Zambia - Adopt a Child

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Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. To adopt a child in Zambia, the applicant has to contact the office of Commissioner for Juvenile Welfare, visit link.
2. Choose a licensed adoption service provider and fill the required form provided by the authorities.
3. Please make sure you have all the documents listed in the “Required Documents” section of this page.
4. In addition, prospective adoptive parents must apply to the Zambian Ministry of Social Welfare, Mother and Child Health for permission to adopt.
5. There is no official application form to write to the ministry, as it is for checking the intent of adoption.
6. A home study will be conducted by the social workers working for the Welfare department.
7. Upon meeting eligibility criteria and getting permission to adopt, the process of matching with a child will begin.
8. Upon the finding of a suitable match for child and prospective parent(s), you will be notified with a letter of referral and an “Effective date of Notice”.
9. The prospective parents will have to visit the orphanage or where the infant resides several times for the purpose of bonding.
10. Upon being a compatible match, prospective parents have to foster the child for 3 months.
11. After the three-month fostering period is completed, the Department of Social Welfare reviews the adoption application filed at the acceptance of the match.
12. If approved, the Department of Social Welfare sends its recommendation to the magistrate's court in the district where the child resides.
13. The court will summon the prospective parents and the child to be adopted with a caretaker (if applicable) and a confidential hearing will take place.
14. If the court is satisfied that the prospective adoptive parents are suitable to adopt and that the adoption is clearly in the best interest of the child, the court will provide the prospective parents with adoption of the child.
15. Keep in constant contact with the authorities for smooth completion of procedure and to bring the adopted child home.

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Required Documents

• Proof of nationality
• Proof of marriage (if applicable)
• letter of reference
• copy of your passport
• police clearance
• bank statement

Office Locations & Contacts

Ministry of Community Development and Social Services
Private Bag W252
Community House, Sadzu Road
Lusaka, Zambia
Tel: +260 211 225 327
Fax: +260 211 235342
Email: [email protected]
Contact link.

Eligibility

• The adopting adult may be national or non-national.
• The adopting adult may be single or married.
• There should be at least a 21 years of age gap between the infant to be adopted and the adopting parent.
• If a parent is a single male, he cannot adopt a single female infant (until unless there are special circumstances), and a female infant may be adopted by a female adult or married couple.
• The couple adopting an infant should not be a same-sex couple or a transgender person, according to Zambian Law.
• The adopting parent must foster the infant to be adopted for 3 months in Zambia.

Fees

• Fostering fee – 50,000 kwacha (approximately U.S. $12.00)
• Adoption court fee – 110,000 kwacha(approximately U.S. $24.00)
• Zambian passport fee(if applicable) – 500,000 kwacha (approximately U.S.$111.00)
• Registration/certificate of adoption – 105,000 kwachas (approximately U.S. $24.00)
• Costs that may be determined by the court – 200,000 kwacha (approximately U.S. $45.00)
• Police clearance application fee – 50,000 kwacha (approximately U.S. $10.00)
• Attorney’s fees (if applicable) – 5,000,000 to 25,000,000 kwacha (approximately U.S. $1,000-$5,000).

Validity

• The adoption papers will be valid forever.

Documents to Use

Please attach documents that can be used by people. e.g. links

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

• The whole process can take up to one year.

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

Please provide other instructions related to the certificate/documents.
e.g. The state office has held birth records since january 1908.

Required Information

• Name and address of the applicants
• Legal information of both spouses(if applicable)
• Name and address of adoption service provider
• Home study of the applicants
• Signatures of applicants as well as attorney(if applicable)

Need for the Document

• The documents obtained will help the parents to keep their adoptive child for life and in any country of their spouse.

Information which might help

• The Adoption Act of Zambia link.
• Once granted an adoption order cannot be revoked.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

The certificate of adoption works as a proof of identity of the adopted child.

External Links

• Adoption in Zambia link.

Others

• Other than official procedures one can also adopt a child in Zambia via traditional means. For example: adoption via a family member.
• Other than a family member, a village head can adopt from their servants also.
• Zambia is a party to The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect to Intercountry Adoption. The Convention entered into force on October 1, 2015.