Child and Juvenile Adoption Information Center兒童及少年收養資訊中心

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• We are the inter-country adoption agency from abroad. If we like to visit The Center to know the inter-country adoption status and cooperation in Taiwan, how should we start?

        If you’d like to visit our center and try to know the inter-country adoption status in Taiwan, you could click Contact Us and give us an e-mail, we will reply you as soon as possible and will discuss the details with you through the e-mail.

        Our center’s main task is providing the reunion service and adoption counseling services; we don’t deal with the adoption services directly, so we are afraid that we couldn’t have cooperation in inter-country adoption field. But we will provide the list of legal inter-country adoption agency for foreign agencies.

  
  
• What is The Child and Juvenile Adoption Information Center? Why was The Center established?

  The Government appoints non-government organization or company to operate The Child and Juvenile Adoption Information Center. In many developed countries, the concept of open adoption is widely embraced by the public. The adoption information is well preserved and managed based on legal acts and regulations. The Center provides reunion service to adoptee, adoptee’s biological parents or legal guardians.

  It is stated in Section 17 of the Children and Youth Welfare Law (2003) that “The central government authority shall establish or empower the children and youth welfare institutions to establish a center of adoption databank by keeping the files on the identities and health of adopting parties, adopters, and children and youth to be adopted.”

   

  
  
• How many ways can I adopt a child from Taiwan? And what is the difference?

        In Taiwan, there are two ways for people to adopt children. One is dependent adoption, which means you’ll have an adoption through an agency, the agency will let you know the whole procedure at the beginning, and there will have worker to assist you with the course. Another one is independent adoption that means you will adopt a child all by yourself.

  Usually the dependent adoption is working through agency, even the procedure is longer than independent adoption, but the services are much more secure for three sides of adoption cases. Similarly, the independent adoption is faster, but there are much more risks in the whole procedure.

  
  
• Why does adoptee seek reunion? Does he or she want to leave adoptive family?

  n          A number of unofficial statistics show that many adoptees will actively start reunion. They are curious about many questions, such as why were they adopted, how are their biological families, what is his or her life like before adoption, etc. Some adoptees will even take a step further, meeting with their biological family. Often times the less they know about their adoption, the more they long to “search for root.”

  There are adoptees that prefer remaining nonchalant attitude and don’t want to know anything about their adoption, yet some will start searching. They do it not because of hardship of current life or desire of returning to biological family. Sometimes these adoptees just want to know the truth. They long to see whose faces theirs resemble. They yearn to know what kind of family they were from. In essence, it is a search of self identification.

  n          Some adoptees search to satisfy their curiosity and to consolidate their identity, while others do it out of medical reasons. They want to learn their childhood care records, to complete family medical history, to donate their organs while knowing more about their medical condition, etc.

  n          Reasons above motivate most adoptees to reunite, but few adoptees will consider leaving their adoptive family. Some adoptees hesitate to reunite despite the yearning because they don’t want to hurt adoptive parents. Actually many adoptees will find, after reunion, that their true parents have always been there for them: It is their adoptive parents.

  
  
• What services does The Child and Juvenile Adoption Information Center provide?

  All citizens of Republic of China (Taiwan) can inquire about personal information at household registration office. For adoptees that are unaware of their own adoption, the feeling of anxiety, confusion and helplessness can be overwhelming when they learn the truth. That is why the professional social workers in The Center provide adoption records inquiry and reunion services. It is our aim to assist adoptees in uncovering the missing page of their life. People over 20 years old can make inquiry about personal adoption data legally. Clients who seek reunion may experience sadness, sense of loss or unwillingness to forgive during the process. Our professional staff will assist them in dealing with all these emotions and arranging meetings with biological family.

  
  
• I adopted a child from Taiwan years ago, and we would like to reunite for the birth family, what is the first step? How long will the reunion process take?

        If you and your child both like to reunite, you could first check the Center’s website about Reunion Service; there is lots of information which might be helped and could let you know reunion better.

  And if you are prepared to go a step further, you could fill out the application and send the application and your documents back to the Center; there will be social worker to contact with you.

  The timetable of reunion process is hard to predict, because the birth family has different situations and those differences could be variables in the whole reunion course.

  
  
• Where should I begin if I would like to adopt a child from Taiwan?

  In Taiwan, the inter-country adoption is usually dealing through agencies, and the legal agencies now only work with several countries. If you like to adopt a child from Taiwan through agency, you could try to contact the inter-country adoption agencies and see if have worked with your country.

  If you like to adopt a child from Taiwan but not through agency, the first thing you need to do is checking the inter-country adoption law in the country of your residence, make sure you are a qualified adoptive parent and are allowed to have an independent adoption from different country. Then you could try to find the child by yourself and get the agreement from the birthparent(s), after that you need to file the adoption case to the local court and follow the adoption procedures.

  
  
• Could I adopt a child from Taiwan if I’m single?

        Dependent Adoption: Each agency has different regulations of their adoptive parent. If you are single and you like to adopt a child through agency, you could check with the inter-country adoption agencies to get the information.

        Independent Adoption: The Civil Code in Taiwan are allowed single person to adopt a child, if you are single and you like to have an independent adoption from Taiwan, you need to checking the inter-country adoption law in the country of your residence, make sure you are a qualified adoptive parent and are allowed to have an independent adoption from Taiwan. Then you could try to find the child by yourself and get the agreement from the birthparent(s), after that you need to file the adoption case to the local court and follow the adoption procedures.

  
  
• What should I do when my child says he or she wants to search for biological family?

  n          Some adoptive parents will encourage and assist their children who are old enough in searching. Others, nevertheless, may feel less secured about this. Adoptive parents will fear that they will lose their children for good.

  n          One interesting fact is that most children adopted or not, will have family romance fantasy. They will dream of “coming from a perfect family. The real Mommy is a lovely and caring princess who never scolds her child.” Adoptee has this kind of fantasy as well, though his or her fantasy is partially real: he or she really has another family.

  n          When child talks about searching, you can first discuss with the child why he or she wants to do it? What does he or she want to know about? Does the child understand the possible results and challenges once they start searching? Can they handle these emotional challenges? You have to assist and support your child in facing all these challenges.

  n          Your close friends or relatives may give you all kinds of suggestions. Some will even dissuade you from helping your child search their adoption information. Others may provide their personal experience for you reference. Please keep in your mind that each reunion is unique. There is no standard time point or procedures concerning searching. What you and your child can do is to prepare as best as you can. For information, please read the next session about self-review before reunion. If you need professional consultation, you can always Contact Us. We will be glad to assist you.

  
  
• What is the inter-country adoption procedure in Taiwan? And how long will the procedure takes?

        Dependent Adoption: The worker in agency will let you know the whole procedure and the schedule at beginning. All you need is following the procedure. The timetables will vary because of different agencies.

        Independent Adoption: If your adoption isn’t working through agencies, you need to finish the court procedure which might include the appearance and the home visiting, if the adoptive parents do not reside in Taiwan, social worker will conduct investigation report and make recommendation to court base on adopter’s home study instead, or you may need to have a home visiting in Taiwan. After that you’ll have the ruling from the court, and you could go back to your country to finish the following inter-country adoption procedure. The court procedure will take 3 to 6 months. If you like to know more about inter-country adoption, you could click Adoption Procedure to get more information.