International adoption
International adoption is a type of adoption in which an individual or couple residing in one country becomes the legal and permanent parent of a child who is a national of another country. International adoptions are often, but not always, also transcultural or interracial adoptions.
The laws of countries vary in their willingness to allow international adoptions. Some countries have established rules and procedures for international adoptions, while other countries expressly forbid it. Other countries, notably many African nations, have residency requirements for adoptive parents that in effect rule out most international adoptions. Where permitted, prospective adoptive parents must meet the legal adoption requirements of their country of residence and those of the country whose nationality the child holds.
Process overview
The requirements to begin the process of international adoption can vary depending on the country of the adoptive parent. For example, while most countries require prospective adoptive parents to first get approval to adopt, in some the approval can only be given afterwards.Some describe orphanages as "nurseries" or "children's homes" because in numerous instances children's parents have not consented to the adoption of their children. Often, an "orphan" is a child whose living birth family has consented to an adoption. It is not uncommon for a parent to put a child in a "nursery" temporarily while they deal with poverty or work, or want to take advantage of the educational opportunities in the orphanage/nursery. Because orphanages/nurseries often provide education, they function more like subsidized boarding schools.
Prospective parents of international adoptees wait to get a referral for a child, which often means waiting until one of these parents of the children in nurseries/orphanages consents to the adoption. Although bureaucracy is often blamed for the slow process of adopting a child, often what is to blame is that the demand for children in the less-developed world exceeds the supply. A senior advisor on child protection with UNICEF, Alexandria Yuster, argues that international adoption is now more about finding children for first world parents than finding homes for children. Susan Bissell, also of UNICEF, said that she does not oppose international adoption, but believes that it is preferable for abandoned children to be taken back by their previous families and advises governments to provide small monetary incentives to families who are willing to do so.
In the United States, typically the first stage of the process is selecting a licensed adoption agency or attorney to work with. Each agency or attorney tends to work with a different set of countries, although some only focus on a single country. Pursuant to the rules of the Hague Adoption Convention the adoption agency or attorney must be accredited by the U.S. government if the child's country is also a participant in the Hague Convention. If the child's country is not a participant then the rules of the Hague do not apply, and the specific laws of the child's and adoptive parent' countries must be followed. Even when the Hague does not apply, a home study and USCIS approval are requirements. The Hague is discussed below.
A dossier is prepared that contains a large amount of information about the prospective adoptive parents required by the child's country. Typically this includes financial information, a background check, fingerprints, a home study review by a social worker, report from the adoptive parents' doctor regarding their health, and other supporting information. Again, requirements will vary widely from country to country, and even region to region in large countries such as Russia. Once complete, the dossier is submitted to the appropriate authorities in the child's country for review.
After the dossier is reviewed and the prospective parents are approved to adopt, they are matched to an eligible child prospective parent). The parent is usually sent information about the child, such as age, gender, health history, etc. This is generally called a referral. A travel date is typically provided at a later time in most adoptions. However, some countries might also provide a travel date at the time of referral, informing the parents when they may travel to meet the child and sign any additional paperwork required to accept the referral. Some countries, such as Kazakhstan, do not allow referrals until the prospective parent travels to the country on their first trip. This is called a "blind" referral.
Depending on the country, prospective parents may have to make more than one trip overseas to complete the legal process. Some countries allow a child to be escorted to the adoptive parents' home country and the adoptive parents are not required to travel to the country of their adopted child.
There are usually several requirements after this point, such as paperwork to make the child a legal citizen of the adopting parents' country or re-adopt them. In addition, one or more follow up visits from a social worker may be required—either by the placing agency used by the adoptive parents or by the laws of the country from which the child was adopted. In the United States, citizenship is automatically granted to all foreign-born children when at least one adoptive parent is a U.S. citizen, in accordance with the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. Depending on the circumstances of the adoption, the grant of citizenship takes place upon the child's admission to the U.S. as an immigrant or the child's adoption in the parent's home jurisdiction.
Policies and requirements
Adoption policies vary widely by local and national jurisdiction. Policies may include:- restrictions on eligibility for adoptive parents, based on factors including financial status, educational level, marital status and history, the number of dependent children in the household, sexual orientation, weight, psychological health, and ancestry.
- rules around the age of the child
- regulation of fees and expenses
- what information will be shared and how it will be shared. The reliability and verifiability of the information received is also variable.
- travel requirements and permissions: most countries require adoptive parents to travel to the child's birth country to bring the child home; however, some countries allow the child to be escorted to the receiving country.
Major origin and receiving countries of children
Major origin countries
According to a 2013 study, 6 countries were the major origin countries for almost a decade in the period 2003–2011. Yet there has been slight change in other countries sending most children.China has long been a major sending country in international adoption, but as of 2025, the number of international adoptions has drastically reduced due to an improved Chinese economy and more restrictive laws prohibiting international adoption by non-relatives. Concerns about abuses with regard to international adoption have been raised for years with regard to China.
Origin countries of United States adoptions
In 2019, the top sending countries for children adopted by US citizens were China, Ukraine, Colombia, India, South Korea, Bulgaria, Haiti, and Nigeria. These statistics can vary from year to year as each country alters its rules; adoption from Ethiopia used to be common, but international adoption was banned in 2018 by Ethiopia. There were only 11 adoptions from Ethiopia in 2019, compared with 177 in 2018 and a high of 313 in 2017, when Ethiopia was No. 2 on the list. Romania, Belarus, Russia and Cambodia were also important until government crackdowns on adoptions to weed out abuse in the system cut off the flow. Abuses with regard to adoption in some Eastern European countries in the 1990s led to bans on international adoptions in those countries in the 21st century. Several countries, including certain major sending countries have suspended or limited inter-country adoptions to US for various reasons.Major receiving countries
A 2024 analysis found that the top 10 receiving countries from 2004 to 2021 were:| Rank | Country | Total adoptions 2004-2021 |
| 1 | USA | 187,578 |
| 2 | Italy | 47,287 |
| 3 | Spain | 37,688 |
| 4 | France | 35,353 |
| 5 | Canada | 21,648 |
| 6 | Sweden | 10,113 |
| 7 | Netherlands | 9,253 |
| 8 | Germany | 7,228 |
| 9 | Norway | 4,706 |
| 10 | Denmark | 4,623 |
A related 2009 study found that the top five countries accounted for more than 80% of overall adoption from 1998 to 2007, and the US accounted for around 50% of all cases.
Trends in receiving countries
United States
Although historically the United States has been among the top receiving countries, numbers have declined dramatically; in 2004, 22,884 children were adopted internationally, while only 2,971 were adopted in 2019. This is attributed to a combination of factors including increased bureaucracy due to implementation of the Hague Convention guidelines, new legal restrictions in origin countries leading to a reduction in the number of children that can be adopted, increased cost, corruption in some foreign courts/orphanages, and the policy of many countries to only allow the adoption of children with significant special needs.European countries
Since the 1970s, European countries such as Spain, France, Italy, and several Scandinavian countries have experienced a considerable increase in the demand for adopted children from non-European countries Studies have suggested various causes for this increase, including:- a trend in the Global North of delaying conception of the first child, which increases the risk of reduced fertility and the demand for adoption.
- reduced numbers of children available for adoption within the same country.
- a decrease in the causes of abandonment and increased economic development.
- the implementation of social policies in favour of families
- reduced stigmatization of unmarried mothers
- an increase in national adoptions in the main origin countries.
- increased regulation and new policies adopted by some countries of origin aiming at regulating the outflow of children and preventing child trafficking.