Good and bad news
SW is coming to visit us tomorrow for our last interview yeah!! that's the good news. The bad news is there is some changes to the adoption process. I took this from an adoption forum
"As expected, China announced changes to their Intercountry program at the meeting of agency representatives on December 8, 2006. The changes take effect on May 1, 2007 so will not affect those of you who have dossiers logged in already and are unlikely to affect you if your dossier will be logged in before May 1, 2007. While not exhaustive of what might come out in the formal statement of changes (other changes will be procedural and related to Hague and changes to the Special Needs Program), the main points are as follows:
"As expected, China announced changes to their Intercountry program at the meeting of agency representatives on December 8, 2006. The changes take effect on May 1, 2007 so will not affect those of you who have dossiers logged in already and are unlikely to affect you if your dossier will be logged in before May 1, 2007. While not exhaustive of what might come out in the formal statement of changes (other changes will be procedural and related to Hague and changes to the Special Needs Program), the main points are as follows:
New Eligibility Criteria to adopt from China, effective May 1, 2007:
· Applicants must be a married couple between 30 and 50 years of age to adopt through the regular program and between 30 and 55 years of age to adopt through the special needs program.
· Applicants must be married for a minimum of two years before applying. If either has been previous married, the current marriage must be of 5 years duration. Individuals with two previous marriages will be ineligible to adopt.
· Applicants must be free of communicable disease. There will be additional detail about health criteria but applicants will need to be able-bodied individuals free of mental health issues. (Determining what constitutes "free of mental health issues" will probable be the most challenging aspect of this.)
· Applicants must have a Body Mass Index (BMI - a ratio of weight and height) under 40.
· Applicants must have a minimum family income of $10,000 (USD) per family member including the child to be adopted.
· Applicants must have net assets of at least $80,000 USD
· Applicants must have a minimum of a high school education.
· Applicants can have no more that five children in the home including the child to be adopted. The youngest child in the home must be over one year of age at time dossier is submitted.
· Applicants must be free of Criminal Records. This is not a new requirement but its inclusion here suggests more stringent rules regarding past convictions.
· The Application fee is changing from $410 to $620 USD (probably effective January 1, 2007)."
Looking at those changes, the only thing that worry us the most is the BMI. I guess we still have some times to work on it before we submit our dossier to China.
