Adoption
If you are interested in adopting a child or children from Haiti, the first step is to contact a Hague approved agencies to receive information about the adoption process. All families, no matter what country, are required to work with a Hague approved agency to prepare their dossier and help them through the adoption process. Haitian Social Services chooses the orphanage that you will work with in Haiti. You do not get to choose the orphanage or the child. Here are a few agencies that we have worked with in the past.
American Agencies
Canadian Agencies
European Agencies
Adopting from Haiti & GLA
- Adoption can be requested jointly by a married and not legally separated heterosexual couple, after five (5) years of marriage and when one of the spouses is at least thirty (30) years old.
- The age of the adoptive parents may not exceed fifty (50) years for the older of the two (2) spouses or a single parent at the time of a referral of a child.
- Both parents must be able to come to Haiti for 2 weeks after a child’s referral. This is a requirement of the law.
- Applications from single men and women aged at least thirty-five (35) years of age are accepted.
- Biological and adopted children in the home are acceptable.
- If the adoptive parents already have biological or adopted children, the children must give their opinion if they are eight (8) years old or older.
- Biological and adopted children in the home are acceptable.The Haitian government requires families to travel to Haiti twice during the adoption process. Once at the time of the child referral by IBESR (Haitian Social Services) and then at the end of the process to take your children home.
- IBESR does not allow same-sex couples to adopt.All families when sending their dossiers to Haiti will be put on a waiting list until IBESR decides that the family matches a child who is available for adoption. The child matched may come from any orphanage authorized to do adoptions. Your matched child might not live at God’s Littlest Angels under the new adoption policies.
- IBESR SAYS THAT THEY WILL NOT ALLOW ANY EXCEPTIONS TO THE ABOVE CRITERIA.
Post placement IBESR report form
FAQ about Adoptions
IBESR stands for ” Institut du Bien-Etre Social et Recherches ” in French. In English, this means the Institute of Social Well-Being and Research.
IBESR is Haitian Social Services. The role of IBESR is changing in Haiti. They are the Central Authority for Adoptions. They have social workers that study your dossier to see whether you meet their requirements to adopt a child. They interview biological parents and counsel them on adoption and also family preservation. IBESR now does all of the matching for children and adoptive parents. They have contact with all adoption agencies. They also judge whether your proposed child is a good match for your family. Once the social worker approves, then IBESR gives a Certificate of Authorization telling the courts that they have approved you to adopt your Haitian child.
An adoptive parents cannot be older that fifty (50) years old at time of referral. This means that forty-nine (49) must be the cut off age when sending a dossier to Haiti.
IBESR requires that a family be able to support any child they want to adopt. They will definitely look at your income while GLA looks at your salary to make sure you are above the current Poverty Guidelines put set forth by the US Government. These guidelines serve as the minimum acceptable yearly income for a prospective adoptive family.
There is no set form for your Home Study. It should be an International Home Study which is usually 5 to 10 pages long. Some Home Studies are as short as 3 pages. We have never seen a North American Home Study under 5 pages and most are closer to 10 pages or more.
Your Psychological Evaluation must be done by a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Someone with at least a Master’s degree in psychology who works as a family therapist or counselor is also acceptable. Your social worker can not do your psychological evaluation. A one-page letter addressing your competence to parent an adopted child is acceptable. You do not necessarily need extensive psychological testing with multiple sessions. Usually one session is sufficient.
You will need a Power of Attorney listing your agency’s representative who is in Haiti so that he/she is allowed to do the work for your dossier at IBESR. Your agency will give you this information as you put together your dossier.
IBESR is giving all proposals, and the time line is 1 to 3 years from the time your dossier is submitted to Haitian Social Services. As they become more adept with the process, we pray that this time will speed up and time for proposals will decrease. Right now, it is taking longer because they have all of the children in all the orphanages throughout Haiti to approve for adoption eligibility.
GLA tries to send photos and updates once a month on your child. We do not always have time to answer emails about your child until the updates are sent out. We will try to answer all of your questions at update time. These updates will only be sent to your agency and your agency must communicate all questions to us. IBESR does not allow families to directly write to the orphanage except for things like travel plans.
Once you arrive in Haiti and take your child to be with you, you will need to use your own supplies and clothing for your child. Bring diapers (if needed), shoes, clothing, supplies for bathing, hair supplies, etc. GLA staff or your agency will give you a list of needed items along with sizes closer to the end of your adoption.
Testimonials
