Kazakhstan: Country and Program Overview

Partners for Adoption does not currently have a placement program in Kazakhstan. Currently, we offer placement programs in Russia and Ukraine. However, we have relationships and experience working with the most highly regarded placement agencies and are able to recommend an excellent placement agency for almost any country from which you choose to adopt.

Kazakhstan is a former Soviet republic located in Central Asia, south of Russia and northwest of China. The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to sharp economic declines in Kazakhstan which contributed in turn to the large number of children abandoned and living in orphanages. Although the economy has improved in recent years due to economic reform and foreign investment, the number of children living in institutions has grown.Over 4,000 Kazakh children have been adopted by families in the U.S. since 1997.

Kazakhstan requires that adoptive parents prepare a dossier before they are invited to travel and given a referral of a child. The dossier must be translated and certified by the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington DC prior to being submitted to the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Kazakhstan in Astana, the entity that controls and maintains the databank of all orphaned children in Kazakhstan.

According to the Kazakhstan law, orphaned children are required to be registered with the Ministry's Database for at least six months before they are eligible for international adoption. The MOE determines what region the adoptive parents would travel to adopt from based on availability of children.

After a region is determined, the Regional Department of Education issues an invitation for parents to travel. Adoptive parents do not receive any information on a child prior to their travel. However, parents are not invited to travel unless there is a child or children available for adoption who match their gender and age preferences. Once the family arrives to the region, they are provided pictures and medical information on a child prior to meeting the child. If a family cannot find a child in one region, then the Ministry of Education will issue permission for the family to go to another region.

Children Available

The children available for adoption from Kazakhstan are seven months old and up at the time of referral. Toddlers, older children, and special needs children are also available. The majority of children in Kazakhstan are Kazakh, who have ethnically Asian features. Kazakhs are the natives of Kazakhstan while almost all Caucasians residing in Kazakhstan now are the transplants from Russia. Several decades ago, when Kazakhstan was a part of the Soviet Union, a large number of Russians moved to Kazakhstan due to open borders and tight social and economical relationship between Soviet Union and all its Soviet Republics, including Kazakhstan. Thus, this explains why even after separation of Kazakhstan from Russia, there is still a significant presence of Caucasian race among Kazakhstan population

Parent Requirements

Married couples and single women may adopt from Kazakhstan. Adoptive parents over the age of fifty might not be eligible to adopt an infant.

Travel

Parents may choose to take one trip to Kazakhstan, which would be seven to eight weeks in duration, or they can take two separate trips. If they choose the latter, the first trip is for approximately four to five weeks and the second trip, which takes place several months later, is for less than a week. Kazakhstan law requires that prospective parents have at least 14 days personal contact with a child, in the child's town, before submitting an adoption application to the court. This is the reason for the extended duration of the first trip.

Timelines

The amount of time from submission of dossier to invitation to travel is approximately three to four months for a boy, eight to twelve months for a girl.

Fees

Approximate total cost for an adoption from Kazakhstan is $30,000 to $40,000. These fees include your home study, travel, stay in country, agency fees, foreign program costs and legalization of paperwork.