Home

• 1: Home
• 2: About Us
  • 2.1: History
  • 2.2: Specialists
• 3: Bulgaria
  • 3.1: The Land of Bulgarians
  • 3.2: The People of Bulgaria
  • 3.3: Bulgarian History
  • 3.4: National Uniqueness
  • 3.5: Cultural Information
• 4: The Process
  • 4.1: Requirements
  • 4.2: Children available
  • 4.3: The Procedure
  • 4.4: Adoption dossier
  • 4.5: Second Stage Paperwork
  • 4.6: Post Placements
• 5: Finances Panic Relief
  • 5.1: Introduction
  • 5.2: Adoption loans
  • 5.3: Adoption grants
  • 5.4: Employment benefits
  • 5.5: Tax Relief
• 6: Support Group
• 7: References
• 8: Abba's Kids' Homecoming
  • 8.1: Special Needs Kids
  • 8.2: More Kids
• 9: Links
• 10: Contact Us

The Procedure in the USA.

• Before starting the adoption procedure in Bulgaria, the requirements set forth by the US law should be met. The prospective adoptive parents shall obtain a favorably recommended Home Study that meets the requirements of USCIS and is prepared by licensed private adoption agency accredited under the Hague Convention or authorized state body.

• Form I-800A, Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country shall be filed with the respective BCIS office and the Home Study shall be enclosed to it.  After receiving the application USCIS will schedule fingerprinting appointments and each prospective adoptive parent and each adult member of the prospective adoptive parents’ household shall go through fingerprints check procedure before the FBI. If the adoptive parents are approved to adopt internationally, the procedure before USCIS shall be finalized with issuance of I-171H -- Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Applications for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. This form is the permission for adoption according to the national law of the adoptive parents required by the Bulgarian law for the start of the procedure in Bulgaria.

• Simultaneously with the procedure before USCIS, the adoptive parents should start gathering the documents in their Adoption Dossier. 

The adoptive parents may choose to hire an adoption agency to assist them in the procedure in the USA. It may be their Home Study agency or another one. Adoptive parents may also choose to go through the procedure without hiring additional agency while being assisted by Dreams along the process. We have a lot of experience in guiding our families through the steps of the pre-adoption procedure in the USA. We also have a Support Group of adoptive parents who have already adopted through Dreams and who are very experienced having gone through the process themselves. They would gladly help our current and future adoptive parents.

The Procedure in Bulgaria.

• To initiate the procedure of international adoption, the prospective adoptive parents should file through Dreams an Application to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) with the Adoption Dossier enclosed to it. The Application shall be processed by the MOJ within 30 days. If lapses and inconformity are found, the MOJ would give directions for their corrections and they should be dealt with within 14 days. The application then shall be processed by the MOJ within another 30 days.

• It is very important that all diagnoses and medical conditions that would be accepted in a child are listed in details in the Application. The MOJ publishes on a regular basis a list of diagnoses and conditions of special needs children on their website. So far the list has been in Bulgarian language only. It is believed that in the future the MOJ shall start publishing this list in English too. Until then, you can download the translation of the current list here. If you need help with the medical terminology or just have specific questions regarding any of these conditions, please contact us. Our pediatrician D-r Dimitrov would give you professional answers and insight. Our advice is that you state more than one special needs case that would be acceptable for you, should one of the children appear to already have been referred and thus become unavailable.

• On the grounds of the Application and the documents enclosed to it, the adoptive parent(s) shall be entered in the register of prospective foreign adoptive parents willing to adopt a child under the conditions of full adoption. This entry does not in any way approve the Application or guarantee future referral of a child. It is merely a registration of the adoptive family as eligible to adopt from Bulgaria.

• In order to be referred a child the adoptive family ought to be determined by the International Adoptions Committee (the Committee) as suitable to adopt the specific child from the registry of children who may be adopted by foreigners under the conditions of full adoption. The Committee reviews the dossiers of the children who may be adopted in the order of their entry in the register and compares them to the data of the prospective adoptive parents and to the conditions contained in their permissions to adopt a child. The Hague Convention, which is in force for Bulgaria, lays as fundamental and leading the principle of the child’s highest interest solely and only. That, on its turn, sets the needs of the specific child as leading during the review of Applications of the prospective foreign adoptive parents.

• Determination for suitability of the prospective adoptive parents for the adoption of the specific child from the register depends on a complex of factors: 1) on the characteristics stated in the Home Study and I-171H – age, sex, health condition, number of children, etc.; 2) on the expectations stated by the adoptive parents – age, sex, number of children, health condition, etc.; 3) on the assessment of the Committee regarding the abilities of the prospective adoptive parents to meet the needs of the child to the highest degree and to provide him/her with physical, psychical and social well-being. Criteria like social status and educational qualification of the adoptive parents would be applied also.

• On the grounds of the assessment, the Committee makes a decision for the referral and proposes to the Minister of Justice that the respective adoptive parent(s) are determined to adopt the specific child. The minister shall rule his decision within 14 days and, in case of approval, the referral shall be officially sent to Dreams. The referral would contain a full-length photo and written report about the identity of the child, his/her social environment, social status, personal and family development, health condition, history of his/her diseases, his/her social needs and the consents for the adoption given. Dreams shall forward the referral to you.

• In a two month term as of receiving the referral, three requirements have to be met: