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Country Status
Bulgaria is
currently
OPEN
to domestic and intercountry adoptions.
For a list of Joint
Council agencies working in Bulgaria, please consult our
Country Programs page.
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June 2, 2010
The below information was developed
in part through the efforts of the U.S. Consular Office in
Bulgaria. Our thanks to all Consular Officers for their work on
behalf of the children of our world.
Bulgaria ,
located in south-eastern Europe, is a developmentally transitional
country focusing on committing to improving child welfare programs
within the country. The Bulgarian government is taking numerous
steps to move forward in this commitment in the hopes of improving
social services for children. In 2008, there were five US adoptions
from Bulgaria, in 2009 that tripled to 15, and this year Bulgaria is
on track to triple the numbers again to 45.
Government Initiatives:
By 2025, the Bulgarian government has committed to closing all
institutions in the hopes of providing families to all children. To
reach this goal, the Family Code, which provides guidelines for
adoption,
has been modified to clarify and accelerate the process of both
domestic and international adoption. These modifications to the
Family Code will hopefully result in a significant expansion of the
adoption register this fall. Bulgaria expects the number of U.S.
adoptions in 2011 to be around 100, and possibly higher. The
government is also taking steps to revise the Child Welfare law in
the hopes of enhancing family preservation efforts and foster care.
Domestic Adoption:
Domestic adoption is increasingly popular in Bulgaria; however,
placing children from the Roma minority or children with special
needs has been a challenge. It is because of this that children
available for international adoption are always over two years old
and usually have special needs. There are currently 1,110 dossiers
from prospective adoptive parents on the waiting list. In practice
this means that a family may wait for up to 2 years. With this being
said, the willingness of American families to adopt special needs
children has allowed many families to successfully complete an
adoption within months of joining the register.
Adoption Resources:
The Ministry of Justice has established a website that provides
information on children with special needs. Families interested in
adopting these children can have their ASP submit a request directly
to the Central Authority for possible matching. The Central
Authority reviews dossiers in the order they are received and tries
to find at least three possible matches to submit for review. In the
past, The Central Authority places a strong emphasis and looks
closely at the home study to determine the best family for the
child. If interested in adopting from Bulgaria, the Central
Authority asks that PAPs provides very specific information in
regards to what type of special needs child they would be willing to
be matched with.
Bulgaria is consistently reviewing the adoption process to ensure
that it is in the best interests of the child, and providing strong
procedural safeguards and a commitment to addressing the needs of
children.
July 18, 2006 -
Despite persistent
rumors to the contrary, there is no moratorium on Bulgarian
intercountry adoptions. Last year, the U.S. Embassy in Sofia issued
29 IR-3 and IR-4 visas to Bulgarian orphans adopted by American
families, and is currently averaging 1-2 visas per month.
The Bulgarian
Parliament passed a new adoption law in July 2003 in order to comply
with the requirements of the Hague Convention. The Ministry of
Justice (MOJ) started implementing the law in September 2004. In
accordance with this law, the MOJ started entering into a special
register all Bulgarian children available for foreign adoption. A
Bulgarian child may be entered into the register only if three
Bulgarian families have declined to adopt the child. The adoptive
parents whose adoption dossiers have been accepted by the MOJ are
entered into another register. An Adoption Council at the MOJ reviews
the parents' documents and offers them a child for adoption.
Currently, there are about 120 children available for foreign adoption
and 1200 adoptive families from Europe and North America wishing to
adopt Bulgarian children. According to the MOJ, 80% of the adoptable
children have serious medical conditions. It is important to note
that the prospective adoptive parents' applications are not processed
in chronological order. Priority is given to adoptive parents willing
to adopt a handicapped child. Furthermore, the Adoption Committee is
very strict in keeping to the principle that it must find proper
parents for a child in need and not a proper child for parents wishing
to adopt in Bulgaria.
Availability of Children for
Adoption
Recent statistics reflect the
following patter for visa issuance to Bulgarian orphans adopted by
American citizens:
The statistics for fiscal year 2005
show that the Embassy in Sofia issued 29 adoption visas. This number
reflects the current trend of steady decline of foreign adoptions in
Bulgaria. If this trends continues, we may expect less than 40 visas
issued to Bulgarian orphans in FY 2006. The government of Bulgaria is
pressed by the European Union to reduce the number of foreign
adoptions and to find alternative methods of placement of orphans and
neglected children. According to the most recent information from the
Ministry of Justice, there are only 171 children children available
for foreign adoption and about 1400 families and single parents from
North America and Europe on the waiting list.
Approximately 80 % of the children
have medical conditions. Please note that the parents’ applications
are not processed in chronological order. An adoption Council at the
Ministry of Justice reviews the applications and matches children to a
proper family. Priority is given to parents wishing to adopt a child
with medical condition.
July 6, 2004 - Joint Council recently sent
a letter
to the Bulgarian Minister of Justice asking for
clarification on a number of issues. For a copy of
the letter, click
here.
In July 2003, the Bulgarian Parliament passed a new adoption law. This
law requires adoptive parents to deposit their applications directly at
the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) using the services of an American adoption
agency licensed in Bulgaria or a Bulgarian agency accredited by the MOJ.
As of February
9, 2004, there are 11 Bulgarian adoption agencies approved by the MOJ.
One American adoption agency has been licensed so far. For a list
of adoption agencies licensed in Bulgaria,
click here for the U.S. Embassy in Sofia's website.
July 2003
Recently there has been quite a bit of activity in
Bulgaria regarding the laws pertaining to adoption. The Bulgarian
Family Act has been rewritten and international adoptions are affected
by the new laws. Here is an outline of the recent events:
The new law was written, sent to the Parliament,
approved by the Parliament and passed on to the President.
On June 27 the Family Act was vetoed by Bulgaria’s
President Georgi Parvanov and returned with suggestions for revisions.
“According to President Georgi Parvanov, the controversial motion will
limit the selection of Bulgarian adopters thus creating more
opportunities for foreigners willing to parent Bulgarian children. The
head of state insisted that the parliament should protect the rights
of indigenous adopters more efficiently”. (Source: Novinite.com –
Bulgarian News)
On July 3 the law passed again through the legislative
committee of the Parliament and they had not taken into consideration
any of the President's objections.
On July 10: The Parliament voted and overrode
President Parvanov's veto. “Some 148 Bulgarian MPs from the ruling
majority Simeon II National Movement, the junior coalition partner
Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and the rightist opposition
Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) cast their votes against the veto.
Only 18 MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) backed the
president's veto”. (Source: Novinite.com – Bulgarian News)
The next step is that the law will be published in the
Register (this makes it official) in approximately 10 days and three
days after publication, it will become law. How long it will take them
to implement the changes it only conjecture at this time.
Two reported changes are that:
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The revised law also strips parents who leave their
children in social institutions for more than six months of their
parental rights and bans mothers from rendering consent on the
child's adoption earlier than fourteen days following the delivery.
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Bulgarian authorities are to issue the passport of a
child who will be adopted abroad within three days after such
request is filed.
More will be known once the law is published and
translated.
Click here for the U.S. Department of State's website on Bulgaria.
Click here for the Embassy of Bulgaria's website page on
International Adoption.
Click here for the U.S. Embassy in Sofia's information page on
International Adoption.
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