Adopting a child from an orphanage in 2021: procedure, documents, conditions of adoption

What is a baby house?

In accordance with Government Decree No. 481 dated May 24, 2014, the following types of organizations for orphans are distinguished:

educational – schools – boarding schools (for children from 7 to 21 years old);
organizations providing social services - centers for assistance to orphans, centers for promoting family structure (for children from 1 to 21 years old);
medical - baby homes, children's homes (for children from 0 to 3 years).

In exceptional cases, children under 4 years of age may be present in the orphanage. But this is possible if there are medical indications.

The ages of the organization's students are approximate. It may vary depending on the legislation of the region and the charter of the organization.

Children who need constant monitoring by medical workers are placed in orphanages. But this does not mean that the child necessarily has a serious illness or disability.

Child adoption stories

Adoption stories are different, but most of them are kind and sincere. It is difficult to love a baby as your own, but many parents with wide, kind hearts and open souls still manage to do it.

Tatyana is raising her three children, has found an approach to her husband and is happily married. One day, sitting on a bench, I met an unkemptly dressed woman with a child about 3 years old. The woman herself offered to give the girl away, Tanya did not know what to answer. After consulting with my husband at home, it was decided to save the girl. They searched for this woman for a very long time, except for the woman’s external data, there was no information. A couple of weeks later, Tanya got the idea to look for the woman in the same place where she first met her. The mother’s heart did not deceive her, and this is what happened. The child was taken, but they faced a lot of problems. The girl slept poorly, cried often, and could not wean herself off the bottle for a long time at three years old. Patience and love for the child have done their job, the grown-up baby now helps her mother, feels loved and dear. What could be more important for a mother?

Elena, at the age of 30, could not get pregnant due to infertility. Other methods of conception were futile. The idea of adoption first came to my husband. Lena was flattered by such sensitive attention from her beloved, which only strengthened family relationships, and the decision to adopt the baby became obsessive. Having visited the orphanage, the parents met only sufficiently old children. I wanted to take in a baby and experience motherhood from the first days of a baby’s life. Tanya was struck by the idea of visiting the baby’s home, and the couple was lucky; they saw a 3-month-old boy with wonderful blue eyes. Two months later, the couple took the boy. All the ordeals with choosing and paperwork are left behind. The child quickly adapted and became like family.

Requirements for an adoptive parent

Specialists from guardianship departments are more demanding in their approach to adoptive parents who want to adopt a baby. Therefore, you need to be prepared for more stringent requirements.

At the same time, they are also subject to the general conditions:

full legal capacity of the candidate and his spouse;
age of majority;
income not less than the subsistence level for each family member + 1 subsistence level per child;
absence of diseases that interfere with parental responsibilities (oncology, infectious diseases in the acute stage, alcoholism and drug addiction);
housing (owned, rented);
proper living conditions for the child (bed, room);
consent of all family members to adoption;
absence of criminal record for serious and especially serious crimes;
absence of a court decision on deprivation/limitation of parental rights, cancellation of adoption due to the fault of the candidate;
absence of a local government decision to remove a guardian from duties;
not having US citizenship;
unmarried for persons of the same sex;
the age difference between the adoptive parent and the adoptee must be at least 16 years;
obtaining a certificate of completion of the school of surrogate parents.

If several families want to adopt one child, then priority is given to the child’s relatives. If there are no relatives among those who wish, then priority is given to the family that was the first to receive a referral to visit the child from the guardianship department.

Note! Unmarried citizens cannot be adoptive parents of one child.

Can a single woman adopt a child in Russia in 2021?

How to adopt a wife's child from her first marriage? Step by step order

Payments upon adoption

Adopted children are considered natural children, therefore adoptive parents are entitled to federal payments in the form of:

maternity benefits – in case of adoption of an infant under three months of age;
lump sum benefit at birth – when the baby is up to six months old;
one-time benefit when transferring children to a family;
monthly child care allowance for children up to one and a half or three years old;
maternal capital.

In addition to federal benefits, additional regional benefits are paid if they exist in a given region.

How to become a candidate for adoptive parents?

The first step in the adoption procedure is to obtain a conclusion on the possibility of being a candidate adoptive parent.

To do this, the applicant must:

Contact the guardianship department at your place of registration. You must have a civil passport with you. The specialist will conduct a consultation, give a list of documents that need to be prepared, and send substitute parents to the school. The validity period of the referral is unlimited.
Go through the school of surrogate parents, pass the exam and receive a certificate. If there are two adoptive parents, then each of them must receive a certificate. A list of current schools for foster parents can be found here.
Collect documents. If the adoptive parents are a married couple, then all documents are collected in 2 copies (for the husband and for the wife). If only one of the family will act as an adoptive parent, then documents on health, income, and housing are collected for two spouses, and the rest - only for the candidate.
Apply. It can be submitted in person to the guardianship department or through the MFC. Within 5 days, specialists from the guardianship department will visit the candidate’s home and inspect the living conditions.
Receive an opinion on the possibility of being a candidate for adoptive parents. The document is issued 10 days from the date of application. The validity period of the conclusion is 2 years from the date of issue. The document can only be used once.
Select a child's candidacy.
Contact the Guardianship Department for a referral. You cannot personally come to the baby’s home to meet the child without a referral. Employees of a medical organization do not have the right to start a candidate. Therefore, you first need to visit the guardianship department at the location of the orphanage, the regional or federal operator of the data bank on orphans. Only with an official referral can you come to the organization.[/box]
Get to know the child personally and establish contact. Review your medical record and personal file.

One of the important stages in the process of getting to know the child is establishing contact with the head physician of the orphanage. His consent plays an important role in the adoption court.

Prepare documents and a claim for adoption. Documents are submitted to the district court at the location of the organization.
Attending a court hearing. The process cannot take place in the absence of the adoptive parent. Specialists from the guardianship department and the prosecutor should also participate in the process.
Obtaining a court decision. The document will come into force in 30 days. But the adoptive parents can indicate in the claim a request for immediate execution of the decision. This will allow you to take your child home on the day of the trial.

Note! The adoption procedure at all stages is absolutely free. Intermediary activities in the field of adoption are prohibited by law.

Documentation

The list of documents for obtaining a conclusion on the possibility of becoming an adoptive parent is established by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 2000 No. 275:

civil passport of the adoptive parent and his wife;
extract from the Unified State Register for the apartment;
housing lease agreement;
autobiography;
medical report for each spouse;
Marriage certificate;
income certificate;
certificate of completion of the school for substitute families.

If the child’s adoptive parent is a brother or sister, grandmother or grandfather, then it is not necessary to provide a certificate of completion of training. Specialists from the guardianship department will request additional information on their own.

Statement

An application to the guardianship department to obtain an opinion on the possibility of being a candidate for adoptive parents includes the following information:

name of the guardianship and trusteeship authority;
applicant details;
citizenship, passport details;
registration address;
phone number;
information about criminal record (if available);
pension information (if available);
the purpose of contacting the guardianship department;
additional information (experience in communicating with children, medical or pedagogical education);
list of documents;
date and signature.

Sample application

Stage 3. Adoption

Adoption is established in court. The initiator of the process is the candidate adoptive parent. He fills out an application and attaches the documents that he collected to apply to the guardianship department.

Important! During the trial, the minor continues to be in the orphanage. His legal representative is the head physician of the institution. A prerequisite for adoption is the consent of the head physician.

If the organization is located in another region, you can ask the guardianship department to issue temporary guardianship. In order to file a claim in court at your place of residence upon arrival home.

Step 1. Preparing a claim

The statement of claim for adoption is made in writing. The issue will be resolved through special proceedings. Therefore, the claim does not contain information about the defendant.

The document must contain:

name of the court;
candidate data;
information about the guardianship department;
information about the head physician;
name of the claim;
information about obtaining the conclusion;
information about meeting the child;
reference to law;
request for registration of adoption;
Additional requirements;
list of documents;
date and signatures of candidates.

Additional requirements can be specified:

change of surname, name, patronymic;
exclusion of information about blood parents from children's documents;
inclusion of information about adoptive parents in the columns about parents;
change of date of birth (if the child is not older than 6 months).

Sample statement of claim for adoption from an orphanage

Step 2. Litigation

2 weeks after filing the application, a conversation is scheduled and a court date is determined. The court may invite the child’s relatives into the process if they refuse to accept him into the family.

If the parents of a minor have died, then the court has the right to preserve the grandparents' right to communicate with their grandson. As well as personal non-property and property rights.

A prerequisite is the participation of a representative of the guardianship department in the process. He prepares an inspection report and gives an opinion on the merits of the case.

Often the process lasts no more than 1 hour. In the absence of gross violations, the court satisfies the applicant's demands.

The judge warns all participants about criminal liability for violating the secrecy of adoption (Article 139 of the RF IC).

Step 3. Obtaining a court decision

Let's consider what is needed to obtain a court decision. Even during the process of filing an application, the plaintiff can include a requirement for a decision to be made for immediate execution. In this case, you do not need to wait 30 days. The decision will immediately be given legal force.

If such a requirement is not specified, then the adoptive parents will not be able to pick up the child for another 30 days. Only after receiving a court decision with the appropriate mark, the organization will give the baby to new parents.

Step 4. Registration

Based on the court decision, it is necessary to obtain new documents. The applicant applies to the civil registry office at the location of the court to obtain adoption and birth certificates. The old birth document is confiscated.

All actions are carried out free of charge. Adoptive parents do not pay for new documents.

How to find a child for adoption?

The next stage is the selection of a child's candidacy.
Statistics show that 90% of adoptive parents want to accept a child under 5 years of age into their family. Moreover, at least 50% of adoptive parents want him to be an only child (without brothers and sisters). In this regard, difficulties arise in selecting a child for adoption. Since the choice of children aged 0 to 5 years with a satisfactory state of health is limited, it is advisable to independently take measures to select a child, rather than rely on the guardianship department.

You can find truthful and up-to-date information about your child:

from a regional or federal data bank operator;
from specialized funds;
in the guardianship departments.

Don't pay attention to websites on the Internet. The information posted on social networks is, in most cases, long outdated. And the placed children have been raised in the family for a long time. Also, do not turn to thematic forums for help. By agreeing with a pregnant woman to “purchase” a child, adoptive parents commit a crime under the Criminal Code. In addition, there is a high probability of becoming a victim of scammers. A mother may ask for money for treatment, food, examination, but subsequently refuse to hand over the child to adoptive parents. It is impossible to punish her for this, because by entering into an agreement with her, the adoptive parents themselves commit a crime.

Therefore, when searching for a child, it is recommended to give preference to legal methods of selection.

Data banks

In each subject of the Russian Federation there is a regional bank for orphans. This is a database of all children in the region who need a device.

All information from regional banks is sent to the federal data bank. You can obtain information about children directly from the federal operator and on the website Usynovite.ru.

The disadvantage of this service is the low relevance of the information. As a rule, information enters the data bank when a referral has already been issued from the guardianship department or a regional data bank to meet the child.

To receive more up-to-date information, you need to register with the data bank in order to receive a notification when new information arrives. In some regions, you can register using the State Services portal.

Funds

There are many foundations in Russia that assist in the family placement of orphans.

Among them:

Volunteers to help orphans;
Give good.
NGOOU Stork Day.

As a rule, funds provide assistance in the placement of children with special health conditions or families with 2 or more children. Charitable organizations not only provide assistance in selecting a child, but also accompany the family at the adoption stage and after it.

Guardianship departments

The most up-to-date information about children in need of placement can be found in the district guardianship departments. To obtain information, you need to visit the department in person and submit an application to register as a candidate adoptive parent.

Motives for adopting a baby

There can be a lot of motives that encourage adoption, and among them are not only the ideas of bored ladies, but also difficult life situations . Here are some of the motives:

a woman, due to illness, cannot give birth to a child herself and wants to please her husband so that he can feel like a father;
the husband and wife really both want to make the orphan from the orphanage happier;
the ambitions and wounded pride of people who themselves cannot have children;
the desire to raise someone who could take care of old parents later, when weakness sets in;
a young daughter gave birth to a baby, and her parents want to keep him in the family, but so that the daughter’s reputation does not suffer, they themselves want to become the parents of their own grandson;
relatives want to give children who have lost their closest relatives for any reason shelter and care;
wealthy people want to raise a successor, an heir to their wealth, etc.

The easiest way is to adopt a very small child who does not yet have any memory, skills, or habits, but a little one from whom you can mold a character as you wish - this is what most people who want to become parents think.

How to adopt a child: legal process

Once a child has been selected and adoption consent has been signed, legal proceedings must be initiated.

List of documents

When going to court, you need to prepare the following documents (Article 271 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation):

civil passport of the adoptive parent;
birth certificate of the adoptive parent - if he is not married;
marriage certificate - if the adoptive parents are married;
information that the family relationship has been terminated - if the adoptive parent is married, but the second spouse is against adoption;
information about income;
medical report;
housing data;
conclusion on the possibility of being an adoptive parent;
certificate of completion of training.

Documents must be prepared in 2 copies.

Statement of claim for adoption of a child from an orphanage

The statement of claim for adoption must include the following information (Article 270 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation):

FULL NAME. adoptive parents, place of registration;
FULL NAME. child, date of birth, location, details of parents, information about brothers and sisters;
reasons for adoption and a list of documents that prove the reasons;
request for adoption;
list of documents;
date and signatures.

Additional requirements may be included in the statement of claim:

on the exclusion of information about blood parents from the child’s birth record;
on the inclusion of information about adoptive parents in the birth record in the Parents column;
about changing the full name child;
about changing the date of birth of the child - but no more than 3 months (if the adoptee is not older than 1 year);
about changing the place of birth.

For children over 1 year of age, changing the date of birth is allowed in exceptional cases. Therefore, the adoptive parent needs to prove to the court that these changes are really necessary.

Sample application

Benefits for adopted children

Adopted children are treated like relatives, therefore the laws of the Russian Federation provide for payments for adoptive parents in the same amounts and terms as for parents in ordinary families - sick leave if the child is taken from the maternity hospital, benefits until the child reaches the age of 1.5 years, etc. .

Adoptive parents can receive a lump sum benefit if they apply within 6 months from the date of the trial (from the actual date of adoption), but not a day later. In 2015, this benefit, paid one-time, amounts to 14,497 rubles.

When can I pick up my child from the orphanage?

After the court decision is made, it is determined when the child can be taken away:

If the adoptive parents requested that the court decision be carried out immediately, then the child can be picked up on any day in agreement with the head physician of the organization.
If there was no petition, the decision will take effect after 30 days. After which you need to put a stamp in the court office indicating that the court decision has entered into legal force. With the court's decision, you can contact the chief doctor to pick up the child.

Note! The orphanage does not provide clothes or shoes. It is on the balance sheet of the organization. Therefore, you need to take clothes with you.

Child's choice

It’s difficult to give any advice on choosing a baby. The mother's heart should tell what kind of child her child should be, while eye color, nationality, possible deviations in health and development do not matter much.

As advice, we can only recommend choosing according to your heart. If you are adopting a sick child, it is important to understand that the payments due are not all that are due upon adoption. Seeking your own personal gain is unacceptable, but curing a baby, putting him back on his feet, giving his love and affection is worth a lot, although in practice many parents are not psychologically ready for adoption.

After some time, they become disappointed in the choice of the baby. A child is not a thing, always remember this, starting from your first visit to the Baby House.

Lawyer's answers to private questions

Can a single woman become an adoptive parent?

The law does not limit the right of single citizens to be adoptive parents. Therefore, a single woman can also apply to become a candidate adoptive parent. The main thing is that it meets the established requirements.

I am a volunteer at an orphanage. I want to adopt one of my pupils. But the head doctor says that she cannot be taken into the family, and does not explain the details. Is it possible to adopt any child from an orphanage or is it impossible to adopt any of the children?

In orphanages there are children undergoing rehabilitation from disadvantaged families and families in difficult life situations. Some children are undergoing treatment. In addition, some children cannot be adopted because the parents have not yet been deprived of their rights. The head physician cannot provide information about all students. Information is provided only to candidates and about those children with whom a referral has been issued.

Where are the databases of babies for adoption?

Each of the institutions where children are located creates a questionnaire for everyone who has become a pet of the institution. Be sure to have a photograph, or even better, several, and a brief description of the character, main features, and personality traits.

The completed questionnaire is sent to the guardianship authorities, from there to the regional data bank and then to the federal one. At the same time , each of the potential parents needs to be aware that the description and characteristics should not be trusted too much .

It’s not that the creation of a questionnaire is treated superficially - no, it’s just that a baby, having been there for a short time, cannot immediately show all his sides of character and disposition, and if this is a baby, then what kind of character and its characteristics can we talk about? It's more like an advertising brochure.

Databases of babies for adoption are available in the guardianship authorities, in the regional or federal data bank.

Recommendations

It is very important when visiting a specific baby to carefully study information about him and check it. Very often, many diseases and abnormalities are not noted in the documents. In fact, it may turn out that the child does not have the noted disease, and the data on the nature and characteristics of behavior do not correspond to reality.

It is recommended to conduct an additional medical examination, clarify the noted data with specialists, and find close contact with the baby himself and the employee supervising him. It is recommended to double-check information from institution employees, since the presentation of data usually has a specific purpose.

It is worth very carefully studying the data about the child’s previous life, where he lived before the meeting, what is known about his parents and relatives. All this can answer many questions about the baby’s condition at the time of the visit.

Before adoption, when determining the desired age and other requirements, it is worth thoroughly assessing your capabilities. A prerequisite for accepting a child into a family is the presence of knowledge and skills in upbringing, living together, and building full-fledged family relationships. It is worth taking specialized courses and training, because even if you have experience in parenting, foster children always have their own specifics, difficulties and features.

Waiting for a decision

Checking living conditions

In order to assess the conditions for the future residence of the adopted child, the guardianship authorities are obliged to send a commission to the place of his intended residence. This is a necessary condition for obtaining a positive decision on the possibility of becoming an adoptive parent.

The commission evaluates the living conditions of the home and issues a corresponding certificate to the apartment owners. This document will need to be included in the application package.

Interview with a PLO officer

Another necessary stage is an interview with a PLO officer. He studies the intentions of the potential adoptive parent, draws his conclusions about his financial stability and moral readiness to take care of the ward, and about the psychological situation in the prospective family of the pupil.

The result of the interview is also documented in the form of a corresponding act.

Meeting the baby

A written decision on the possibility of adoption will be issued within two weeks after the examination of living conditions.

If a positive decision is made, you need to contact the orphanage with a request to provide you with access to databases about children who are waiting for adoptive parents.

After studying the questionnaires provided, you need to choose which child you would like to continue acquaintance with and receive a referral for acquaintance. After the first meeting, you will have ten days to decide whether you will look for the next applicant or continue to get to know this one.

You must notify guardianship of your decision; if you refuse to continue dating, be sure to indicate the reason. You can immediately ask for a referral to meet another student.

Video on the topic:

Main features of the procedure

Children from birth to three years old go to the orphanage. Looking at a child, you can already get an idea of what he will look like when he grows up and what kind of character he will have.

Children are often photographed so that adoptive parents can form a preliminary opinion about the baby and understand whether they want to get to know him better.

For each incoming ward, a detailed questionnaire is filled out, which describes the baby’s appearance, its distinctive features, and contains photographs of the child.

Medical reports on the health of the pupil and the characteristics of his development are also collected here. Such questionnaires form the institution’s database and are transferred to the regional data bank.

Adoptive parents can choose a child of the desired gender by studying the profiles of all children under the care of the orphanage. Typically, candidates are asked to get to know the selected student in order to understand how the relationship will develop.

With a baby, guardians will have more opportunities to keep the adoption secret in accordance with Law No. 155 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

If none of the students are suitable, you can contact another institution located nearby and study its database.

Preliminary custody

Guardianship is the definition of minor children left without parental care.
The guardian only represents the interests of the child. Under guardianship, the child retains his first and last name, and the guardian does not have the rights of a parent.

But adoption is another form of child placement. A child enters a family as a child. Preliminary guardianship is usually issued in emergency cases upon presentation of a passport and application.

This form of guardianship is most often chosen as an interim form of guardianship before adoption. This is due to the fact that the adoption procedure takes a long time. And so that the child goes straight to the family, and not to an orphanage. Priority is given to relatives.

Amount of one-time payment for fostering a child

The amount of payments when adopting a child or taking him into foster care is fixed (Article 12.2 of Law No. 81-FZ), but this amount is subject to annual indexation, carried out from February 1 (Article 4.2 of Law No. 81-FZ).

The initial values of the amounts are as follows:

8,000 rub. - for an ordinary child under the age of 7, if he enters a family without a brother/sister;
100,000 rub. — for a disabled child, children over 7 years old, or for each adopted child together with a brother/sister.

Due to indexation, these values at the beginning of 2021 amount to 18,886.32 rubles. and 144,306.88 rubles. (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated January 28, 2021 No. 73).

Find out what documents you need to prepare to assign payments in ConsultantPlus. If you do not have access to the K+ system, get a trial online access for free.