So you've made the decision to adopt a child. This is the first and most difficult step.
However, if you have completely considered everything and do not intend to retreat, your further actions will be subjected to a strict procedure established by Russian legislation.
However hard you may want, it is not possible just to go to the House of infants or orphanage, and pick up the baby, which attracted your heart. According to the law, government is responsible for the orphaned children; so all the articles of the law regulating the adoption procedure are intended to enable you to provide proof that you can take proper care of the child.
First of all you have to submit the properly prepared application to the child welfare authorities. It is not yet an application for the child adoption; in fact, this is an appeal to the child welfare authorities (CWA) requesting to declare you as a worthy candidate for an adoptive parent.
It is necessary to attach a specific list of certificates and documents to the application for the guardianship authorities.
Then, when your application is reviewed, the guardianship authorities’ representatives (CWA) will examine your living conditions, and provide a conclusion about possibility of being adoptive parents.
The next step is a search for a child, acquaintance with him (her). In this step the candidate for adoptive parents gets acquainted with the children's profiles from the data bank of local child welfare authorities (CWA) or from the federal data bank, and receives direction for meeting the child.
Application for adoption of a child is considered by the court under a special procedure prescribed by the civil procedural law. It is necessary to attach to the application submitted to the court the same documents as to the application for the child welfare authorities.
After a closed judicial hearing, the court awards its judgment, after which processing of documents of the adopted child and the adopter is performed. However, at this step, it will be already correct to call them parents and their child. Child's birth certificate, records in the book of the civil status acts - in all these documents the adopted child is registered as yours. Your own child.
