|
Post by Kim on Mar 14, 2007 13:51:51 GMT 10
Firstly are you looking at Local Adoption or InterCountry Adoption ? (LA) Local Adoption is different to (ICA) InterCountry Adoption. Firstly the costs for Local adoption are normally a great deal less than with InterCountry adoption which can cost up to $30,000. The best place to look for information on both topics is with your local Human Services department, such as DHS for Victoria and DOCS for NSW. Both departments have a website where you can get information on what you need to do. For both LA and ICA you will need to either register your interest first or ask to go to the next available information session. From there you will be told what to do next. There are also options such as Permanent Care and Foster Care. Permanent Care, is where the child / children live with you as their guardian, its a little like adoption, the child becomes part of your family permanently, but you are just not given parental rights for that child. Foster Care, is where you look after a child / children for a certain amount of time and reasons vary as to why a child may come into foster care. Reasons are not always bad.
|
|
|
Post by samnangmeh on Mar 16, 2007 15:57:41 GMT 10
Kim - you do pretty much get full parental rights in Permanent Care. The only thing is that the child's surname cannot be legally changed (but they do recommend letting the child use your surname in most cases, even if it's not on paper) and they must go to several access visits per year with the birth family. Apparently you are free to take the children on trips O/S etc as long as you bring the child back for access visits.
The main difference between LA and PC is that PC children have been removed from their families, rather than relinquished.
Oh, I should mention I'm in Victoria. It may be different in other states.
|
|
|
Post by Kim on Mar 17, 2007 12:23:48 GMT 10
Hi Jeanette, I guess what I was trying to get across was that even though Local Adoption and Permanent Care are similar in the fact that the child / children are permanently in your life, there are differences in that in adoption, Adoptive parents are legally given all parental rights and the birth parents parental rights are completely severed, where as Permanent Care birth parents parental rights are not completely severed and permanant careers are given only Guardianship rights. I am not always good at explaining things the way they should be explained I'm really glad that you are here to help explain it better, especially since you are doing Permanent Care Thanks.
|
|
|
Post by flossyinoz on Apr 19, 2007 13:49:03 GMT 10
And permanent care is a construct only existing in Victoria, not in other states, they have only long term fostering. This is why it is a bit of a legal jungle as there is no federal law. For example if you want a passport for the child you need the parents' signature even though you have guardianship rights, at least that is what I understood.
Flossyinoz
|
|
|
Post by chinababe on May 19, 2007 17:52:42 GMT 10
mmm! Flozzy that's an interesting point about the passport thing because if we do PC for a second child I would like them to be able to travel with us to China when we go back their to maintain our first child's links.
Would there be a way around this with the family law court?
Jac
|
|
|
Post by jeannene on Jul 17, 2007 15:38:00 GMT 10
Hi All I recently decided with my husband to attempt to adopt from overseas. We are in Victoria and have registered our interest with Department of Human Services in May 2007. At this stage the Dept cannopt advise a date for information session to even begin the process. Does anyone know why or how we can at least get started on this roas. I understand it will be a process. Thanks for any assistance Jeannene
|
|
|
Post by Kim on Jul 17, 2007 17:23:18 GMT 10
Hi Jeannene, My hubby and I started the Inter-Country Adoption (ICA) process in October 2005 and stopped at January 2007 because for us even with the paying as you go it was a little too much for us. We looked at ICA in June 2005 and had to wait until October 2005 to get into an info session where we could actually start the whole process with DHS. But the provess is probably longer now due to more interest in ICA than in Local Adoption or Permanent Care. In the time I waited between June and October, I took the time to learn about the adoption process here in Victoria and one of the bests ways was to join Adoption support Groups and as we knew right from the start that we wanted to adopt from China we were able to join a couple of China Adoption groups. There were no groups like this one about at the time. I also started to learn about China, the country, the history and the people so I would have a better understanding. I have a great book collection on China now We did of course consider other countries and looked into them just to make sure that China was the one for us. As I have a step mother and sister who are from the Philippines so that was one of the countries that we did look as well. Do you know which country you are interested in Adopting from? Kindest Regards, Kim
|
|
|
Post by flossyinoz on Jul 17, 2007 17:23:50 GMT 10
Jeannene,
I went on the Department homepage and this it what I found:
"Expressions of Interest to the Intercountry Adoption Service Please call (03) 8608 5700 or email ICAS@dhs.vic.gov.au if you would like to receive information about adopting a child through the Intercountry Adoption Service.
Information sessions are currently under review. However, your expressions of interest will be recorded according to date of receipt. You will then be advised of the outcome of the review via email.
Fill in Expression of Interest form below and copy it into the email you send. The form requests one email address only but two may be submitted."
I assume that they just have too many applications at the moment and waiting periods in international adoption have been getting longer and longer. So they may currently review their processes or they just have not made plans for a next info session yet. But I suspect the first reason.
I know it does not help a great deal and is extrmely frustrating, but I am afraid you won't have a choice but to wait until they contact you, but it can't hurt to ask them from time to time what is going on.
Flossyinoz
|
|
bblessed
Newbie
Mum to 4 and Hoping for more!
Posts: 24
|
Post by bblessed on Jul 18, 2007 12:12:16 GMT 10
Hi Jeannene, I'm also in Victoria and am at the beginning of the process. We waited quite a few months to get into the info sesisons and while waiting, I read as much as I could find on ICA. I'm really glad I did - because it meant at the info session I knew a lot of what they were saying already, and was able to "digest" the info given mroe quickly and ask "deeper" questions when Question time came around. So instead of the info sesion being the first time I heard a lot of the basic initial info - it was stuff I already knew, and I was able to use the opportunity to ask some questions about being further down the track.
Keep checking back on the website - I also found that for some time the date of the next info session was not given....and then one day it popped up and the places were filled very quickly. Or alternatively - send in the Expression of Interest any way, and that way you are assured a place as soon as they arrange the next one.
If you really want to get a head start - I guess you could start gathering appropriate documents, country information for your "Country Project" and so on, so it's all on hand, ready to go when you get up to that bit!
All the best,
|
|
|
Post by chinababe on Jul 18, 2007 18:03:51 GMT 10
Yes that's one thing about ICA and ICAS that still bugs me to this day........is for PC or LA they have the info sessions in public view on their website but when it comes to ICA you don't get any information about info sessions until you request it.
China
|
|