The Adoption Process in Kazakhstan

Once we receive travel dates and have visas in hand, then we expect to probably fly Lufthansa through Frankfurt, Germany to Almaty, Kazakhstan. A driver and interpreter will pick us up from the airport and we will stay in a hotel that first night. The next day we will meet with the directors who live in Kazakhstan and they will go over all of the information that we need to know. The directors in Kazakhstan are very well respected and they take care of all travel and lodging arrangements along with all of the required adoption paperwork. By the end of the meeting, we will know whether we are flying or driving to the particular region where the adoption will take place. Once we are in the adoptive city, a local coordinator will handle our day to day plans. Since our adoption agency is quite large, we will probably be sharing the coordinator, interpreter, and driver with other families.

Once we arrive in the adoptive city, we will go to the baby house (orphanage for children under 2 years of age) and meet with the house director. The baby house director will introduce us to the child at this time and hopefully we will get some time in the play room this first day. From this point on we can expect to visit the baby twice a day, each time for two hours. The standard adoption process then goes as follows: we visit the child for 14 days, then we petition the court for a hearing 7 days later, next once the judge makes a decision, we wait 15 days for the ruling to go into effect, finally we proceed over the following week with completing all of the necessary paperwork and return to the American embassy in Almaty where we receive approval to leave Kazakhstan with our new child. Although we have described the usual process, every region is different so we have to expect these time estimates to possibly change dramaticly. Once we receive a letter of invitation to a specific region, we will have much better idea of what process to expect. The biggest decision that we will have to make is whether to return to the United States for two or more weeks after the judge's decision is made. We are certainly leaning towards staying in Kazakhstan for the entire time, but if we end up in a region where the judge's decision does not become final for 30 days, then we might consider returning home for that period of time.

There are many good blog links posted on our home page and these websites definitely demonstrate the differences between all of the regions, but the best part by far is how all of the adoptive families remark how greatly the caregivers love the children. Hopefully this information helps you all understand the process that we will be going through. We appreciate the love and support that we are receiving from all of our family and friends and feel free to ask us questions if there is something that you want to learn more about.