CHINA ADOPTION RULE CHANGES CONFIRMED TODAY

Basically, now we can't adopt from China even if we wanted to. We don't have $80,000 in net worth, I have a BMI (Body Mass Index) over 40, and I don't turn 30 until March 29th (so I'd only have a tiny window of one month to submit my dossier to MAYBE qualify under the old rules). I'd have to continue to put more money in my 401K, pay off those student loans, and loose a handful of BMI points before I'd qualify for a China adoption under the new rules. I'm a little emotional about the announcement, as many adoptive parents around the word with red threads to China are. In a way though, I'm almost relieved. I've been worrying about qualifying to adopt from China after rumors about the BMI requirement. I'm glad that we decided on Taiwan BEFORE this was announced. That way WE CHOSE Taiwan and not China, not that China rejected us. Haha, China! I'm glad to hear that I'm too poor to choose China. It sucks, but it would really suck to sit at home upset because we just didn't qualify because of my weight.

The following text was posted on the RUMOR QUEEN website tonight that I've been reading faithfully, sometimes multiple times a day. If you want to check it out, the address is http://chinaadopttalk.com/. Rumor Queen, you are so cool. You keep all of these pre-adoptive parents in the know with rumors on what's going on with the CCAA from adoption agencies all over the world.

The CCAA yearly meeting with all of the agencies happened last night (U.S. time). We have information out of the meeting from one agency, a reputable agency that is trustworthy. I will feel better when we have this coming from more than one agency, but I have no reason to doubt the information that this agency is giving. They give information from their notes of the meeting and state that the CCAA will be issuing a formal statement at a later date. Again, it will be interesting to see what other agencies have to say about the meeting and compare their notes.

They state that the number of dossiers is 2 times the number of children the CCAA has to place. The wait time from LID to referral will not shorten at this time and it may get longer. They note that the CCAA does not define what they mean by longer. I note that they don’t say the number of dossiers is twice the number of children, but twice the number of children the CCAA has to place - I believe we are still talking about paper ready children and not total children.
They state that the following requirements will be in place for all dossiers accepted after May 1, 2007. Read that again - for all dossiers accepted after that date. If your dossier is in by that date then presumably you are okay under the current rules.

The new rules are stated to be:

Married couples only. No singles. Agencies may continue to submit singles dossiers within their 8% constraints until May 1, 2007 and then the CCAA will not accept any more single dossiers.
Married couples must be married over 2 years if there are no previous marriages. If there are previous marriages then the present marriage must be over 5 years. However, no more than two previous marriages will be allowed (it is unclear if this is two per person or two per couple)

Each parent must be 30 to 50 years old. No parent can be outside of this range. Upper limit can be 55 for a family in the waiting child program (and that “can be” kind of looks like it’s going to be on a case by case basis, not an absolute, but it’s hard to tell).

The CCAA wants healthy parents - no infectious disease, no mental disease (including depression or anxiety), no blindness, and no serious disease or disability. There is a note about waiting to see what the CCAA’s formal notice says, which sounds to me like they hope there will be more information in the formal notice about these things. There is another note that cancer was not specifically mentioned.

Both parents must have a BMI under 40.

At least one parent must have a stable job. Income requirement is $10,000 per family member including the child to be adopted.

Family’s net assets must be over $80,000

Each parent must have a high school education or higher.

No more than five children in the home including the child to be adopted. The youngest child in the home must be over 1 year old. Exceptions will be considered for the waiting child program.
No criminal record. There is a note about the CCAA not elaborating so we will again have to wait to see what the formal notice says.

The CCAA fees are also changing - going from $410 to $620.

There are also some notes about the Waiting Children’s Program. It sounds like there will be a category between the current NSN and SN categories for children with low birth wait and developmental delays. Fees will be the same as for the NSN program but the wait time will be closer to the SN program.

Also, they will be launching the internet waiting children project in February. The CCAA is still working on the project and more details will be available later.

And last but certainly not least - the CCAA will be launching a new email communication tool that will be open to agencies that want to pay a fee to participate.