Agency Newsletter...

To all adoption professionals

January 2011

Dear colleagues,

We would like to familiarize you with the current condition of the adoption procedure in Bulgaria. At the end of 2009, positive changes of the Family Law which regulates the adoption process took place. The Bulgarian adoption authorities are motivated and work hard to compensate for the backlog from the previous years.
In the summer of 2009 in Bulgaria has held a regular election for a new parliament and a new government came into power. Subsequently, a new Intercountry Adoption Council was formed. The new Adoption Council started its regular sessions in October 2009. In the Bulgarian legislation governing adoption, both domestic and international, many positive changes took place. Most important of them are the following:
1. Children without explicit consent for adoption given by their biological parents became legally adoptable after a 6-month stay in the orphanage/institution. The previous long and complicated Court proceedings for inscription of the children in the register for adoption, which had taken up to 3-4 years, was removed. (Art. 93 of the Family Code)
2. After a 6-month stay in the registers for domestic adoption, the child will be automatically transferred to the register for intercountry adoption, if a suitable domestic adopter is not found for the child within these 6 months. (Art. 113 of the Family Code)
3. The previous requirement for three refusals of the child by a domestic adopter in order to be transferred for intercountry adoption was removed.
4. The age limitation (12 months) of the child to be inscribed in the intercountry adoption register was removed.
5. The number of obligatory sessions of the Intercountry Adoption Council was increased- minimum 3 per month (Art. 114 of the Family Code)
6. The criteria for selecting appropriate adopters for a particular child are objective and clearly formulated (in Art. 10 of Ordinance 13/30.09.2009): the sequence of inscription of the adoptive applicant into the Central Register and the child’s best interest. Other objective indicators are: how many applicants are applying for the same type of a child, the description of the desired child and the availability of such child: age, gender and health conditions, present in the Central Register for Children available for intercountry adoption.
7. The Bulgarian Law does not have age limitations for adoptive applicants.

The above-mentioned changes of the Bulgarian legislation are to effect the following improvements:
- More legally adoptable children are entered into the registry for domestic and international adoption.
- The age of children available for adoption is decreased.
- More effective and regular work of the Intercountry Adoption Council, resulting in faster processing of the adoption applications and matching the children with suitable adoptive parents.
- Some of the children are placed in foster homes from which they are eligible for adoption.

We believe that the international adoption process in Bulgaria is improving significantly. The international adoption policy is stable with positive perspectives.

The created objective criteria and transparent adoption procedure are preconditions for the increased number of successful intercountry adoptions from Bulgaria!

Sincerely,

Loving Heart International Adoption Agency

 

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