What countries can I adopt from ?
Currently HHAMA is accredited to work with Vietnam, China, USA, India, Bulgaria. Poland, Thailand, The Philippines and Haiti and we have worked with these countries over recent years. Other countries we are accredited for by the Irish Authorities are Columbia, Kenya, Peru and Lithuania but we have not yet sought accreditation in those countries and so they are not available to applicants at this time. Due to programme closures we do not currently offer China, Bulgaria, Poland or Haiti. We had considered South Africa but this accreditation review by the AAI has not been successful.
How much does an adoption cost?
HHAMA have set fees for the Irish operation, please click here to view
How long does an adoption take once we are registered with HHAMA?
The way the waiting lists work is different depending on the programme and your matching considerations. All adoption programmes are additional needs adoptions and so there is not a strict sequential order of matching. Chronology of application is a feature for those who have registered with our programmes but the other factors such as age of child approval and additional needs approval will dictate the sequence of matching.
This aspect is covered in detail at our Client Stage 1 Information meeting, which all prospective applicants should avail of as soon as practical on the adoption journey, but by end of TUSLA Preparation Course at the latest.
How can I be invited to formally register with one of the adoption programmes mediated by HHAMA?
HHAMA is obliged to accept any approved Article 15 applicants. The work we do to ensure suitability for each country programme is done through our Stage 1 and 2 preparation phases to ensure applicants have approval for country programmes that suit their application. We do exercise some control over the invitation to register timing with a view to the number of applicants currently on programmes such as Vietnam. This is discussed in full with applicants during Stage 1 and 2 meetings. All invited to join a programme do so understanding that there are no guarantees, of course, that an adoption can be completed.
Our website does outline our adoption numbers and the numbers currently on our waiting list at any given time click here for Status of Adoptions is where the numbers are maintained and updated every month.
The other factor we, in HHAMA, have to work with is that the list of applicants registered have to cover a broad range of additional medical needs, gender and age profile of child so we are in a position to place any child presented to us if at all possible, therefore an applicant may not be invited to register before an other applicant if our waiting list needs a balance of clients additional needs to ensure the matching authorities have a wide choice of applicant capacities to enhance a child’s opportunity to be referred.
Some programmes operate a quota of applicants or pre-determine minimum age approval or additional needs capacities required by new applicants and this is also a factor in determining invitation to formally register with a programme.
We continue to welcome applicants to come and discuss their unique application with us as early in the process as is practical. The choice of country programme is one we hope to help applicants with after our detailed meeting and review of each application on the basis of child’s age and additional needs approval.