Donate Now

Requirements

  • A child can be adopted by a single parent or a married couple. Same sex couples are ineligible to apply. The parents must be at least 18 years of age, and the age of majority under Canadian laws.
  • The minimum age difference between the parent(s) and the child must be 15 years.
The Children
  • Every child is at first entered – for a period of six months - into a registrar for national/domestic adoptions. During that period, at least three Bulgarian families should have declined to adopt the child. After six months, the child is moved into the Registrar for Inter-Country Adoptions which is maintained by the Ministry of Justice.
  • The child must have attained 1 year of age (unless the infant has a medical disorder or special needs that can be treated in a foreign country); the basic guideline is that the adoption should be made in the interest of the child.
  • Twins must be adopted together;
  • When applying to adopt a child from Bulgaria, the family should be very specific about the sex and age of the child they wish to adopt. The parents should also specify if they are interested in adopting siblings, a healthy child or a child with medical disorders, such as deafness, heart disease, blindness, etc. Children from Bulgaria usually have an olive complexion, and brown or black eyes and hair. They are usually of Bulgarian, Roma, Turkish, or Armenian descent. All the children reside in orphanages.
Estimated Cost

Please contact CHOICES to discuss fees for this program.

Timeframe

The home study takes approximately three months. Once the dossier has been completed and sent to Bulgaria, it will take approximately two years and perhaps longer to receive a proposal. Once the proposal has been received, the adopting parents must travel to Bulgaria to make their first visit. This visit is from five to ten days. If they accept the proposal, the adopting parents must then wait about two months before making their second trip to Bulgaria (another five to ten days) to pick up the child.