Adoption - what is it: concept and definition 2021

On the territory of the Russian Federation, as in any other state, various segments of the population live. Particular attention is paid to children who, due to a number of circumstances, were left orphans without biological parents. Currently, the country's family legislation determines that such minor citizens can count on adoption.

Foster children are accepted into the care of families or individuals under certain conditions. In this case, it is necessary to consider how the adoption of a child occurs in accordance with the rules, and in addition, what is needed for the correct adoption of a child.

What is adoption

Adoption is one of the most important institutions of family law. Adoption is the definition of a legal act as a result of which children deprived of parental care can find a new family. The main feature of this process is that as a result, legal ties arise between adopted children and adoptive parents, similar to the relationship between parents and children. That is, as a result, the parties become close relatives.

The concept and meaning of adoption are not defined by law, however, Art. 124 of the IC defines it as a priority form of family placement for orphans. This is due to the fact that not only close family relationships arise between adoptive parents and adoptees, but also legal ties that equate such a child to a blood child and give adoptive parents full rights and responsibilities of parents.

It should be understood that such adoption makes a child a full-fledged member of the family, giving him inheritance rights in relation to new parents and other relatives. The adoptive parents, in turn, are given the right to give the child their own surname, as well as change his other personal data at their discretion.

Legislative regulation

The main legislative act regulating adoption in family law is, of course, the Family Code. Its regulations determine the main points of this procedure, the requirements, rights and obligations of adoptive parents and adopted children, the general rules of adoption, the consequences of its implementation, conditions for cancellation, and so on.

However, the adoption procedure is regulated not only by family law - for example, Chapter 29 of the Civil Procedure Code provides legal regulation of adoption as a special judicial proceeding, determining the procedure for judicial review, the content of the application, and the necessary documents. Separate standards are also contained in other legislative acts: for example, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes the rights of adopted children and adoptive parents in inheritance.

Who is allowed to adopt?

The adoption procedure can be carried out in relation to any child who, due to current life circumstances, is left without parental care.

Among the reasons why children become applicants for adoption are the following:

Abandonment of a child by the mother in the maternity hospital;
Loss of rights by parents in relation to a biological child;
Placement in an orphanage, orphanage or other similar social institution;
Death of biological parents and the child acquiring orphan status;
Discovery of a child planted by an unidentified person.

Each of the above children can be transferred for permanent residence and upbringing to another family, provided that the interests of the minor coincide with the interests of the adoptive parents.

Russian children can be adopted not only by citizens of the country, but also by foreign nationals of other states, if the minor child fully approves of the candidacy of the new parents and such applicants meet all the legislative requirements established by the procedure.

What is the purpose of adoption?

In fact, there can be a lot of reasons, and the motives for adopting a child can be varied. The law does not define any exhaustive list of circumstances under which an adopted child may be accepted into a family, however, these circumstances are indicated in the application to the court, so the applicant’s request must be at least justified. In any case, the assessment of the motives of potential adoptive parents is made individually in court.

Among the most common motives are:

infertility of one of the spouses or other reasons resulting in the inability to give birth to a child on their own;
desire to have a child in the absence of a sexual partner;
love for children and compassion for a particular orphan child;
increasing your own family;
death of one's own child.

It must be taken into account that the wrong motivation and lack of sufficient circumstances will become an obstacle to adoption. Subjects of adoption also often have hidden mercantile motives, for example, receiving a regional lump sum allowance or housing certificates, which, of course, causes concern in society.

Who is an adoptive parent

An adoptive parent, following the logic of the legislator, is considered to be any person who has adopted a child and eventually becomes one of the adoptive parents capable of ensuring his full physical, mental and moral development. Those who have the right to adopt a child in Russia, according to Art. 127 SK, any adult person can become, with the exception of:

incompetent, limited in legal capacity and their spouses;
persons deprived of parental rights and removed from guardianship;
former adoptive parents deprived of their status due to their fault;
persons who are not capable of being adoptive parents due to health reasons - due to an illness included in the list approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 117 of February 14, 2013;
persons who do not have adequate income or permanent residence;
persons with a criminal record for sexual crimes, crimes against life and freedom, against honor and dignity, public safety, as well as other grave and especially grave crimes;
persons in same-sex marriages.

Persons who have the right to be adoptive parents, but are not married, cannot become adoptive parents of the same child. If a citizen is not married, the age difference with an adopted child, according to Art. 128 SK, must be at least 16 years old, but it can be reduced if there are good reasons.

If there are several potential adoptive parents of the same child, priority is given to relatives, taking into account the interests of the child. Before adoption, adoptive parents are required to undergo psychological, pedagogical and legal training.

Permission from interested parties

The procedure for adopting a child in court is preceded by another important point - obtaining permission for the minor to move to another family from his previous legal representatives or guardians.

The specified permit document is drawn up in writing and certified by a notary. A positive decision of the biological parents/guardians to adopt a child can only be canceled if the corresponding verdict of the justice body confirming the transfer of the pupil to another family has not entered into force.

If biological parents do not have full legal capacity (their age is under 18 years), then, according to the letter of the law, this authority becomes the competence of:

Their immediate guardian/legal representative (grandparents of the child being adopted);
A representative of the guardianship and trusteeship authority (if the guardian or legal representative of the biological parent has lost the corresponding rights).

Potential adoptive parents are exempt from the obligation to seek permission from interested parties if one of the following legal facts about the biological parents occurs:

Considered missing;
Not installed;
Lost legal capacity;
Lost parental rights in relation to the child being adopted;
Died/died.

Nuances:

Adoptable children over 10 years of age have the right to express their own opinion regarding the candidacy of adoptive parents, which will be recorded in the relevant act and taken into account;
When adopting, the opinions of the following persons are additionally taken into account:

Children of the adoptive parent who are in his care;
Spouse of the adoptive parent.

Who can you adopt?

According to Art. 124 of the Family Code, only minor children can be adopted, that is, the maximum age of an adopted child cannot exceed 17 years.

If orphans are blood brothers and sisters, they cannot be adopted by different adoptive parents, except in cases where the children did not live and were not raised together, did not know about their relationship, cannot live together for health reasons and taking into account their other interests, regardless of their age.

If the child has reached the age of ten, according to Art. 132 of the Family Code, in general cases his consent to adoption is required.

At the same time, it is difficult to unequivocally answer the question at what age is it better to adopt a child - it all depends on the motives of the adoptive parents. According to psychologists, the most optimal age is considered to be 0-2 years old - adoption at this age goes most smoothly for both the child and the parents.

When adopting children over 4 years old, problems with adaptation are possible: the older the child, the more difficult the adaptation process is. In any case, this is very subjective and it is impossible to get a definite answer.

Conditions and grounds for adoption of children

The state of affairs is such that a child left without parental guardianship or care can be adopted if certain conditions are met:

the child is deprived of parental care and education;
he has not reached the age of majority;
the age difference between the adoptive parent and the adopted child should not be less than 16 years;
there are no established restrictions or prohibitions for an applicant wishing to adopt a child;
such a person is registered as a candidate for adoption;
in the prescribed cases, there is permission from parents and other persons;
other conditions clearly prescribed by regulatory documents of the Russian Federation.

Procedure for adopting a child

A certain category of persons can adopt a child left without parental guardianship or care by taking several necessary actions in this direction, both directly by adult citizens and by the relevant government bodies and services. The procedure for adopting a child itself takes time, since this procedure is quite lengthy.

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Participation of social educators in adoption

Social and pedagogical activities during the adoption of a child play a huge role in the process of finding and forming a new family for the child. A social educator involved in the adoption process performs a huge range of tasks, beginning with the popularization of adoptive families and ending with supervision of their life activities.

Social-pedagogical activities also include the work of other specialists, including social workers, psychologists, doctors and others, who are coordinated by a social teacher. Its activities can be divided into several stages, including:

Selection of adoptive parents: survey of potential adoptive parents, collection of important information regarding health, financial status, religious views, motives, analysis of their answers, creation of databases, systematization of collected information, assistance in collecting documents, etc.
Mediation between a child and a potential adoptive family visiting an orphanage: monitoring communication, collecting the necessary information, analyzing the behavior of the child and parents, determining whether it will be difficult for these particular spouses to adopt children.
Collection of data about the adoptive family: analysis of information provided by potential adoptive parents, checking its accuracy together with relevant specialists.
Introductory course for parents: development of an introductory course program, including theoretical training and a practical part (several days of internship in the institution where the child is kept).
Transfer of a child to a family and further supervision: development of in-depth training programs, identification and resolution of problems that may arise in a foster family.

Features of adoption

It is important to understand the difference between adoption and foster care.

The law does not provide for any payments to adoptive parents other than a one-time benefit. The size of the state's financial participation is limited to benefits, as for ordinary families. Children in such families are full members with the right of inheritance.

To support children for whom, due to their legal status, the adoption procedure cannot be applied, social policy provides for the institution of a foster family.

In this case, the foster parent, under an agreement that determines the period of the child’s stay in the foster family, in addition to benefits, also receives an allowance with accrual of length of service. At the same time, the educational institution conducts continuous monitoring of the child’s condition and development.

Legal consequences of adoption

The legal consequences of adoption are enshrined in Art. 137 of the Family Code, according to which adopted children and their offspring in relation to adoptive parents and their relatives and vice versa acquire mutual property and non-property rights and obligations established by law in relation to blood relatives. In fact, they become close relatives with all the ensuing consequences.

This applies not only to personal and property rights and obligations established by family law, but also established by other branches of law - civil, labor, pension, inheritance.

According to Part 3 of Art. 125 of the Family Code, the rights and obligations of the adoptive parent and adopted child arise from the day when the corresponding court decision takes legal force. It is important to understand that, according to Part 6 of Art. 137 of the Family Code, such consequences occur regardless of whether the adoptive parents are registered as the child’s parents or not.

Rights and responsibilities of adopted children

According to the general rule established by Part 2 of Art. 137 of the Family Code, upon entering a foster family, a child loses any rights and obligations in relation to his biological parents, acquiring a similar amount of rights in relation to members of the foster family. Moreover, if the adoptive parent is one person, at the request of the biological mother or father, such rights and obligations can be preserved if the adoptive parent is a man or a woman, respectively.

In addition, in some cases, such rights and obligations may be preserved in relation to biological grandparents, as indicated in the court decision.

In addition, according to Art. 138 of the Family Code, an adopted child may retain the rights to a pension or benefit, the reason for which was the death of a biological parent.

It is worth noting that after adoption and the acquisition of the scope of rights in relation to adoptive parents, it necessarily includes inheritance, housing and other property rights guaranteed to blood relatives, as well as the rights established by Chapter 11 of the Family Code. As for responsibilities, they arise only upon reaching adulthood: including the obligation to support and participate in additional expenses of needy parents.

Rights and responsibilities of adoptive parents

As has already been determined, family legal relations between the adoptive parents and the adopted child arise from the moment the court decision enters into force. From this day forward, adoptive parents have all the responsibilities regulated by Chapter 12 of the Family Code, including:

financial support of the child;
ensuring his right to education, housing and other fundamental rights;
full-fledged education of the child;
protection of his rights and legitimate interests;
caring for physical, mental, moral and spiritual development.

As for the rights of adoptive parents, they are identical to the rights of blood parents: until the child reaches the age of majority, adoptive parents serve as his legal representatives, after which they retain all the property rights of close relatives.

Court decision establishing adoption. Underwater rocks

In the author’s practice, cases of adoption of children can be confidently divided into two large groups: “with problems” and without. Most often, consideration of an adoption case follows the second path, and the decision is made without any delays within the time limits provided for by the Civil Procedure Code, to the great joy of the adoptive parents. Often the consideration of such cases takes a matter of minutes: no one is against it, the conclusion of the guardianship and trusteeship authority is positive - three minutes in the deliberation room, and the decision is announced.

At this point, many adoptive parents tend to fall into an altered state of consciousness, a kind of “fainting,” as soon as they hear the words that the application for adoption has been granted. However, alas, at this moment everything is still just beginning.

The fact is that a court decision on adoption, despite its simplicity from a legal point of view, must be prepared very carefully. Not only without obvious errors, but also contain all the information that will allow it to be implemented in practice.

After the court decision on adoption enters into legal force (for this category of cases - 10 days after the court decision is made in final form), this decision must be submitted to the registry office for registration of a civil status act, and for drawing up a new record of the child’s birth, or for entering changes to the existing one.

According to our practice, approximately a third of all court decisions on adoption do not meet these requirements.

So, what should be indicated in the court decision, and what to do if its content does not meet the necessary requirements.

First of all, the court decision must contain an indication that the adoption of the child by the adoptive parent is established . For example, like this: “To adopt Galina Ivanovna Petrova, born on December 5, 2005, by the spouses Tatyana Nikolaevna Chekmareva and Oleg Gennadievich Dronov.”

A mere indication that the application for adoption is being satisfied (or the author has even encountered the word “claim” in relation to this category of cases) is not enough, since an indication of who exactly adopted or adopted whom is required.

Since the terms “adoption” and “adoption” are used interchangeably in the law, the indication that a boy was adopted or a girl was adopted should not affect the substance of the decision, although, of course, they are a clerical error.

The court decision, and preferably in the operative part, must contain information about the act record drawn up initially about the birth of the child, as well as the date and place of birth of the child being adopted.

As a rule, this information is indicated by the court in the first line of the operative part of the decision: “To adopt Natalya Igorevna Mashkova, a native of Moscow, born on November 15, 2014 (birth certificate dated 01/09/2015 No. 6 in the Tver department of the Civil Registry Office of the Moscow Civil Registry Office) by Olga Raspopova Sergeevna."

When resolving the issue of adoption, the court must also resolve a number of issues:

on assigning a new name (last name and patronymic) to the child; if this is not in the court decision, the previous name, surname and patronymic are retained;
about changing the date and (or) place of birth of the child (“by default” they do not change);
on the entry of adoptive parents as parents of the adopted child in the birth register (if not specified in the decision, information about the biological parents is retained);
on the preservation of the rights and obligations between the child and relatives on the part of the deceased parent (without indication in the decision - they are not preserved; an extremely rare situation);
on preserving the relationship between the adoptee and one of the parents (relevant for stepfathers and stepmothers; “by default” - not preserved).

The decision of each of these issues is the right, not the obligation of the court. Moreover, in a number of cases, failure to indicate this or that circumstance in the court decision leads to the fact that old data and information are retained.

Therefore, it is especially important to check that in the court decision (and specifically in the operative part) the circumstances necessary for the adoptive parent are noted (and unnecessary ones are not noted).

The assignment of a new name to the child must be directly indicated in the operative part. If you strictly follow the instructions of the law, the child’s first and last name are assigned by the court, but the patronymic is determined on the basis of the patronymic of the adoptive parent or, in the case of adoption by a single woman, on the basis of the patronymic of the person indicated by her as the father of the child (Clause 2 of Article 134 of the RF IC ).

Thus, the court decision may indicate, for example, this: “Assign the adoptee the surname Pavlov, the first name Nikolai, determine the patronymic Stepanovich.”, or this: “Assign the surname of the adopted person Korolenko, the first name Viktor.” It makes no sense to necessarily indicate the child's patronymic when adopted by a single woman, since she can write down the child's “father” as a person with any given name and patronymic.

We especially draw your attention to the fact that the court cannot independently decide the issue of changing the child’s name; this requirement must be contained in the adoption application submitted to the court.

A change in the place and date of birth is made by the court only at the request of the adoptive parents, that is, such a request must be contained in an application to the court (Article 135 of the RF IC). It is important to pay attention to the fact that the law associates changing the date and place of birth with the protection of the “secret of adoption” and is not motivated, for example, by the convenience of the adoptive parents, therefore, it is illogical, as some adoptive parents do, to indicate in the application the fact that you do not plan to keep the secret of adoption. In any case, you may have such plans, of course, but it is better if this happens after the court’s decision.

Changing the date of birth is possible only for a child up to one year old (as an exception, if you can provide the court with justification for such a change - and after a year), but within three months (even if you really ask for it - no more), and has no practical meaning for those couples and single mothers who did not simulate pregnancy.

Changing the place of birth is more common, since it allows you to create a new record of the birth of a child in the place where the adoptive parents live. And this is more convenient both for them (in case of loss or damage of the birth certificate, there is no need to travel or write to a distant land) and for the child (there is no need to surprise officials in the application forms with some exotic place of birth). The court decision must indicate a change in the place of birth to the locality requested by the adoptive parent (for example, to the one in which the adoptive parent lived at the time of the child’s birth, not necessarily to the current one). In practice, there are rare cases when there are problems with indicating the name of a locality, however, you need to pay attention to what exactly the court indicated. For example, indicating the place of birth “Moscow” without indicating the “city” can cause problems when registering with the registry office, since, in essence, it does not fully describe the locality. The correct entry in the decision would be: “Change the place of birth of the adopted person to the city of Istra, Moscow Region.” According to the rules of the Russian language, it is necessary to decline the name here, however, it is important that the name still be there, albeit in the nominative case: “Change the place of birth of the adoptee to “Moscow city.”

It does not matter whether the court indicates the obligation of the registry office to draw up a new birth record if the child’s place of birth changes, or does not indicate such an obligation - due to the requirements of Art. 44 of the Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status”, such a record is compiled (or not compiled) at the request of the adoptive parents. A court decision on this is not required and a court decision cannot revoke this right.

The most common mistake when making a decision, and before that when filing an application in court, is the failure to indicate the requirement to register the adoptive parents as parents of the adopted child. The court cannot do this on its own, without the request of the applicants. And even in the presence of such requirements, the author was faced with the fact that the judges considered the answer to this question “obvious” and did not include it in the decision, although this is directly stated in the law (Article 136 of the RF IC).

When compiling a birth record, the registry office must indicate the last name, first name, patronymic, place of residence of the parents, their date and place of birth, as well as citizenship. Considering that the registration record in the case of adoption is changed by a court decision, this information must also be indicated in the decision. Some judges indicate them in the reasoning or establishing part of the court decision, while others, and we believe that this is a more correct path, indicate them in the operative part. But, in any case, this information, about the parents’ place of residence, citizenship, place and date of birth, must be contained in the court decision.

Thus, the court decision may be written, for example, like this: “Record Utkina Margarita Vsevolodovna, citizen of the Russian Federation, born on March 5, 1976, a native of the city of Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region, living at the address: Moscow, Trifonovskaya street, building 19 apartment 2 as mother, Utkin Nikolai Gennadievich, citizen of the Russian Federation, born on September 16, 1971, native of the city of Magadan, living at the address: Moscow region, Volokolamsk, Privokzalnaya street, building 16 - as the father of the adopted child in the birth certificate."

When adopted by a stepfather or stepmother , it is necessary that the court decision contains an indication of the preservation of rights and obligations with the father or mother of the adopted person. In the absence of such an indication, the legal relationship between parent and child will be terminated.

It is described as follows: “To preserve personal property and non-property rights and obligations between the adoptee and his mother, Olga Petrovna Orlova.” It is not necessary to indicate complete information about the mother here, since the act record in relation to her has already been drawn up, and the registry office does not need to make changes to it.

Please listen carefully to the entire text of the announced part of the decision. And if you “heard a typo” or, on the contrary, did not hear something important, tell the court about it immediately (after the announcement of the decision, of course; you cannot interrupt the court).

What to do if you discover that some information necessary to execute the court decision on adoption is not in the decision? If the court “forgot” to consider any of your demands (for example, about assigning a new name to the child, about registering the adoptive parents as parents), you must apply for an additional decision before the deadline for appealing the decision expires . Such a statement will be considered and the decision will be supplemented. The essence of the requirements is something like this: “I ask you to make an additional decision to satisfy my request to register me as the mother of the child being adopted.”

Considering that the court does not have the right to go beyond your requirements on its own and “guess” what you need, if you did not initially make demands to change the child’s name, his date and place of birth, as well as to register you, the adoptive parents, as Parents, in most cases, cannot do anything. The child’s name can be changed in another, non-judicial manner, provided for by law for changing the name. But nothing can be done about the place and date of birth, as well as with registration as parents - these issues are resolved only when adoption is established, and if you “forgot” about them, good luck.

If the court made clerical errors or typos in a key part of the decision (for example, your last name was incorrectly indicated in the operative part, or some data that will be required for registration in the registry office), you must submit a corresponding application to the court that made the decision. Correction of clerical errors and typos is also possible in a court decision that has already entered into force. For example, a request could be as follows: “Please correct the typo in the operative part of the decision by indicating instead of the incorrect date of birth of the adoptee (April 4, 2015) the correct one is April 4, 2013.” It makes no sense to correct typos in the reasoning part of a court decision, if the court decision has been executed, whether your name was written correctly in the middle of the text or not is indifferent to history.

I hope that in your case, everything will be perfect the first time. And if not, you know what to do.

Anton Zharov, lawyer, specialist in family and juvenile law, head of the “Team of Lawyer Zharov”

02/23/2015 (updated 04/03/2018)

Problems with adoption

Many potential adoptive parents are interested in the question of whether it is easy to adopt a child, although for most this question seems rhetorical. The procedure for accepting children from an orphanage into a family is associated with a complex of problems of both a legal and moral-psychological nature, so this process certainly cannot be called easy. Even a superficial study of the situation with adoption and the subsequent life of the adoptive family allows us to identify the characteristic problems of adopting children and divide them into several categories. Among them:

Legal problems are usually associated with collecting the necessary package of documents, going through many bureaucratic procedures, obtaining an opinion from the guardianship authorities, and legal proceedings.
Moral and psychological problems are associated with the adoptive parents exaggerating their strengths, non-acceptance of their decisions by loved ones, the inability to see their own child in the adopted child, public censure, fear of genetic inclinations, and uncertainty.
Health problems: when adopting a child under 2 years of age, parents should take into account that there is a possibility that the child may develop congenital diseases and pathologies, as well as various types of mental and physical disorders.
Problems with adaptation: according to psychologists, the older the adopted child, the more difficult it is for him to get used to the new environment and adoptive parents. But parents may experience exactly the same problems.

Of course, these are not all the problems that may arise for adoptive parents. We must remember that adoption is first and foremost a sacrifice.

Procedure for adopting a child

Transfer of a child to another family for upbringing is possible after candidates successfully complete each of the following points:

Preparation of necessary documents;
Applying to the authorized departments with a statement of desire to adopt a child;
Conducting a comprehensive check of applicants-adoptive parents;
Acquisition of the status of potential adoptive parents by candidates;
Visiting an institution where children without parental care live;
Getting to know the children and identifying the pupil in respect of whom the adoption procedure will be carried out;
Obtaining information about a specific pupil of a social institution from the administration;
Establishing close contact and trusting relationships with the child;
Obtaining permission from biological parents or other interested parties (if any and known);
Familiarization with the child’s opinion (if the student is 10 years old or more);
Preparation of documents for court hearings;
Involvement of third parties in the case:

Representative of the guardianship and trusteeship authority;
Prosecutor;
Guardian;
Teacher;
Biological parents (only if they retain full parental rights in relation to the adopted child and are ready to take measures to defend them);

Consideration of the case on the merits and the issuance of a final verdict, which comes into force on the day such a decision is made;
Transfer of adoption documents by the court to the registry office.

Adoption procedure

The procedure for adoption is determined by Art. 125 of the Family Code, according to which it is carried out by a judicial authority upon the application of persons wishing to take a child from an orphanage. According to Art. 269 of the Civil Procedure Code, as a general rule, such an application is submitted at the place of residence or location of the child. The documents specified in Art. 271 of the Civil Code, as well as the conclusion of the guardianship authorities on the observance of the interests of the child. In addition to the adoptive parents, guardianship authorities and representatives of the prosecutor's office participate in such a meeting.

According to Art. 273 of the Code of Civil Procedure, judicial consideration in special proceedings is carried out behind closed doors. Based on the results of the consideration, the court either satisfies the applicants’ request for adoption or refuses to satisfy it, making an appropriate decision. If satisfied, the court is obliged to send the corresponding extract to the registry office, since the adoption is subject to state registration.

The publication “Adoption Procedure” will tell you more about this.

Additional documentation for the application

a copy of the adoptive parents' birth certificates (for an unmarried adoptive parent);
a copy of the marriage certificate;
consent of the second spouse to adopt the child; in the absence of a spouse - confirmation of termination of family relations or proof of separation for more than a year, other evidentiary documents;
results of medical examination of potential parents;
certificates from the place of employment: the position and income are indicated; copies of income statements;
a document confirming the rights to use housing;
confirmation of the citizen’s registration as a candidate adoptive parent.

All documentary materials for the case are submitted in duplicate

The form of the adoption meeting is closed. In addition to the procedurally involved persons, a child may be present at the meeting if he is over 14 years old , and interested parties, among whom may be biological parents.

By granting the applicants' request, the court recognizes them as the child's legal parents with new rights and responsibilities. The court decision is sent to the registry office within three days .

Child from maternity hospital

If the child is in a maternity hospital, adopting citizens write a petition to the court for a speedy decision, since the review procedure usually lasts 10 days .

In addition to permission for guardianship, the list of documents in this case is also supplemented by a certificate from the maternity hospital. This allows you to pick up the baby immediately after the court decision. The maternity hospital issues a postpartum certificate, with which the parents go to the registry office for a birth certificate.

Changing a child's personal data

As a general rule, all personal data of an adopted child is retained. However, Art. 134 of the Family Code allows adoptive parents to ask the court to assign their last name to the adopted child, as well as the given name. Quite logically, many are interested in whether the middle name changes when a child is adopted: it is determined by the name of the adoptive parent or the name of the father named by the adoptive mother. If the child has reached the age of 10, changing this data is possible only with his consent.

Moreover, to maintain the secrecy of adoption, the law allows adoptive parents to ask the court to change the date of birth within three months. According to Art. 135 SK, as a general rule, this is possible only in relation to a child under the age of 1 year. In addition, a change in place of birth is allowed.

More information about this procedure can be found in the article “The Secret of Adoption.”

Requirements for adoptive parents

For citizens who decide to become adoptive parents, desire alone is not enough. Authorized state bodies establish a number of requirements for each applicant:

Having full legal capacity;
Providing reliable information about yourself.

A special commission carefully examines the compliance of a potential adoptive parent with the following criteria:

Level of physical health;
Psycho-emotional characteristics;
Moral and ethical side;
Addiction to bad habits;
Level of material wealth.

The final verdict establishing permission to adopt a child or refusal to transfer a minor to another family is formed by a representative of justice. When examining the circumstances of the case, the court gives preference to candidates from among:

Close relatives of the adoptee;
Couples raising their own young children;
Persons in an official marriage union.

The adoption procedure differs from the guardianship/trusteeship design precisely in the body confirming the legal rights in relation to the child. Adoption is allowed only on the basis of a decision of a judicial authority; guardianship or trusteeship is carried out on the basis of an act of the body of the same name (guardianship and trusteeship authority).

What is illegal adoption

Illegal adoption is a very common phenomenon in Russia, which is caused by the complexity and duration of the bureaucratic procedures established by law. For such actions Art. 154 of the Criminal Code provides for criminal liability in the form of a fine, compulsory or correctional labor, as well as arrest. In fact, any adoption that does not comply with the procedure established by law can be classified as illegal.

Following judicial practice, this can be considered:

permission to adopt brothers and sisters by different parents;
giving priority to foreign citizens if it is possible to transfer a child for adoption into a Russian family;
entering deliberately false information into the conclusion of the guardianship authority;
omission or reporting of false information that impedes adoption regarding the identity of the adoptive parents;
ignoring the consent of parents, guardians, trustees.

In addition, according to Art. 126.1 of the SK, intermediary activities for the adoption of children in the Russian Federation are unacceptable. This is considered to be any activity of third parties aimed at selecting and placing children for adoption in the interests of persons wishing to become adoptive parents. Depending on the actions taken, such mediation may lead to both administrative and criminal liability.

Basic legislative provisions, as well as current innovations in the issue of adoption

In addition to the Family Code of the Russian Federation with the adopted amendments, the basis of the legislative framework for adoption issues is formed by the following regulations:

Civil and Civil Procedure Codes of the Russian Federation;
Law “On Guardianship and Trusteeship” (Federal Law No. 48-FZ of April 24, 2008);
Law “On the support of orphans and children without parental care” (Federal Law No. 315-FZ of December 17, 2009) as amended;
Law “On the State Data Bank of Orphans and Children without Care” (Federal Law No. 44-FZ of April 16, 2001);
Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1716 of December 30, 2017 “On changes in some government acts on the issues of placing orphans and children without parental care in families”;
Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and other legislative acts.

Since the beginning of 2021, Government Decree No. 1716 has optimized the package of necessary documents for the adoption of children, thanks to which the adoption procedure has become somewhat simplified.

In addition, from 2021, families who support adopted children may additionally qualify for additional monthly financial assistance from the state.