ST. ANTHONYS ORPHANAGE, AFRICA

[SilverLady67]

Hello -

I just wondered if anyone had heard of this place?

Any info. greatly appreciated.

[FlyMeToDunoon]

Bump

[SilverLady67]

Anyone at-all??

I could really do with some information.

[HecatesTwopenceworth]

is this it?

that's about all that comes up when you google it.

[KristinaM]

i have seen some posts on the net suggesting that british families can adopt direct from this orphanage and not go through the legal procedures here. this is absolutely NOT the case. anyone resident in the Uk must be approved by the authorities here to adopt BEFORE they go overseas.

[Kewcumber]

Kristina is right - otherwise you will not get entry clearance to bring the child back into the country - in order to give entry clearance you must be able to show you have been legally approved in the UK first.

[SilverLady67]

Hi -

I am actually an approved adopter. What is the extra approval I need for inter country adoption, does anyone know. I have domestic approval.

We only recently thought about foreign adoption as is taking so long here.

Any ideas/thoughts?

[Kewcumber]

you need to go back to panel with a named country you want to adopt from.

You need to cover how you are going to keep the culture/language etc alive for the child in your homestudy along with a section on how you would deal with racism and possibly a few other things but thats all I recall from memory.

[KristinaM]

silverlady - i recommend that you join OASIS who will give you up to date information on the requirement for different countries and the waiting times.

There are also considerable costs involved for many countries and you would have to pay for your home study

I'm not sure that overseas adoption would be much quicker for you - once you have been back to panel to be re approved you would be at least two years for most countries.

If time is of the essence for you then you might want to broaden the catagories of children you would consider adopting here

[SilverLady67]

Hi -

I have taken all your advice on board and told the orphanage that I needed more time and they got very abrupt and accused me of being a 'time waster'

I spoke to someone at PACT this morning and they told me that the UK does not allow adoptions from their country and I think that I am going to stick with my domestic adoption that I have been approved for. I just got carried away with the whole thing - I am sure you all know what it's like when you've been waiting for what seems like forever!!

I really appreicate all your advice. Thanks a million

[KristinaM]

yes, the waiting is really hard. many of us know what its like

glad you got good advice from PACT

why don't you join your local Adoption Uk group for some moral support while you are waiting?

[SilverLady67]

Good idea, thanks

[WishingChairAgain]

"otherwise you will not get entry clearance to bring the child back into the country - in order to give entry clearance you must be able to show you have been legally approved in the UK first."

Does this apply to foreigners resident here (without indefinite leave to remain, just on a visa that they keep extending) too? Someone I know like this went to her country on holiday and is in the process of adopting there (the baby is already with her), she claims that she will be back in the UK with the child once the adoption is final. Just asked because I found it a bit hard to believe that it'll be that easy as she didn't even tell the authorities here that she intended to adopt.

Sorry to butt in to your thread by the way OP .

[KristinaM]

i would guess that if she is adopting in her country of origin then she will obtain a new passport for that child there and bring him/her into the UK on the same type of visa that she has

i assume she is adopting in that country as a citizen and not as a foreigner IYSWIM. so its not an inter country adoption, she is doing a domestic adoption and then taking the child to live overseas ie the UK

[WishingChairAgain]

Oh right thanks for that. She has been here around 15 years though still not on PR so I thought it would be as for a resident, but what you say makes perfect sense.

[KristinaM]

you are correct, in that the British adoption regulation apply to people ordinarily resident here, not just citizens. but it seems that certain people have a way of getting round these regulations, as we have seen in some high profile cases

i knwo of a smililar case, when a britsh asain couple went to a country in teh sub continent on holiday, adopted a ( non related) baby and brought the child straight back to teh Uk saying he/she was a cousin. goodness knows how they got a visa

[WishingChairAgain]

They may have got documents to "prove" that the child was a cousin, bribery is rampant in that part of the world. In the case I mentioned the couple got a birth certificate naming them as parents but when they applied for the child's visa the Brit embassy got suspicious (it was hard not to, considering the circumstances - one week after arriving in the country supposedly 8 months pregnant they had a baby and birth certificate and were ready to go home) and said they need a DNA test as they had reason to believe that the baby was not theirs. So now they are officially adopting the baby through the courts there and will resubmit the application. It's surprising how blase the embassy has been about submitting fraudulent documents, maybe it happens quite a bit.

[Kewcumber]

most countries issue birth certificates naming you as paretns (because you legally are) as well as an adoption certificate. It isn;t fraudulent, they were just hoping that the Embassy would be convinced.

Its only in Western Europe and USA that birth certifiactes note the adoption (and in UK omnly on long form birth cert)