China Eligibility Regulations
We have received written confirmation of the new eligibility regulations for prospective adoptive parents from the China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) that are effective as of May 1, 2007. The new regulations are listed below:
- The adopters must be a couple of one male and one female with a stable marital relationship. If the husband and wife do not have any previous marriages, they must be married for two years. If either the husband or wife has previous marriages (not more than 2), they must be married for five years.
- Both the husband and wife must be between the ages of 30 and 50. For adoption of a special needs child, they both should be between the ages of 30 and 55.
- Both the husband and wife must be fully healthy physically and mentally. They must not have the following conditions:
- AIDS
- mental disability
- infectious diseases within the infective stage
- binocular blindness or binocular parallax or monocular blindness and with no ocular prosthesis
- binaural hearing loss or language function loss—adoption of special needs children who have identical conditions will be exempt from this limitation
- dysfunction of limbs or trunk caused by impairment, incompleteness, numbness, or deformation severe facial deformation
- serious diseases which require long-term treatment and affect life expectancy, like malignant tumors, lupus erythematosus, nephrosis, epilepsy, etc.
- a major organ transplant received less than ten years ago
- schizophrenia
- medication for serious mental disorders, like depression, mania, anxiety neurosis, etc., stopped less than two years ago
- BMI equal to or greater than 40 (click here for a BMI calculator)
- The husband or wife must have a stable occupation. The family annual income should be $10,000 for each family member, including the prospective adoptee, and the family net assets value should be $80,000 or greater. The family annual income does not include welfare income like relief funds, pension, unemployment insurance, government subsidy, etc.
- Both the husband and wife should have received education at or above the level of high school senior, or vocational skills training of the same level.
- The number of children in the family under the age of 18 years should be less than five, and the youngest one should have reached one year of age. Adoption of special needs children will be exempt from the limitation of “the number of children in the family under the age of 18 years should be less than five.”
- Both the husband and wife have never come under any criminal sanction. They must behave honorably with good moral characters and abide by regulations and laws. Both must not have a history of the following:
- domestic violence, sex abuse, abandonment, or abuse of children (even if they are not consequently arrested or incriminated)
- taking narcotics like opium, morphine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, etc., or medication for mental diseases that is addictive
- abusing alcohol and have given up drinking less than ten years ago
- The adopters must have a correct perception of adoption, expect to provide a warm family for the orphaned children (or children with handicaps and disabilities) via adoption, and meet the needs of the children adopted for the sake of their development. They must have a correct cognition of inter-country adoption as well, be fully prepared mentally for the potential risks within inter-country adoption, and for the situations of children adopted as far as potential diseases, developmental delay, post-placement maladjustment, etc.
- The adopters must make clear promises in the adoption application letter of being able to accept post-placement follow-ups and offer post-placement reports as required.
- All ages described in the above regulations shall be calculated based on the date the adoption application documents are logged in at the CCCWA.
