The 2009 Citizenship Law and Adopted Children

July 13th, 2009 at 06:19am Under Adoption Law

The Canadian government has passed a new citizenship law that resolves a variety of issues about Canadian citizenship (Bill C-37). Buried in that law is a provision that has passed unnoticed, until now, which puts limitations on the Canadian citizenship rights of some internationally adopted children. Recent articles in the National Post, the Globe & Mail and the Ottawa Citizen have brought these provisions to the attention of the adoption community.

Although this new law came into effect on April 17, 2009, I hope it is not too late for adopting parents to express their views. Also read Complex Citizenship Laws Anger Adopting Parents). The provisions of the new law are complex, so I have set out a series of questions and answers at the end of this article, which I hope will clarify the finer points of the new rules.

A good way to begin understanding the issues is to read the newspaper articles “Critics Fear Two-Tier Citizenship” and “Citizenship Changes Could Create Inferior Citizens”. For the perspective of Robin Hilborn of Family Helper, see “Canadian law denies citizenship to children of foreign adoptees” http://www.familyhelper.net/news/090129citizenship.html

Essentially the legislation provides that the children of some internationally adopted children will not have a right to Canadian citizenship. In practice, this is likely to affect only a small proportion of all adopted children. What upsets adopting parents, however, is the notion that their children will have a lesser class of citizenship. In effect, the children are being discriminated against. Adopting parents do not want to feel that their children are second-class citizens.

Adopting parents in Canada are losing their tolerance for being discriminated against. Resentment at the inherent discrimination against adopting families built into the EI legislation has been simmering for the past decade (for a detailed description of the discrimination which adopting parents feel about this subject, see our earlier Spotlight, “Adoption in the Workplace”). Now a new law that discriminates against their children is going to have a galvanizing effect on the adoption community.

The Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, 2008, begins with the following words:

“The Citizenship Act, under which CIC grants citizenship to eligible newcomers, affirms that all Canadians have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities whether they are citizens by birth or naturalization.”

That changed April 17, 2009. In an attempt to solve the problem of Canadian citizenship being handed down generationally to people who don’t actually live in Canada, the government has reduced the citizenship rights of some internationally adopted children, and effectively created a lesser class of citizenship for them. Was this really necessary? It feels like a sledgehammer was used to kill a flea. Could not a more elegant solution have been found to actually deal with the perceived problem?

The Report of the Senate Standing Committee, which reviewed Bill C-37, states:

“Such a distinction would grant citizenship to a first generation born outside Canada while denying it to their children and subsequent generations were they to be born abroad. Such a provision strikes your Committee as arbitrary and unfair.”

The Committee also added: “Rather, the Committee urges the government to ensure that all aspects of new citizenship legislation are Charter-compliant and consistent with Canadian values”.

As a result of concerns by the Immigration Department about the confusion surrounding the new law, it recently issued a clarification.

In a published response to the concerns of adopting parents, the Minister states:

“Critics have entirely missed the point of how changes to our citizenship law, which come into effect on April 17, 2009, will protect the value of citizenship.”

I don’t think that is true. Adopting parents probably do understand the concerns that the government has about protecting the integrity of Canadian citizenship. It is the specific solution, which the government has come up with that they are protesting.

It is an insult to adopting parents to say that their children now have a lesser class of Canadian citizenship. The government needs to rethink these provisions and find a solution that does not put limitations on the rights of citizenship for internationally adopted children. The government should find a solution which fits the actual problem. This article is a call to action for adopting parents. Adopting parents who wish to make their views known to the government should do so immediately. Prior to doing so, however, please read the questions and answers set out below. The law is quite technical and there is already confusion about who the law would apply to. This is not helped by the government’s own website, which is not clear. If, after reading the article and the new rules, additional questions arise that should be asked in the list below, please send them to me and I will add them to the article.

For the purposes of this article, I will use the terms Class A citizenship to refer to full-rights citizenship and Class B to refer to the new, lesser-rights citizenship.

Q1. Who does the new law apply to?A. The new law applies to adopted children who receive their citizenship abroad, pursuant to the new direct citizenship provisions enacted in Canada on December 23, 2007. [See also Q10 below]

Q2.Who is not subject to the new rules?A. The new rules do not apply to the following:

(a) adopted children born in Canada;

(b) Internationally adopted children who come to Canada on a permanent resident visa and subsequently obtained Canadian citizenship after their arrival in Canada. Up until now this has been the situation of most (but not all) children adopted overseas and brought to Canada. They will not be affected by the new rule, despite what it says on the Canada Immigration website. The web posting “New Citizenship Rules” states:”This limitation will also apply to foreign-born individuals adopted by a Canadian parent. The adopted children of Canadian citizens will be considered to be the first generation born abroad. This means that:If a person born outside Canada and adopted by a Canadian parent has a child outside Canada, that child will not be a citizen by birth;……..”

This information is misleading. In a clarifying email from the Ministry of Citizenship & Immigration (which doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere at the moment), an official makes it clear that the restriction on obtaining Canadian citizenship only applies to situations described in the above quote and where the parent of the child born outside of Canada originally was granted Canadian citizenship overseas pursuant to the new 2007 direct to citizenship route. This misstatement on the government website has caused some parents to believe that the new law will apply to their children, when in fact it will not.

(c) The new law will not apply to children who would normally fall into the Class B citizenship definition, but whose parent is working overseas with the Canadian government (Federal or Provincial) or serving overseas in the armed forces. Instead, these children will have Class A citizenship. However, children whose parents are working for Canadian corporations, the United Nations, who are on vacation, or who are otherwise travelling outside of Canada do not get this exemption and will have Class B citizenship. This is a distinction which is hard to justify. If you work for one kind of employer your children are Class A citizens, and if you work for a different kind of employer your children are Class B citizens. Surely there is a better way to sort this out.

Q3. What is the most serious consequence of this new law?A The most serious consequence that is evident at this time is that a child born overseas to an adopted person has a reasonable chance of being a “stateless individual” (this would be the adopting parents’ grandchild). This leads to a number of questions:

(a) Why would this happen? – Only some countries grant citizenship to a child born in their country (Canada and the USA being examples of countries that do that). Many countries rely on the citizenship of the child’s parents or some other criteria. The child would be born stateless if they did not derive a citizenship through either parent and they are also born in a country where birth on soil does not give access to citizenship. As a stateless person, the child would have no obvious way to come to Canada.

(b) Is there a remedy? – A child of a Canadian who was born stateless abroad would have the option of applying for a grant of citizenship on the basis of statelessness. The amended Citizenship Act has provisions for granting citizenship to stateless children of Canadian citizens, but the child must first live in Canada for three years. This stateless child would have neither a passport nor a right to enter Canada, so it is not even clear how the child could travel to Canada to establish residence. One can only hope that there will be a benevolent immigration officer overseas who has empathy for the predicament that the Class B Canadian citizen finds himself in, and will grant the stateless child some sort of visa to come to Canada. This event will be 20, 30 or 40 years into the future. It is hard to predict what the world will look like then in terms of population and pressures on the Canadian immigration system. What will immigration officers say to a Class B Canadian citizen in 30 years who wants to bring their stateless child back to Canada? Adopting parents today will be the grandparents of that child. We can all hope it’s a sympathetic response.

(c) Any born-abroad Canadian adopting parents could immediately face the problem outlined in (b) above. Again, this is because the provisions of the new law apply to children born outside of Canada as well as to those adopted.

Q4. What happens if my adopted child has Class B Canadian citizenship and gives birth to a child overseas?A That child, your grandchild, will not acquire Canadian citizenship. He or she may be eligible to be sponsored as a permanent resident, and then apply for citizenship as soon as he or she becomes a permanent resident.

Q5. How does it work for subsequent generations? Do they have Class A or Class B Canadian citizenship?A Generational Chart Showing Whether Descendants have Class A or B Canadian Citizenship Rights:

Parents Child

FirstGeneration (Adopting Parents)

N/A

SecondGeneration(your adopted child)

If this child receives Canadian Citizenship overseas under the 2007 law, he/she will have Class B Canadian Citizenship

ThirdGeneration(your grandchild)

If the child of the adopted child above is born outside of Canada, he/she will not be entitled to automatic Canadian Citizenship. The child may apply to enter Canada on a Permanent Resident Visa. If he/she subsequently obtains Canadian Citizenship, then it will be a Class A Citizenship.

Fourth Generation(your great-grandchild)

The child of this Class A citizen parent, if born inside Canada, (the Adoptive Parents’ great-grandchild) will have Class A Citizenship.

Q6. Can I do anything to avoid this new law if I am going to adopt a child in the future?A Yes you can. Do not use the new direct citizenship route for children adopted overseas. Only use the old route of applying for a permanent resident visa for the child, and after the child is landed in Canada apply for Canadian citizenship. This child will have a Class A Canadian citizenship.

Adopting parents report that they are consistently advised by Canada Immigration officials to use the new direct citizenship route. Anyone considering which route to follow should read our previous Spotlight – Citizenship for Adopted Children: Canada’s New Law for 2008. In addition, adopting parents should obviously think about whether they wish their children to have Class B Canadian citizenship, and what effect that might have on their grandchildren.

Q7. Does the new law contravene the Charter of Rights?A I don’t know. The government has not invoked the “Notwithstanding Clause” under the Constitution of Canada, so the Charter does apply to this legislation. In the 1998 McKenna case, the Canadian Human Rights Code was used to say that it was discriminatory to adopted children not to be able to obtain citizenship overseas. It was this case that 10 years later finally led to the new citizenship law of 2007 permitting just that. On the other hand, adopting parents were not successful in invoking the Charter of Rights to overturn the inherent discrimination in the EI legislation in the 1997 Schafer case. It does seem likely that eventually someone will challenge this notion of Class B citizenship for adopted children under the Charter of Rights. A Charter challenge could also come based on discrimination against persons born abroad to Canadian citizen parents.

Q8. Are the new rules retroactive?A Section 3 (4) of the Citizenship Act states:

“Subsection (3) does not apply to a person who, on the coming into force of that subsection, is a citizen.”

What does this clause mean? It means that if you are a citizen on the day the new law comes into force, then you will not lose your citizenship. Unfortunately, the Immigration Department is interpreting this to mean that a person will not lose their Canadian citizenship, but the new provisions will change the quality of your citizenship.

So, for the adoption world, the law will be retroactive and will have the following three results:

(a) Children who have been adopted and obtained their Canadian citizenship overseas since December 23, 2007 will have their Canadian citizenship downgraded from Class A to Class B on April 17, 2009. This will come as an unhappy surprise to Canadian adopting parents, who have pursued the direct citizenship route as a result of non-stop directions from Canada Immigration officials to adopting parents to take the new route; and

(b) Adopting Parents who were born to Canadian parents overseas and acquired Canadian citizenship as a result. Any adopting parents in this category will have their citizenship changed from Class A to Class B on April 17, 2009. As a result, when they adopt overseas, their children are not entitled to direct Canadian citizenship. Their only route will be to sponsor the child as a landed immigrant, obtain a permanent resident visa, and subsequently apply for Canadian citizenship.

(c) Adopting Parents who were adopted overseas themselves as a child, and then became Canadian citizens through the Permanent Resident Visa process. The new law will NOT affect these adopting parents as they have Class A citizenship. Their adopted children will be eligible for direct citizenship (albeit Class B). If these adopting parents use the Permanent Resident Visa process, however, their adopted child will have Class A Canadian citizenship.

A CIC official has verbally confirmed that these provisions are retroactive. We have requested that the government confirm to us, in writing, that the law is retroactive. We will update this section when we receive the government’s written answer.

Q9. Does this new law only apply to adopted children?A No, in addition to adopted children, the new rules apply to children born outside of Canada, unless their parent(s) fit within a specific definition. In addition, Bill C-37 (the new law) also deals with many other citizenship issues unrelated to adoption.

Q10. If I am adopting parent who was born abroad to Canadian parents, can I adopt overseas?A You can adopt, but if you are single you will not be able to use the direct citizenship route. Your child will have to be admitted to Canada with a PR Visa. The reason for this is that the new law applies to children of Canadians born to Canadians overseas, as well as to those adopted overseas. However, if you are married to a Class A Canadian citizen, then you will be able to use the direct citizenship route.

Q11. Is there any “patch” that the government could use to repair this law?A The application of the new law should be suspended until the adoption community has a real chance to have input, and perhaps a better solution is found. One suggestion being proposed would provide an exception to the new law if the adopted child lived in Canada for a certain unspecified period of time. In other words, the child would start with Class B Canadian citizenship, and if the child eventually qualified by living in Canada for a certain period of time, they would graduate to Class A Canadian citizenship. Whether this would be a satisfactory solution for Canadian adopting parents remains to be seen.Note: These concerns are not limited to children adopted abroad, but also apply to children born abroad. The implications of this law are likely to be seen more immediately for born-abroad Class B citizens than adopted-abroad Class B citizens.

Q12. Why was the adoption community in Canada not consulted before this law was brought into force?A The adoption community in Canada was unaware of these new rules until articles appeared in the press in mid-January, 2009. How did this happen? – Bill C-37 received royal assent on April 17, 2008. It came into force on the first anniversary of that date, April 17, 2009. For over a year preceding the passing of the new law, the government consulted with various interest groups who could be affected by changes to the Citizenship Act. It does not appear to have been made clear, however, that a Class B citizenship would be created for children adopted overseas. On December 13, 2008, the regulations under this new Act were published in the Canada Gazette, and provided for a 30-day comment period. Unfortunately, this comment period extended over the Christmas and New Year’s vacation and expired in early January. Buried in the comment attached to the Canada Gazette was the statement , “The aforementioned limitation will also apply to foreign-born persons adopted by a Canadian parent”. It was only when these proposed regulations were published that one person noticed this and has been raising an alarm for the past few weeks.

Surely, if the Government of Canada was going to do something as dramatic as create Class B citizenship rules for adopted children in this country, it is incumbent on them to really bring this to the attention of adopting parents, the Adoptive Families Association, the Provincial Adoption Bureaus, Adoption Agencies across Canada, and the Adoption Council of Canada. It is incredibly dismissive of the adoption community to have been treated in this manner by the government.

Q13. What can I do to stop this new law?A Perhaps nothing. The new law (Bill C-37) has been passed, given Royal assent, and the regulations under it are in force. Some parents are currently considering filing a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. And, of course, someone with deep pockets could take a Charter of Rights challenge to try to have the law declared unconstitutional. On the other hand, perhaps adopting parents in Canada can speak out with one voice and object to what has happened. Adopting parents in Canada represent a potent political force. To date, this has been largely untapped. It is time that the Canadian adoption community make its influence felt. There is no reason why we cannot have an Adoption Caucus of MPs and Senators who listen to what’s important to the adoption community in Canada. The natural focus of these efforts could be the Adoption Council of Canada, which can harness some of the tremendous energy and opinions of adopting parents in this country. Hopefully, this issue of Class B Canadian citizenship for some internationally adopted children will provide a focus for adopting parents to work together.

In the meantime, parents who wish to comment on what has happened should contact their Member of Parliament and the Adoption Council of Canada.

What does Jewish law say about adoption

July 13th, 2009 at 12:18am Under Adoption Law

In Judaism, adoption is an important as well as an intricate issue. Although the Jewish Law recognizes adoption as a legitimate way to build a family, it also evokes conflicting messages, known as halakhah, in regards to adoption. Emphasizing greatly on bloodlines and ancestry, Judaism prioritizes tradition with respect to adoption.

A child that is legally adopted under the Jewish Law and is being brought up in a traditional Jewish household is not considered an adoptee. In regards to the Jewish religion, the adopted child is considered part of the family. However, for a Jewish family that wishes to adopt a non-Jewish child, there is always an additional filter that respects the Jewish tradition through generations of Jewish families.

Under the Jewish Law, an adopted child is duty-bound in the laws of death and mourning in the event of a loss of a close relative, namely mother, father, sister, brother, spouse, son or daughter. Considered as an immediate family, the adopted child recites the traditional mourner’s prayer (Kaddish) for 12 months and is obligated in the laws of mourning.

Jewish adoptive parents should carefully consider how they communicate respect for the Jewish religion to the adopted child without diminishing the importance of the birth parents’ religion. Particularly, when it comes to open adoptions and the birth family is not Jewish, the child is likely to raise questions about the Jewish religion, the birth parents’ religion, the differences between the two, why they exist, which is better etc. In these cases, both adoptive and placing parents should communicate in a respectful way and should follow a common way on explaining all these questions to the child without prejudices and conflict.

In many cases, there are conflicts between the different factions of Judaism, namely Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative. Under the Jewish Law, an adopted child whose birth mother is not Jewish should be officially converted to Judaism. However, if the birth father is Jewish, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews do not proceed to conversion, while Orthodox Jews recognize conversions performed solely by Orthodox Rabbis.

All these complexities create additional challenges in regards to adoption under the Jewish Law. For children who are not born Jewish and have different race and culture in their genes, it is a difficult challenge to connect with a Jewish family, particularly when outsiders question this connection. There are cases that Chinese children are adopted by Jewish families and because their characteristics are so unique, they have been told that they are not Jewish. The same has happened with blond children with blue eyes, who do not look like typical Jews and again their identity has been questioned by third parties at school or even at the synagogue.

For all adopted children is difficult to create a solid identity. Jewish adoptive families should help children who are not born Jewish to develop a strong Jewish identity. On the other hand, they should respect the challenges that evoke from the birth family’s religion. There are cases that Jewish children have celebrated Christmas with their birth parents because the Jewish adoptive parents have accepted that their child should make his or her own choices. In any event, communication is the key.

Getting Started With Child Adoption

July 12th, 2009 at 06:18pm Under Adoption Law

Adopting a child is a major turning point in a couple’s life, which is why knowing where to begin the adoption process can be quite difficult. Adoption allows your family to grow, expand, and become whole, but it’s important to begin the journey properly and carry out a lot of research before you jump in head first.
There are so many choices when it comes to adoptions, such as international adoption, so it’s prudent to take it slowly and examine all your choices, and the needs of your family, before you make a final decision and start filling out paperwork.
You should conduct some research on the various restrictions and requirements involved with each type of adoption, so that you know what to expect, and whether or not you qualify for certain adoptions. Finding the right adoption agency for your family is also a concern, as not all adoption agencies are created equal.
There is more than one type of adoption, in addition to international adoption and domestic adoption. Open adoptions allow for some communication between the birth parents and the adoptive parents during and after the process, while closed adoptions are more traditional in that the birth mother or parents are less involved directly with the new family.
An international adoption is always a little trickier, whether you’re planning to adopt a baby from China or another country. An international adoption involves more paperwork, more complicated travel, and different requirements depending on your country of origin. An international adoption is, however, a popular choice among many families who want to help a child in another country.
You can choose to use the services of a licensed adoption agency, an adoption facilitator, or move forward with someone who is considering private adoptions. Adoptions through either avenue work well for different people in different situations, so it’s always a good idea to find what works best for you and then move forward with your plans.
Adoption agencies are often a good way to go, as they provide a wide breadth of services to families of all shapes and sizes. Even if you decide on a domestic adoption, there are many complicated issues involved with adopting that are often handled more easily through an agency that is equipped to deal with such matters. You may want to adopt from another state, for example, in which case working through an adoption agency is probably your best bet for sorting through all the requirements.
From the start, as you enter the adoption process, it’s important to realize that adopting is not an easy task. It doesn’t always work out the first time through, and you will have to contend with adoption laws and practices that sometimes work in your favor, and sometimes do not.
The entire journey will be a tough one, but if you stick it out and don’t give up, you should be able to achieve success and find the perfect child for your loving family. It will be well worth the effort in the end.

International Adoption: Unicef’s and Other Critics’ War Against International Adoption

July 12th, 2009 at 12:18pm Under Adoption Law

UNICEF has been waging war against international adoption for many years contrary to popular understanding.  It’s a war with results that fall far short of real time solutions to the spoils of its victories.  UNICEF’s premise that parents in underdeveloped countries should be provided the means to keep their children is not arguable.  Neither is UNICEF’s stance that international adoption should only be a last resort.

However, UNICEF’s tough and effective pressure tactics and  lobbying efforts towards developing nations calling for ratification of the Hague Treaty for the Protection of Children and implementation of adoption law and policy models which effectively serve to close programs completely or almost completely to foreign adopters belies a misguided, unrealistic and out of touch policy contrary to the best interests of hundreds of thousands of legitimately orphaned and abandoned children around the world. These efforts have resulted in the semi or complete closure of adoptions around the world in such countries as Guatemala, Bulgaria, Paraguay, and Romania to mention just a few examples. Let’s take the example of Guatemala.  After intense pressure from UNICEF, Guatemala finally closed its doors to international adoption on December 31, 2008.  Prior to that time, foreign nationals adopted approximately 5,000 Guatemalan children per year.   Oscar Avila, “Guatemala Seeks Domestic Fix to Troubled Overseas Adoptions,” Chicago Tribune, October 26, 2008 indicated that “Guatemala has launched an ambitious campaign to recruit foster parents and even adoptive parents at home.”  So far, the program is failing miserably.  Avila reports, “Only about 45 families in a nation of 13 million currently have taken in foster children since the program began this year.”

The approach that Guatemala is taking by attempting to gain domestic attention to the problem is certainly meritorius; however, this approach could and should have been implemented concomitant with an international program which would ensure that thousands of children will find homes rather than waste away in institutions that are often underfunded, understaffed and unable to provide for the needs of these children.

One of the main criticisms of the Guatemalan adoption program prior to its closure was that it was in the hands of private attorneys who depended on sometimes unscrupulous middlemen to procure birthmothers wanting to give up their children and perhaps those not wanting to give up their children.  Of course this depiction glosses over the nature of how this practice developed in remote villages in Guatemala, far from the lawyers in Guatemala City who could arrange adoptions by foreign nationals.  It was a practical way to connect birthmothers, who were seeking adoption as an option to their usually dire circumstances, to attorneys who could then take the children into custody through the use of foster homes and then place the children with families abroad through adoption proceedings.  It is interesting to note that neither UNICEF nor the Guatemalan government could see that there could be a middle ground to solving the problem of unscrupulous middlemen who were supposedly forcing these women to give up their children, paying the women as an inducement, or even, as many reports claimed, kidnapping these children for adoption.  Many of these reports glossed over the fact that birth mothers had to relinquish their child to an attorney advising her of her rights, undergo an interview with the Family Court, DNA testing of the birth mother and child, review by the Guatemalan Solicitor General’s office, and once again, the birth mother’s consent to the adoption after the Solicitor General’s approval.  The Embassies regularly interviewed birth mothers and conducted investigations at random or of cases that appeared questionable.   During the last year of adoptions in Guatemala, a 2nd DNA test was required at the end of the process based on accusations of child switching with unimpressive findings to back up these wanton allegations. 

Avila’s report indicates that the Guatemalan Department of Social Welfare has now created satellite offices all over the country in an attempt to increase its pool of families interested in fostering or adopting these children.  Unfortunately, this is exactly the kind of reform that many adoption attorneys called for which would remove involvement by middlemen but allow attorneys to work with the Department of Social Welfare in concert with its ongoing program to promote foster care and adoption domestically.  UNICEF would not come to the table nor would the Guatemalan government which was eager to completely shut the door on international adoption in response to UNICEF’s strong and effective lobbying efforts.

Another example of misguided criticism regarding international adoption is in Malawi, where the infamous Madonna adoption took place.  Malawi is a country of 13 million and approximately 1 million are orphans half of which are “AIDS orphans”. Solutions are slow in coming in a nation beset by an AIDS epidemic infecting almost one fouth of its population.   These orphaned children deserve a chance at having permanent homes and families.  International adoption is not a perfect solution to the problem in Malawi and so many other nations of Africa but it saves lives, gives children a chance, one adoption at a time.

Of course, most would agree that international adoption should not be the sole answer to poverty faced by nations around the world.  No rational person would think so.  International adoption should be seen as a stopgap emergency measure taken while the United Nations, human rights groups, humanitarian organizations and the governments of these underdeveloped countries seek answers to the abject poverty, high birth rates, AIDS epidemic, malnutrition, lack of education, lack of women’s rights, and massive unemployment which lead to parents making these hard decisions about the future of their offspring.  International adoption is one temporary cog in the wheel.  UNICEF and other detractors and critics of international adoption have continually failed to recognize the vital emergency role of international adoption and how compromise and middle ground solutions could serve the orphaned and abandoned children.

Factors That Need to be Taken Into Account When Considering Bird Adoption

July 12th, 2009 at 12:18am Under Adoption Law

As many of us know birds are fascinating creatures. Their brightly colored feathers and they way that they act, sing and talk has fascinated man for a long time. For these various reasons there are people who have chosen to see about a bird adoption. The process for such a fact should be done carefully.

As there are many different birds that can be considered as being suitable for living in our homes and environment you will need to see the type of bird that you want. You should also understand the various requirements for keeping your bird healthy and in excellent condition.

The best way that you can decide which bird adoption process to look into is to see the various birds that pet stores and exotic pet outlets have. One way to help you in this process is the internet. From the internet you can find the different birds that animal protection societies have declared as being dangerous to have as pets.

While these birds may look fabulous they are still wild in nature and you may end up being hurt. As a result of this the bird adoption laws will not allow you to adopt dangerous birds. Since these bird adoption laws are very stringent about the types of birds that you can keep you may adopt your bird from the various bird adoption and rescue centers in the country.

These adoption centers will have different adult birds that it is alright for you to adopt. These places will however make sure that you understand the full responsibility of adopting a bird whether the bird is a baby bird or a full sized bird. You will need to make sure that you understand the various needs of these birds.

Besides seeing which type of birds you want to have living with you there are other considerations that you will need to think about. These considerations will be the food that these birds eat. Some birds will need fresh meat and seeds.

Other birds will fruits, seeds and grains. This type of information will most likely be found in various animal care books and articles but for more specific information you should ask the bird adoption center for detailed dietary preferences of these birds.

As you see there are many factors that need to be taken into account when you are considering adopting a bird. The various bird adoption centers can help you with the process of selecting the proper type of bird but you should really remember that you are dealing with a wild animal.

Therefore the next time that you are thinking of having a pet you may want to consider having a pet dog or a kitten instead. By leaving these beautiful birds free you are ensuring that your children and other generations can see these graceful creatures flying or singing to their heart’s content outside of a cage.

Adoption – Important Facts For Prospective Parents

July 11th, 2009 at 06:18pm Under Adoption Law

Adoption is when the birth parents of a child sever all legal ties to their child, and the parental rights are legally given over to the new adoptive family, who are strangers.
Apart from adopting a child from your own country, intercountry adoption is also available as there are also many children from international countries who need a family.
In the UK and the USA, children are usually given up for adoption because they have been mistreated; other reasons are due to teenage pregnancy, or because the birth parents are no longer able to look after the child, or they have given up the child because it isn’t the right sex, it has some form of disability, or because they simply don’t want a child.
There are many different reasons for wanting to adopt – if couples are unable to conceive, if they want to help others by adopting, and now there are same-sex couples who prefer to adopt.
The adoption process varies from one country to another. The ethics for eligibility can differ in each country which can include the age limit, the requirements for same-sex adoption couples, and whether a single person is able to adopt.
Placing a child into care and up for adoption is free in the United States. Adopting fees for the parents vary in different countries, and even in some, to charge an adoption fee would be illegal. In the United States, for adoptions you are given a $10,000 tax credit.
The new parents face many concerns in adoption. The child’s family history and their family medical history may be unknown, or kept secret until the child starts to ask questions about where they come from. This usually happens when a child is old enough to ask the right questions, or when they feel the need to ‘find themselves’. There are always misconcepts about children who have been fostered and this is usually fuelled by the media. Some children are thought of as not being able to develop properly or will become problem, but that is not always the case, as children can fare well when given a new,loving home and go on to lead successful lives. However, many children lose out and some reach the eighteen when they are too old to be adopted and are legally adults. They fall out of the system.
Not everyone chooses to understand or support adoption, although Americans are experienced in it. The history of adoption can be traced as far back as the 18th Century B.C. During Ancient times it was more popular to adopt adults rather than children so that they could carry on the family heritage or to protect the family’s property rights. Men and women single or married had the right to adopt.
Modern adoption laws are based on the heritage in 18th Century B.C. of the Hammurabi Code. Adopting adults was the focus in Ancient Times as a means for someone to follow in one’s footsteps; whilst the Middle Ages set some ground rules with their focus on the adoption of children. Certain laws were placed in order to protect children, so by this time adoptions were dealt with by the court systems. It was in 1851, in Massachusetts, that the first state adoption took place. Rev. Charles Loring Brace was the founder of the New York Children’s Aid Society in 1853, which helped orphaned and abandoned children. He wanted to rescue these children and transport them to good Christian homes. They were placed on Brace’s ‘Emigration Plan’ onto regular trains called the ‘Orphan Trains’ for families to view at each station, until they were taken up by one of many of the wealthy farming families.
Times have changed, although we still want the best for our children, although it is still sometimes difficult to know what that is. Adoption is one of the best things to have happened over the centuries, to give children without a home a good chance to find one.

Vietnamese Adoptions – How To Bring Home A Vietnamese Child

July 11th, 2009 at 12:18pm Under Adoption Law

One of the most popular foreign countries to adopt from is Vietnam. This country is highly populated and poverty stricken, which leaves many children out in the cold. One of the reasons the country is popular for adoption is because of the high number of children available. There is also less wait time than with domestic children in Vietnam.
The age range of children that get adopted in Vietnam fall between four months and one year old, though, there are children who are older that need homes. Also there are many more male children waiting to be adopted than female. If you are looking to adopt a girl from Vietnam, the wait could be a very long time.
A person cannot just get a plane and hope for the best. There are stipulations when it comes to adopting Vietnamese children. The Vietnam government has set up certain requirements for its adoptive children.
1. Anyone wishing to adopt must adopt a Vietnamese child that is at least 20 years younger than them. However, if the prospective parents are over 50 their options are limited to only older children.
2. Married couples (are considered a man and a woman in this situation) should be married for at least two years before applying to adopt a Vietnamese child. If a couple is divorced, they may not be divorced more than twice or they will not be considered.
3. If you have a large family, you can be denied the right to adopt. Families who have no children are not allowed to choose the gender of a child if they are wishing to adopt in Vietnam. If prospective parents only have a couple of children, they can be specific in the type of child they would like to have.
The cost of Vietnamese adoptions is also very high. Between the agency, costs of travel, paperwork and anything else that goes into the adoption, prospective parents could be looking at $30,000. Make sure you find an agency that specializes in Vietnamese or foreign adoptions. While the cost may be high, getting the right agency will make the hassles less and the adoption process easier to handle.
There is no time table on the length of the adoption process. Vietnam passed new laws in 2005, which changed some of the adoptions laws. This is another reason why it is imperative on finding the right agency. The process starts by filling out an application to be considered for adopting a Vietnamese baby. Once the paperwork is filled out, notarized and sent to Vietnam, a home study is done on the applicants. A home study is a report by a case worker on the prospective parents.
Once all the requirements have been accepted and verified, prospective parents will get referrals on children they could adopt. When parents have decided on a child, they fill out a dossier, a packet of paperwork, and send it to the Vietnamese authorities. If the dossier is approved, you will be given a date on when you pick up your new Vietnamese adopted child. The stay can last anywhere from a week to two weeks, depending on the circumstances.
Then, you get to bring your Vietnamese child to its new home.

International Adoption – Reasons For Its Popularity Among North Americans

July 11th, 2009 at 06:19am Under Adoption Law

, there may be legal complications as well as state and provincial adoption law matters as well as foreign immigration laws to deal with effectively, which gets further complicated with additional issues like language differences and cultural aspects that also need to be considered in order to make the adoption a successful one. Due to these reasons, an International adoption process comes with added tension for some and fees for this type of adoption process may be quite high, including travel overseas.
Even though babies are aplenty in countries like China, Columbia, Russia, Romania, Vietnam and Korea and thus, the waiting period considerably less for American and Canadian couples looking to adopt, the legal processes are different from those in their native countries and require many expenses such as hiring a suitable and expert foreign adoption agency, going through pre- and post-adoptive formalities, clarify the age-group, sex, race and health conditions for their preferred adoptive child. This freedom is curtailed a bit in China as most children given up for adoption are girls but, other countries do allow prospective parents to select a child based on a series of photographs after going through various applications an agency or the central registry of the child’s country of origin that has these records.
However, these are not the only concerns involving an International adoption: among the major drawbacks a couple considering foreign adoption are the series of cumulative expenses on their shoulders. Fees for foreign adoption range from fifteen thousand to thirty thousand dollars and since adoptive parents are requried to bear legal as well as administrative costs, just attending to the costs of translating documents, using the services fo a notary, travel and living besides medical needs brings the expenses up considerably. All of these costs depend on how much time is spent in the foreign country finding a child to adopt and these figures may differ, based on this factor.
But, all is not lost for those couples looking at foreign adoptions and willing to learn about a different culture while using their valid passports to build their family; getting a child is quicker through International adoption as many children may be abandoned or brought up in orphanage that the hurdle of a birth mother backing out on her decision doesn’t exist. Besides, there are children available for adoption at all times and the rules and eligibility criteria for American couples is easier overseas than it is in North America.
Once, couples have armed themselves with proper, updated information and laws regarding International adoption and have the time and finances resources to travel and stay overseas for finding their adoptive child, cutting through the red tapism, language barriers and eliminating the fraudulent intercessors comes naturally if they keep their eyes and ears open to these existing challenges.

How to start an adoption agency

July 11th, 2009 at 12:18am Under Adoption Law

The following are the necessary steps for setting up an adoption agency. However, love for what you’re doing should be the most important consideration.

1/ Industry Knowledge

Starting an adoption agency requires primarily good knowledge of the industry. For example, what are the sources of babies for adoption? How often people adopt? Infants or older children are mostly demanded for adoption? Are there cultural inferences that should be taken into consideration? Are there racial preferences in adoptive families? Individuals interested in starting an adoption agency, should perform a thorough industry analysis in order to identify the trends of the adoption industry and how these may affect their business. The goal is to be able to show to prospective investors that the venture’s potential is real because industry forces are favorable.

2/ Market Research

A detailed market research should follow. A prospect adoption agency owner needs to understand the area. For example, how many families live there? What are the family demographics? What are the education and income levels? Is ethnicity an important consideration? Do younger or older people live in the area? Are those families interested in adoption? Are there neglected or abused children in the area? Are there other adoption agencies in the area? All this information is valuable in order to identify the market niche the agency will occupy as well as the competitive advantage in relation to other agencies in the area.

3/ Business Plan

A business plan should be developed. The new venture should be described including mission, vision, values, location, operations, target groups, and opportunity assessment to support why such a business makes sense in relation to the industry. The types of adoptions offered and the services provided as well as the legal form of the venture, the management team as well as the roles and responsibilities of personnel should be mentioned. Information about advertising plans, staff training, projected financial assumptions, sources and uses of funds, and proforma statements for at least 2 years should be included in the plan along with a risk assessment to anticipate unexpected and threatening events.

4/ Getting familiar with adoption laws

Adoption laws vary from state to state. Hence, starting an adoption agency requires a thorough knowledge of the pertinent state laws and regulations that govern the placement of children for adoption. State Licensing Specialists may provide such information as well as provide the licensing application to the adoption agencies that are to become licensed agencies. In addition, owners of adopting agencies should be aware of the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (ICPC) regulations that establish standardized legal and administrative procedures governing the interstate placement of children.

5/ IRS laws and regulations

The adoption agency should also be incorporated under the state laws and regulations of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In the majority of the states, an agency casework supervisor should hold a Master’s degree in Psychology or Counseling or a Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW). Also, he or she should be familiar with any licensing requirements and regulations regarding adoption agencies in the particular state as well as informed on the latest updates on current practices and research in regards to family assessment, post-placement supervision, and post-adoption service resources.

6/ Other sources of gathering information

Even if someone doesn’t have too much experience in the adoption field, reliable information can be gathered from social workers, adoption magazines and federal adoption departments. Adoptive Families of America, Child Welfare, Child Welfare League of America, Children & Youth Services Review, National Resource Center for Special Needs Adoption, National Association of Social Workers, Roundtable, Pergamon Press, Adoption Studies Institute, Adoptalk, Adoption Quarterly, Adoptive Families and North American Council on Adoptable Children are some of them.

Adoption is it Right For You?

July 10th, 2009 at 06:18pm Under Adoption Law

Family Law – Adoption
The concept of adoption refers to the act by which an adult formally become the guardian of a child and thus incurs the rights and responsibilities that come with being a parent. It is a formal legal process in which a legal relationship between a child and guardian is formed. This legal relationship means that the adopted child becomes the legal heir of the adopter and terminates any legal rights that were in existence with the child’s natural parents.
There is a lot of law surrounding adoption and the laws surrounding it often change depending on which state you live in. An example of this is the fact that depending on your state and jurisdiction you may have no options open to you when it comes to the type of adoption that you opt for. There are two types of adoption, which are open and closed adoptions. Open adoptions enables a child’s birth mother to select her child’s adoptive parents. A closed adoption means a child’s birth mother gives up all of her rights over the child, which allows a state administration agency to conduct the selection process. Depending on your state you can choose which of these methods of adoption you wish to opt for but in other states you will be dictated on what method of adoption you will have to go through.
If you are hoping to adopt a child then it is important that you comply with adoption laws. These laws are generally subject to state laws and regulations. State adoption laws are primarily comprised of laws from two sources, State statutes and State case law but what is the difference between the two? Well state statutes are provisions that are enacted by state legislatures that regulate the subject matter of an issue. State case law however consists of rules of law that come from the written decisions of judges who hear and decide litigation within that jurisdiction.
The one aspect of adoption that people always seem to get confused about is the fact that people always seem to think that in order to adopt you need to be with an adoption agency. In some cases this may be the best thing to do as you have the help and support of people who are experienced and trained in all aspects of the process but you don’t have to opt for an adoption agency. You can go through the process of an adoption through contact with the child’s biological parents; this is known as independent adoption. What happens in these cases is that the natural parents of the child take on the responsibility of finding suitable adoptive parents. Often, the natural parents will place the child in the prospective adoptive parents’ house for a trial period without the natural parents having given up their rights.
The process of an adoption cannot be finalized unless the court makes an official finding that the individual is acceptable as an adoptive parent. The court must pass an investigatory report that has been submitted by the state agency that states an individual is suitable for becoming an adoptive parent. These reports are often very detailed and will include an individual’s religious background, social history, financial status, moral fitness, mental and physical fitness, and criminal background.
I feel to stand the best chance of gaining court approval for your adoption you need to enlist the help of an adoption agency as they will be able to provide you with all of the information, experience and skills that are needed for you to successfully seal your adoption. They will be able to advise you and guide you through the entire adoption process. I feel that they will help you through the adoption process so that it goes smoother and quicker.