China
Guatemala
Russia
Vietnam
Brazil
India
Ethiopia Who is eligible to adopt from Vietnam?
What is the IAD?
How much does it cost?
How long does it take?
How old are the children available for adoption from Vietnam?
Where do the children live?
Are the children in Vietnam healthy?
What kind of information will I receive with the referral?
Does the medical information need to be reviewed by a doctor?
Do I have to travel?
How long do I have to be in Vietnam?
Who will help me while I am there?
Who will make the travel arrangements?
Can you adopt more than one child at a time from Vietnam?
What humanitarian work does FTIA perform in Vietnam?
Do you have FTIA employees working in Vietnam?
In what provinces will you be working?
Does FTIA work with a facilitator in Vietnam?
How are adoptive families matched with referrals?
Can I choose the gender and age of the child I want to adopt?
Can I choose the province my referral comes from?
Whom do I talk with if I have questions throughout the process?
Married couples and single women are eligible to adopt from Vietnam. Single women must be 25 years of age to start the process as required by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). According to Vietnam, parents must be at least 20 years older than the child being adopted.
Any restrictions of prospective adoptive parents adopting internationally are set forth by standards of the foreign country. Some country standards are unwritten. When you submit your application to FTIA, we will thoroughly review your information in regard to standards of Vietnam. If there is a concern or a problem, an FTIA representative will contact you immediately to discuss the problem and help you know what your options are.
The International Adoption Department (IAD) is a division of the Ministry of Justice in Vietnam. The IAD functions to facilitate the international adoption process in Vietnam. The IAD officials oversee and implement procedures for foreign agencies to conduct adoptions in Vietnam. In addition to proposing international adoption policies, regulations and procedures, IAD officials also review adoptive families’ dossiers. Essentially, officials of the International Adoption Department work to preserve the integrity of international adoptions in Vietnam.
Please refer to the “Costs” section on the Vietnam Adoption Home Page on FTIA’s website or in FTIA’s International Adoption Guide for a detailed explanation.
FTIA considers adoptions occurring in 3 steps.
Step 1 will encompass the majority of your wait time for a referral. During this time families will work to complete their Pre-Approval – home study and CIS Approval (I-171-H). Once this is received at FTIA you will be placed on the waiting list for a referral. At this time, our best estimate is that you may receive a referral within 15-22 months after the submission of your home study & I-171H approval. When FTIA expects that you will receive a referral (within 3 to 6 months), you will be notified to begin compiling your dossier.
Step 2 includes the time it will take families to gather and authenticate documents to complete the dossier. Generally, it takes 3 – 4 months to compile a dossier. Some families are able to complete their dossier in as quickly as 2 months, while other families need more time. Government agencies, both local & state governments and the Vietnamese Consulate or Embassy, can also impact how quickly a family is able to complete their dossier. Upon submitting your dossier, you will ideally receive a referral within 3 – 6 months.
Step 3 is the time from notifying the Vietnamese adoption officials of your decision to accept a referral until you are allowed to travel to bring your child home. This timeframe is approximately 4 - 6 months.
Healthy infants (5 months and up) through 15 years of age are available for adoption. Special needs children may also be available.
The children live in child care centers or orphanages. If the child you are referred comes from Quang Binh or Bac Lieu, it is possible that your child might be able to be in foster care. A child is typically brought to foster care after a family has officially accepted a referral and after the orphanage director agrees to foster care. In Thanh Hoa, children must stay in the childcare centre until after the Giving and Receiving Ceremony is complete.
Generally the children adopted from Vietnam are healthy. Developmental delays are fairly common for institutionalized children, while long-term medical issues are not as common. There is always the possibility of unforeseen or undetected medical or developmental issues and families should be prepared for such. If we are able to bring a child to Hanoi for foster care, we will also take your child for another medical exam in a Hanoi medical facility prior to your travel to Vietnam. You will be apprised of this medical exam and we will send you all the details.
With the referral information, you will typically receive photos of the child, a medical report, lab results for sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B, and VDRL, the Orphanage Director's decision, a police report, and the Abandonment Media Announcement or Relinquishment paperwork (as applicable). Whatever referral or additional information FTIA receives, we give to you.
FTIA does not require that the medical information be reviewed by a doctor. However, because FTIA is not in a position to offer medical advice, we do recommend that you obtain a medical opinion from a doctor familiar with international adoption.
Adoption is a personal, life-long decision. We want all families to be comfortable with the decision to accept the referral and complete the adoption. A list of International Adoption Medical Experts is available on the FTIA website.
Yes, at least one parent must travel to Vietnam to finalize the adoption. We strongly recommend that both parents travel to see the child's birth country and experience the culture. Another benefit of both parents traveling is that the child will automatically become a citizen of the United States upon arrival in the U.S. If only one parent travels, a Power of Attorney is needed, giving the traveling parent permission to appear before provincial and U.S. Consulate officials on behalf of the non-traveling parent. Also, if only one parent travels, the child will not automatically become a U.S. citizen and parents will need to apply for their child's citizenship upon returning to the U.S. and completing their state's re-adoption or registration of adoption process.
The length of trip to Vietnam will generally be approximately 14 days. Length of the trip depends on how quickly the provincial authorities prepare final paperwork and the availability of appointments at the U.S. Consulate.
FTIA has several full-time in-country staff members working in our Vietnam program. All of our in-country staff members are Vietnamese citizens who will assist adoptive families during their travel to Vietnam. They will accompany you to all of your appointments in Hanoi as well as to the Province for your Giving and Receiving ceremony. In-country staff members are bilingual and speak English.
Families will make their own flight itineraries for their trip to and from Vietnam. When it gets closer for you to travel, you will fill out the travel information sheet (available on My FTIA) indicating your preferences for hotel accommodations. Based on your preferences, the FTIA in-country staff will make hotel reservations for you and also arrange your in-country travel.
Only in the situation of siblings or twins being available would a family be able to adopt more than one child at a time. If you are interested in adopting multiple children at once, you should communicate to FTIA your preference to adopt siblings or twins. You will also need to advise your home study agency of this intention. The home study agency can address your preference for more than one child in your home study report. You also need to indicate your intention to adopt more than one child on your I-600A application to Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) at the beginning of the adoption process.
FTIA’s agency policy is that we will not place 2 unrelated children in a home at the same time. When families want to adopt two unrelated children at one time, and they feel that they have a strong case for us to consider, they may submit a written request to our Executive Director or our Director of Programs for consideration.
Historically, FTIA’s humanitarian aid work in Vietnam has supported children by providing aid in the form of orphanage construction and support, medical surgeries, educational materials, and other projects. We are currently supporting a humanitarian aid project in central Vietnam to build a village/school to help orphaned children and other children in desperate economic circumstances, as well as providing monthly support to different orphanages for food, supplies, school books, etc. FTIA anticipates becoming more involved in performing humanitarian work with child care facilities and additional projects now that our adoption program has re-opened.
Yes, we have several full-time FTIA staff working in our Vietnam office. FTIA's in-country staff members are Vietnamese citizens who oversee the day to day office operations, work with orphanage officials, and assist adoptive families with their travel while in Vietnam.
FTIA is currently working with the Child Care Centers/Orphanages in three Vietnamese provinces. One province is located in the northern region of Vietnam (Thanh Hoa), one is in central Vietnam (Quang Binh), and one is in the southern part of Vietnam (Bac Lieu). We anticipate adding more provinces over the coming months.
No, FTIA does not work with a facilitator in Vietnam. FTIA is licensed by Vietnam’s International Adoption Department (IAD) as a child-placing agency.
Adoptive families and referrals are matched by FTIA. We match children with families based on the order they submit their Pre-Approval packet, their preferences concerning number of children, gender, age, and health status, as well as the family's home study approval for child identified.
You can give your preference for the gender, health status, and the age range of the child you wish to adopt. FTIA cannot guarantee that you will receive your exact preferences, but we will do our best to match you with the child you have specified in both your application and home study.
If you are interested in receiving a child from a specific province, please make that wish known to us. Again, FTIA cannot guarantee that you will receive your exact preferences. By choosing the province your child comes from, you may experience a different wait time for referral than those families who do not have a specific province identified.
When you submit an application to FTIA you will be assigned a Vietnam coordinator to work with you. If that coordinator is not available, families are always welcome to contact any member of the FTIA Team with questions. When families are in Vietnam, an in-country coordinator from our Hanoi office will assist you. Families are always welcome to call or email FTIA. We will do our best to answer your questions and find you the help that you need through the adoption process.
