Adoption Avenues Agency has been advised that we can begin accepting applicants for the Russia program.

Russia is the largest country in the world, nearly twice the size of US or China. It has a population of 150 million people with 75%of the people living in urban areas. Russia is now a democratic country. The children available for adoption are of Caucasian, Asian and Gypsy (Roma) heritage. Infants may be adopted as young as 6 month old.
Russia is among the most popular countries for international adoptions and placed around 5,000 children with American families last year.

The adoption process in Russia is fairly quick, smooth running and providing more information about the children than many other East European countries.
Russia does not impose many restrictions on adopting parents. The one restriction is the age of the adoptive parents, which varies among regions. Some regions require either a 45 year difference, or a 50 year difference between the adoptive parent and the adopted child. Married couples and single women can adopt from Russia.

Most regions in Russia require that parents take 2 trips to complete their adoption. The first trip is around 7-10 days when the parents get to meet their child and make sure they are happy with the child. The second trip is around 10-14 days, depending on the region, and on this trip parents need to appear in court to finalize the adoption and bring home their child.

Parents will be able to receive a referral only after they sent to their agency a completed dossier with completed home study and INS approval. Parents have several options to choose their children:
- Once their dossier has been submitted to Russia and the initial fee is submitted, parents will receive referrals of children who meet the criteria they have requested, in about 4-8 weeks. With the referral parents will receive medical reports, photo and video tape of the child they chose. Adoption Avenues recommends that the parents have a specialized international adoption pediatrician review the material and provide written response evaluating the physical and psychological development of the child.
- Another option for the parents is to travel to Russia to choose their child. This can happen only after the family submitted a complete dossier and the INS approval. In about 4-8 weeks after sending the dossier to Russia they may be notified to travel. Once in Russia they will be offered referrals of children, one at a time, until they accept a referral.
There are many beautiful children in Russia waiting to be adopted.
There are some sibling groups available, older children and special needs children that are also waiting to find loving parents to take them home. Parents may also adopt two unrelated children at the same time if they want and if they are approved by their social worker.

Adoption Avenues is very pleased to work with an established and ethical network of facilitators that will fully support the traveling family during the stay in Russia, and has qualified and well trained professional interpreters.

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