Belarus Adoption

A former state of the Soviet Union, Belarus is situated east of Poland and north of the Ukraine. A nation with a long and storied history, evidence of human occupation in Belarus goes back to the early Stone Age. Belarusian publishing has an important place in history, as Belarusian bibles were some of the first books ever printed in Eastern Europe.

Belarus was harder hit by the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine than was the Ukraine itself - about 20 percent of Belarus suffered serious radioactive contamination from Chernobyl. This turned the tide of political opinion against staying within the Soviet Union, and Belarus declared full independence in 1991.

Belarus has only recently opened its doors to international adoption. All international adoptions of children from Belarus must go through the Belarusian National Adoption Center. Both married couples and single parents may adopt from Belarus. In 2002, Americans adopted 169 children from Belarus.

It is important to note that U.S. immigrant visas are not issued in Belarus. Instead, the visas are issued at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. What does this mean to you? All U.S. citizens who adopt a child from Belarus must subsequently travel to Poland to obtain their child's entry visa into the U.S.

1. First, you must find and work with a licensed adoption agency or provider that employs representatives or facilitators in Belarus. Since prospective parents are advised not to travel to Belarus until a suitable child has been selected for them, a representative in Belarus is absolutely essential in order to work through the adoption process.
2. Prospective adoptive parents must send their completed application, together with Russian language translations of all documents, to the consular section of the Belarusian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (Note: This is usually handled by your adoption agency.) The Belarusian consul verifies and notarizes the documentation, after which the application is sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Minsk.
3. The consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Minsk checks to see that the application has been verified and properly notarized and then passes the application to the Ministry of National Education in Minsk (Ministerstvo Narodnovo Obrazovaniya, or MNO).
4. The MNO reviews the application and decides whether or not to allow the process of selecting a child for the applicant(s) to go forward. If the MNO approves the request, it will then task its regional and local branches to locate an appropriate child in a Belarusian orphanage to be matched with the application.
5. The laws in Belarus state that only those children in orphanages formally described as "unadoptable" by Belarusian families can be considered for adoption by foreigners. The Government of Belarus currently defines "unadoptable" children as children with various forms of physical or mental defects (including Chernobyl-related health problems), or children who have not been placed with prospective adoptive Belarusian families. MNO officials have said that a child should be officially offered at least 3 or 4 times to Belarusian families before being considered "unadoptable."
6. If an appropriate child is located, MNO then sends its approval of the application to the executive branch of the regional government of the geographic region in which the child resides (known as the regional executive committee, or "oblaspolkom"). Belarus has six regions, centered around the regional capitals of Minsk, Grodno, Brest, Mogilev, Gomel, and Vitebsk.
7. At this point, the prospective adoptive parents will be notified by the Government of Belarus that they have been matched with a child, and that they should now come to Belarus to meet the child.
8. Upon notification by the Government of Belarus, the parents must travel to Belarus.
9. Meanwhile, in Belarus, the adoption request is reviewed by the oblaspolkom. Following approval by the oblsapolkom, the application is sent to the city district executive committee ("Raispolkom") responsible for the city district in which the child resides. The raispolkom makes the actual decision whether to allow the adoption or not (taking into consideration the recommendations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the MNO, and its superiors in the oblaspolkom).
10. Following the approval by the Raispolkom, the parents apply for their adopted child's passport with the local office of visas and registration (OVIR). The passport is issued in the child's new name if the adoptive parents wish to change the name. Upon receipt of the child's passport the adoptive parents then go to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, where the child will undergo medical and immigrant visa processing. After this, the parents can bring their adopted child to the U.S. (Note: U.S. Embassy in Minsk does not do immigration work, and is not in a position to offer medical or immigrant processing for Belarusian children adopted by U.S. citizens!)

In a Nut Shell: The Low-Down on Adopting From Belarus

• Children Available: Healthy children, from 6 months to 16 years old, are available for international adoption from Belarus. Special needs children are also available for adoption.
• Parent Requirements: Parents must be at least 16 years older than the child to be adopted. Single parents are permitted to adopt a child of the opposite gender.
• Travel Requirements: Both parents are required to travel. One trip is required, lasting approximately ten days.
• Time Frame: From the time you complete your initial application until you bring your child home averages 14 months.
• Number of Children Adopted by Americans in 2002: 169
• Additional Information: The children available for international adoption from Belarus live in orphanages. U.S. entry visas for children adopted from Belarus are issued in Warsaw, Poland (and not in Belarus). A side-trip to Poland is required to obtain your child's visa.

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Credits: Excerpted from "International Adoption Guidebook," by Mary Strickert