Process & Procedures

Documents

Arrivals

EAC Home Page

10/4/07 - It is unlikely that any more dossiers will be permitted to be submitted to the SDA in 2007. This may change but please contact our office for further updates. Submission of dossiers should resume in 2008.

6/28/07 - Adoptive parents must be flexible with age of child(ren) they are looking to adopt. EAC suggests going up to 5 yrs. of age, but younger children may be available.

6/5/07 - The NAC is not accepting any new dossiers until July 1, 2007. A new Minister of the NAC came in on 6/4/07 and will be making procedure changes. The 45 year rule will be going into effect at some point, but the date is still unknown. There also has been no decision as to which parent's age will be used.

5/16/07 - There has been a slowdown in the submission of dossiers to the National Adoption Center (now called the SDA). They only accept a very limited number each Monday from the US and there is a lot of competition for facilitatiors to submit, as evidenced by ongoing lines outside the SDA. Families can now expect 3-4 weeks for submission of dossiers. In addition, there is a quota for each country in 2007. The quota for the U.S. may very well be reached in July or August, in which case, remaining dossiers will not be able to be submitted before 2008.

3/27/07 - As of this date there has been no official word on certain details of the proposed legislation in Ukraine. Specifically, it has not been decided if the enforcement of the 45 year rule will be determined by the age of the oldest parent, youngest parent, or average of the two. Until this has been finalized, adoptive parents submitting dossiers to the Ukraine must understand the possibility that the age of the child adopted may be no more than a 45 year difference than the age of the oldest parent.

On Tuesday, March 20, 2007, the Parliament of Ukraine passed a bill on Legislative Ammendments to Ukriane's Laws (regarding adoptions). The bill will come into effect after President Yuschenko's approval and its publication in the official newspaper of Ukraine's Parliment. This bill introduces the following major changes to current Ukraine legislation:

- The minimum age of prospective adoptive parents must be at least 21 years old.
- The maximum age difference between adoptive parents and adopted children cannot exceed 45 years.
- Unmarried foreign citizens cannot adopt Ukrainian children.

The law is not retroactive. Those adoptive parents, whose dossiers have already been approved and scheduled for appointments, will not be affected by this law and should be able to complete the adoptions by the date this law becomes fully effective.

According to Ukrainian officials, this law will not become effective as soon as was initally expected. Its final text will require additional consideration and approval by Parliament before it can be submitted for the President's approval. Most likely, the law will not become fully effective until May or June of this year.

1/19/07 - The Adoption Center in Ukraine (now called the SDA or State Department of Adoption) has reopened and new dossiers are being accepted. Invitations for appointments at the SDA are being set for March 2007 and later. Families will be shown the children that they requested on their Petition to Adopt by a psychologist who preselected files to match the families request. Now is a good time to start the process for adoption in the Ukraine for families who can be flexible in their time for travel.