and single persons with little discrimination. There are many children with minor special needs and children who are older. In these cases, exceptions are made for families who have other children and who may be older. Occasionally, a single man is accepted for an older boy.

The CARA guidelines are as follows:

Married couple with 5 years of a stable relationship, age, financial and health status with reasonable income to support the child should be evident in the Home Study Report.
Prospective adoptive parents having composite age of 90 years or less can adopt infants and young children. These provisions may be suitably relaxed in exceptional cases, such as older children and children with special needs, for reasons clearly stated in the Home Study Report. However, in no case should the age of any one of the prospective adoptive parents exceed 55 years.
Single persons (never married, widowed, divorced) up to 45 years can also adopt.
Age difference of the single adoptive parent and child should be 21 years or more.
A FPAP in no case should be less than 30 years and more than 55 years.
A second adoption from India will be considered only when the legal adoption of the first child is completed.
Same sex couples are not eligible to adopt.

Non-resident Indians receive some priority with the Indian facilities. The final decision on the suitability of the family is made by the agency in India.

The family prepares a basic dossier is prepared which is sent to India. It will take 14 to 18 months to receive the referral of a child. Once a child is accepted, remaining paperwork is completed and forwarded to India for the Indian courts. Processing time in India usually takes 12 to 14 months. From time to time, changes in court personnel will extend the processing time by 1 to 3 months.

The courtesy toot of the horn signals a faster vehicle is coming from behind in a street shared with cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks, bicycles and the occasional oxen and camel. A cow, sacred to India, calmly chews her cud in a grassy median. The streets and shops are filled with a mixture of national and western dress--women in saris and salwar-kameez, men in dhotis and turbans along with jeans, dress pants and shirts. The air near restaurants is filled with the rich smell of spices. Each state of India produces its own artistry from oriental rugs to carved elephants to embroidered jackets and inlaid boxes along with sights to be remembered forever.

Your travel to India to meet and receive custody of your child will be the experience of a lifetime. Flying to India, you will cross the dateline and arrive in India, either Delhi or Mambo, the day after you leave home. Most flights arrive close to midnight so that you will be ready to get to your hotel room as quickly as possible. Our liaison will either meet your flight or will arrange for a car to meet your flight. He will have made reservations for you at a tourist-friendly hotel where it is safe to dine in the hotel restaurant.

Your choice to fly into Delhi or Mumbai will depend upon the location of your child. The day after your arrival you will travel by car or plane to the state and city of your child’s orphanage. Our liaison will accompany you. Your visit to the orphanage to meet your child will give you and your child some time to get to know each other before you are given custody. Usually this happens during your initial visit. The next day you will return to your hotel in either Delhi or Mumbai.

The next day will be busy with the US visa process for your child. Our liaison will take you to obtain visa photos, the exit medical exam and to the US Embassy or Consulate which will issue your child’s visa. At the US Embassy or Consulate you will present the visa application and supporting documentation such as your child’s documents, medical form and Affidavit of Support. After these have been presented, you will be called to the interview window where basic questions about your adoption will be asked. When all of the steps have been satisfactorily completed, your child will be issued a visa to the US. Usually, these steps can be completed in one day.

The two or three days remaining are for your leisure and enjoyment. Your hotel can assist you with possible sight-seeing tours or shopping. Or, you may just want to relax in the hotel with your precious child until it is time to catch your flight home.

The Government of India requires that adoptive families send 14 reports and photos over a five-year period after the child is placed.

Your adoption counselor will visit you within the first few weeks after you return home. Your adoption counselor will gather a copy of your child’s legal documents which include a copy of her Indian passport showing the photo page and the US visa page. Hearing about your travel experience and the happy moments when your child was first placed in your arms is always a priority. Your adoption counselor will also help you with the adjustment and bonding of your newly adopted child. Your adoption counselor will collect photos to send with the first post placement report.

Crossroads will visit with you again at between 2 and 3 months. Crossroads wants to make sure that your adjustment continues to be smooth. Because you are given guardianship of your child you will need to finalize the adoption in your juvenile county court. In Minnesota, you must also meet the 3-month supervisory period mandated by state law. Crossroads will provide a folder of information and forms which are needed to finalize your child in your county juvenile court. Different states will have different supervisory procedures. If you live in a different state, your home study agency will assist you with finalization.

Crossroads will notify you when your file is complete at your county juvenile court so that you can call to schedule a court date. The adoption finalization hearing will take less than 15 minutes. You will receive an adoption decree and a state birth certificate for your child. Crossroads requests that you send a copy of these documents to our office. They are required by the Indian Government.

In the following five years, Crossroads will send you forms and reminders when your reports are due. Forms can be sent by e-mail as well as by snail mail to the adoptive family. Paper reports, signed by the adoptive family along with the prescribed number of photos must be sent to the Crossroads office in a timely manner.

Crossroads sends reports to the child’s facility as well as to CARA.