South Africa - Apply for Adopt a Child in a Non-Convention Country

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Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. To apply for adopting a child in a Non-convention country in person, the applicant should visit the competent authority office or office of International Social Services Affiliated Bureau in the country they live.
2. The contact and address links of competent authorities in various countries can be found in the following link: Link
3. Visit the office and obtain the prescribed format of application to register your intention of adopting a child in a Non-convention country.
4. Complete the prescribed format of application and submit it along with the required documents to the relevant authority at the office.
5. The competent authority of ISS will direct you to an accredited adoption organisation in your country for assessment and screening to determine if you are suitable to adopt a child.
6. The organisation will compose a home study report and forward it to the South African Central Authority (SACA) which will further send it to the child protection organisation which has an adoption working agreement with the foreign agency.
7. The child protection organisation will make a report of the child available for adoption and forward it to the SACA for approval of inter-country adoption and also to the foreign agency.
8. After knowing the wish of the prospective parents, the competent authority in the country where the parents live or the ISS will forward the adoption permission of the parents to the accredited child protection organisation.
9. Then the applicant will be asked to visit South Africa for finalisation processes of adoption at the court. Reports from the court will be then forwarded to the SACA for verification and registration of the adoption.
10. On receipt of court documents, SACA will issue a Certificate of Conformity and adoption agency in the country where you live will provide you with after-care services for five years.

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Required Documents

• Completed application form (if any)
• Home study report of applicant
• Child study report
• Identity documents of parents
• Residential proof
• Proof of income
• Identity document of child
• Required fees

Office Locations & Contacts

International Social Services of South Africa - Head Office
7th Floor, HSRC Building,
134 Pretorius Street,
Pretoria, 0001
South Africa
Postal Adsress:Private Bag X901,
0001
South Africa
Tel:012 312 7790/ 012 312 7591
Fax:012 323 3733
Email: [email protected]
Website link
link
Department of Social Development Offices

Provincial Contact Numbers
EASTERN CAPE - (043) 605 5000
FREE STATE - (051) 400 0302 / 0304 / 0307
GAUTENG - (011) 355 7687 / 7977 / 7878
KWAZULU-NATAL - (033) 264 5400
LIMPOPO - (015) 293 6004 / 6054 / 6011 / 6053
MPUMALANGA - (013) 766 3098 / 3253 / 3031
NORTH WEST - (018) 387 3434 / 0255 / 3497 / 0281
NORTHERN CAPE - (053) 807 5600
WESTERN CAPE - (021) 483 3858/ 3765 / 3158 / 5445

Eligibility

• Any foreigner, who lives in a country that has not signed the Hague Convention and wants to adopt a South African child, can apply.
• The person willing to adopt must be proper and fit to look after and raise the child.

Fees

The cost will depend on the adoption agency.

Validity

Explain the time until which the certificate/document is valid.
e.g. Birth Certificate Valid Forever

Documents to Use

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Sample Documents

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Processing Time

It differs from one case to another.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type='website'>video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

Instructions

• If there is a child who is available for adoption, the child protection organisation will compile a child study report and forward it to the SACA for approval of inter-country adoption (Article 17 of the Hague Convention).

• The consent of the prospective parents is necessary once when the child study report has been forwarded to the foreign agency to match the child with the prospective parents.

Required Information

• Particulars of the prospective parents
• Particulars of the child
• Identity document numbers
• Address information
• Contact details

Need for the Document

If you are a foreigner interested in adopting a South African child, but your country has not signed the Hague Convention, you can adopt through the competent authority or the International Social Services (ISS) in the country where you live.

Information which might help

Refer: Link

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

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e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

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Others

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