Posted on July 1, 2018
Since several latest changes in the Ukrainian Law, such as 30-day appeal time after court, new birth certificate, a new ID card before the new passport, getting a new passport for the adopted children, etc. All this has become a nightmare for the adoptive families from foreign countries. Thus we were searching for legal ways to shorten the paperwork process for our clients. And we found one.
Initially it was suggested just for one adoptive family, but then other families started to successfully use it and this has become quite popular.
If you want to find out the details of this process and its impact on the timing of adoption, please keep reading.
The process before the court hearing point is the same: the family gets registration at the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, obtains a referral for a child, meets the child and wants to go to the court to finalize the adoption. To get your case to the court adoptive parents compose a petition for adoption, in which they usually (I mean 99,9% of the cases) as for the following:
– To Grant the adoption
– To Record adoptive parents in the birth record of the child
– Make amendments to the name of the child, recording the new name of the child without a patronymic.
– To leave the date and place of birth of the child without amendments.
What do you have after court? An adopted child with new parents, same birth date and a new name. Your newly adopted child needs new birth certificate, new ID card (if 14 y.o.), new International Passport (I bet he/she already had one for an original name).
Composing your petition certain way can make a big impact on the time frame after the court hearing. There is a legal way to skip the new ID and the new passport procedures and by getting just a new birth certificate for an adopted child, follow through to the visa procedure and go home to finish everything there.
In order to save time, instead of asking the court to give your child a New Name and your Surname you need to leave your adopted child’s name and Surname without amendments.
It means that after the court, granting this adoption you will be recorded the parents in the birth record of the child. The child will be yours officially, but will have his or her original name and surname.
After getting a new birth certificate for the newly adopted child, you will already have an ID and an International Passport which the child most likely had already, especially if the child is 14 and older and you met this child during a hosting program. Thus you can go right to getting a VISA for the child and go home.
This advice is mostly for the families – citizens of the United States of America, as the laws of other countries may vary, please check with your country of residence.
Getting back home to the USA you will need to get an adoption certificate for the child, where you can change the name of the child according to your wish and the child will finally get your Surname. Every state has a slightly different process of getting an adoption certificate, so it may take some time, but you will be at home and in your home land with the child who is also at home and a family surrounding.
I have described the legal way of saving some significant time in the adoption process, and I hope it will be helpful for some of the families. Its just a little short-cut which you can use and beat up the bureaucracy. Good luck to any and all of you.