Adoption

[HR Guy]

I did a search but found most topics to be quite old so i thought i would ask again. We are both Australian's, myself on an employment pass, my wife on dependant, in Singapore (been here for 5 years). We have 2 children but are considering adopting a child. Probably looking for a child over 1 years old. Nationality is not really an issue for us. A few questions:
1. I saw a previous post that if we are not PR's, we may not be able to adopt whilst living in Singapore?
2. As with our other 2 kids, can we apply for Australian citizenship as children of ours?
3. Is it a long and expensive process?

Thanks anyone who has some insight.

[Scummy Mummy]

You need to check this out with the Australian High Comm, but I'll tell you what I know.

(1) You USED to be able to adopt a non-Singaporean child. The High Comm would issue a letter guaranteeing citizenship so Singapore would let you bring in. I understand that the High Comm will no longer issue a letter in a form Singapore finds acceptable, so essentially now you can only adopt a Singaporean child.

(2) You need to then apply for an adoption visa. Lots of bureaucracy, and note that child has to pass medical. I spoke to a guy at the High Comm (we are now Aussie PR so have to comply with Aussie requirements for subsequent child) and they're quite strict e.g. might reject child with cleft palate.

(3) As a foreigner you're at the bottom of "official" lists, so you'll probably need to go through an agent.

If you're wanting to adopt an older child (yoiu say over a year) make sure you do lots of reading on attachment issues as it's not necessarily straightforward. If you PM me I can recommend some books.

[aussiemum2boys]

You are still able to adopt both non-singaporean & singaporean children whilst living in Singapore.  There are actually alot of Aussie expats in Singapore that have adopted.  There is actually a yahoo forum group for australianexpatadoption.  Good place to start to get alot of the current info, especially from those that have gone through the process recently.

Good luck - adoption was the way we formed our family, and is best thing we ever did.  

EDC

[Scummy Mummy]

Having had another quick look at the Aus High Comm website, I think you're OK to adopt a non-Singaporean child IF you legalise the adoption in the country of birth before bringing the child into Singapore.

The problems arise if if you bring in a child from e.g. Malaysia/Indonesia who you intend to adopt in Singapore.  (1) Aus High Comm says adoption must be legal in country of birth (and you need to fulfill residence requirements in Malaysia/Indonesia, so t won't be) (2) MCYS need this letter from High Comm to issue dependant's visa (which has been a problem for about a year, unless they've sorted out the diplomatic wrangle).

I suggest you call High Comm and MCYS and get all this from the horse's mouths.

[scoobydoo]

Is it difficult for foreigners to adopt Singaporean children?  What countries have people tended to adopt from?  I've met people with Chinese and Malaysian adopted children, usually quite young.  Where else?

[Scummy Mummy]

The only "difficulty" is finding a child as social services (MCYS) prioritises Singaporeans. If you go through an agent it can be very quick, depending on luck. We waited about 4 months (which actually was quicker than we'd planned), I've heard of people getting babies almost immediately.

Whether you can adopt from other countries depends on your nationality. The Singapore Government will only allow you to bring in a foreign child for the purposes of adoption if your country issues a letter guaranteeing citizenship. So if you're British, for example, you're restricted to Singaporean children as the UK government don't guarantee citizenship, it's at the discretion of the Home Secretary. Also for some countries, e.g. UK, the adoption has to be legal in the country of birth. We couldn't have adopted a Malaysian baby, for example, as to be legal there we'd have to live in Malaysia.

If you're thinking of adopting:

(1) Find someone with the same nationality as you who's done it recently, get their advice.
(2) Double check all the requirements with MCYS and your embassy as they change frequently. Preferably get confirmation of what they tell you in writing.

[HR Guy]

These are all really helpful replies. Its funny that its harder to adopt and help a child then just going an getting pregnant but thats a whole other debate i wouldn't want to start. I will definitely check out the places mentioned. We have no problems getting pregnant (first time for both much to my disappointment....) but i would love to help a child that needs a home. That is also why we though about above 1 years old as they would know what is going on and most people would like babies. Once again thank you ladies.

[aussiemum2boys]

We know An Australian couple who have adopted from Cambodia.  The adoption has to be done in Cambodia, and then apply for residency in Singapore before you can apply for an Aussie Visa.  They used an agent to make sure there would be no hiccups with the child, and their son is an absolute little cutie.  I have also been told that if you are willing to adopt a child of mixed race there may be more options. 

Good Luck!

EDC

[scoobydoo]

Are there any American's on here that have adopted recently?  We have one adopted child but that was several years ago in the US so its quite different.

[Scummy Mummy]

There's a yahoo group, something like Singapore Adoption Support. Might find Americans through that.

[scoobydoo]

Scummy Mummy-do you know anything about the general issues with adopting local children-mainly I"m thinking health.  For example, in India, a social worker at an orphange said that they were  seeing really low birth weight and premature babies as the norm.  that of course has a whole list of ramifications of its own.  I'm just wondering if there are things that characterize local adoptions here.

[Scummy Mummy]

I personally know of about 8 recent local adoptions and have probably heard of another 20 through friends. Never heard of anything unusual. I have heard of 2 cases where the baby appeared to be a Hep B carrier but when a more accurate test was done it was all OK. These were all through agents.

If you DO manage to get a child through MCYS, there may be health issues there, simply because you're at the bottom of the list as an expat. YOu may be offered the kids no one else wants. For example, we were asked if we'd accept a child with a cleft palate.

[midwife]

Scummy Mummy-do you know anything about the general issues with adopting local children-mainly I"m thinking health.  For example, in India, a social worker at an orphange said that they were  seeing really low birth weight and premature babies as the norm.  that of course has a whole list of ramifications of its own.  I'm just wondering if there are things that characterize local adoptions here.

Personal observations here:

Ethnic indian babies, born to UK born mothers, are often smaller at birth than caucasian babies.  Average weights for caucasian babies was 7-8lb, average for an ethnic indian baby 5-6lb.  This was so even when the mothers were of similar size ...  The indian babies were generally no less healthy than their caucasian counterparts, although there were sometimes feeding problems for the 36-38 weekers, which is usual in a lot of babies born at that gestation.

[agelimit]

My husband and I are also thinking of adoption - is their an age limit - I know that in the UK you have to be under 40 - is it the same here?

[Scummy Mummy]

My husband and I are also thinking of adoption - is their an age limit - I know that in the UK you have to be under 40 - is it the same here?

I personally know of several people in their 40s, including us, who've adopted, but I think there may be age limit imposed by the Chinese Government (50?) if you adopt from China. When MCYS interview you they wat to know who will care for the child if you die before he/she is grown. In our case this was relatives who are 50, so we had to have a fall back position of "younger" people too! In the end it was rather like specifying the royal family line of succession!

And thinking about what "midwife" says, that's true. Mini-S was 7lbs at birth which is average for UK babies but large for Singapore. And he's a higher percentile on the Singapore growth charts than the WHO ones.