China's New Regulations

Information from our agency.

The CCAA held their annual meeting for foreign adoptionrepresentatives in Beijing on Friday Dec. 8th, 2006. *** had a representative at the meeting and was able to gather even more clarification from our representative. The CCAA will be sending all agencies an official, detailed explanation of many of these issues soon. However in the meantime, we wanted to pass on some basic information below about the items that were discussed. Most of these new changes/requirements do not go into affect until May, 2007, but we want to be sure that all new families contracting for this program meet these regulations since they go into effect before any new China adoption could be completed. For example, starting now no single applicants can be accepted by *** for the China program.
Single Applicants: No new single applicants will be allowed to adopt. All single applicants who have already contracted with us have sent their dossiers to China and will be allowed to finish their adoptions. Sadly, China will no longer be allowing single parent adoptions. However, we have many other fantastic programs that are very open to single parent adoptions.
There will be some upcoming change in China fees. We have offered less of a fee increase to families who contract with us before the end of the year. Starting with January 1, 2007, the new fees will be in effect but, luckily, they are not large increases so those who contract after the last day of December, 2006, will still not have a large increase. Plus, China remains a wonderful choice for adoptive families. The total cost of a China adoption is still remarkably less than most other programs. Once the CCAA sends us the official letter outlining every detail of these new regulations, we will make the China Program Description changes and we will be sure to pass all of that along to you as soon as it is available.
The current wait is 15-16 months from the time your dossier arrives in China until you receive your referral. The CCAA said that families should expect the wait to remain about the same for the next twoyears. The number of adoptive families continues to increase. The current ratio of families to ready children is 2:1. Do remember that it is only a matter of a few weeks after you receive your referral untilyou travel to bring home your child. The CCAA did not give any more in depth reasons for this extended wait. They did not clarify what they mean by ready children

NONE OF THE ITEMS BELOW AFFECT DOSSIERS ALREADY LOGGED IN (LID) WITH THE CCAA but will affect all new contracted families who have not sent their completed dossiers to China yet.
Items Effective January 1, 2007:
1. CCAA Fee: The CCAA will be raising their processing fee starting with dossiers received after January 1, 2007. Families who have contracted with us by no later than December 29, 2006, but have not had their dossier sent to China before January 1, 2007 will only be asked to cover the hard cost of this increase ($210 increase). The China Wire fee will be $875 (originally $665) for families who have contracted with us but have not had their dossier sent to China before January 1, 2007.
2. CCAA shipping: The CCAA has changed the way that agencies send documents to them, requiring more packages to be sent, which in turn results in higher/more shipping costs for dossier documents.
3. CCAA website: The CCAA website will no longer have all information available to the public. (what - I can't check it 5 times a day to see if referrals have been sent or if we are out of the matching room????--suck!)Agencies will have to pay to enter the part of the site that shows the status of documents and other information. *** will be paying to access the website as well as conforming to these new shipping regulations.

Due to these increased operational costs, the China Wire fee will increase to $1100 (from the past $665) for families who contract with us after January 1, 2007. As always, we will continue to pass along any vital information as it becomes available and confirmed.

NONE OF THE ITEMS BELOW AFFECT DOSSIERS ALREADY LOGGED IN (LID) OR THOSE THAT WILL BE LOGGED IN BEFORE 5/1/2007.
Items Effective for dossiers received by the CCAA after May 1, 2007:
Married couples: * Must be married for more than two years. *No more than 2 divorces are allowed. *If divorced previously, the couple must be married for more than 5 years.
Age: Both couples must be over 30 years old and under 50 years old.
Health: *Each individual must be "totally healthy". Clarification regarding specific health issues will be sent to all agencies. *Each individual must have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 40 We will be sending out all of the new "totally healthy" regulations as soon as we have them. Here is a link that allows you to figure your own BMI. http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/. (Remember that if you are already LID this does not apply to you. We included this in case you are curious about BMI.).
Income: *$10,000 income per family member, including the child to be adopted.(same) *$80,000 net worth is required for each family. (new regulation)
Education: Each parent must have at least a High School education..
Children in the Home: *No more than 4 children already in the home. (same) *Youngest child must be at least 1 year old. (new)
No history of alcohol abuse or drug use.

ONE MORE REMINDER THAT THESE NEW REGULATIONS (except for the "nosingles") DO NOT AFFECT DOSSIERS ALREADY LOGGED IN (LID) OR THOSE THATWILL BE LOGGED IN BEFORE 5/1/2007.