International Child Adoption from Russia

This page will give you a break down of the types of information you would need to adopt a child from Russia and will take you to more detailed sources of information elsewhere in the site.

Provides you with a general outline of the international adoption process in Russia and the steps for adopting in most foreign countries, including Russia.

The Russian government has no marital restrictions on adoption and both single persons and couples can adopt Russian children. In practice, in recent years, single males have not been allowed to adopt in Russia while single females have had no trouble at all.

The time will vary from as short as 4 months to longer than a year, with the "average" being approximately 9 months.

Adopting a Russian child can be a bit more complicated than adopting a child from other foreign countries. The process can be viewed and broken down into several parts.

Two groups of children are typically available for adoption, babies relinquished in the hospital at birth to orphanages, and older children who are removed from their families because of neglect.

Adopting more than one child from Russia is possible. Aside from sibling groups, families can request twins, or two unrelated children.

Two trips to Russia are required to complete an adoption. Please take note that in both the first and second trips, the adopting family will have very little, if any, control over how the process works once you step off the plane.

Total expenses will include your registration, application, and home study fees. Additionally, there may be a home study review fee as well as a program fee, agency service fee, foreign fee, Dossier fees for notarized, authenticated, and apostilled documents, INS fees, state criminal, child abuse, and FBI clearances, Russian governmental fees, orphanage fee, post placement fees, travel fees and more. Your total estimated cost, including travel, should end up being approximately $25,000 to $35,000.

Provides several resources and miscellaneous information about an international adoption of a Russian child.

Support Groups are available to all adoption families.  This can be a wonderful resource for you and your child.