You have to go through a certified agency to be able to adopt the child.

A “certified agency” is a Quebec agency authorized by the Minister of Health and Social Services to supervise adoptions in a given territory or country.

The process as a whole is supervised by the SAI which coordinates activities and processes relating to the adoption of children from abroad.

In rare cases, it is possible to adopt without going through a certified agency. But remember that before starting the adoption process without a certified agency, you should first go through the SAI and get permission to do so from the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Without this permission, your adoption may not be recognized in Quebec.

Here are a few examples of cases where you would need to get permission:

• The child you want to adopt is in the custody of the child protection services of another Canadian province (the equivalent of our D.Y.P.).
  
• The child is closely related to you.
  
• The country of origin of the child requires you to have or to have had its nationality and this country does not have certified agencies.
  
• The certified agency that was handling your file is no longer certified.

This Infosheet deals only with the more frequent process of adoption through a certified agency.

One of the first steps in your international adoption project will be to select your child’s country of origin. Each country has its own set of requirements regarding the characteristics that potential adoptive parents must have. For example, there could be requirements involving the age of the adoptive parents or the age difference between the child and the adoptive parents. Some countries ask adoptive parents to provide a certificate of infertility; others require adoptive parents to be married, to have lived together for a specific number of years, and even to be childless.

Although equality rights are recognized in Quebec, this is not always the case abroad. Certain countries make it difficult for a single parent to adopt, and exclude same-sex couples from adopting.

You can contact the SAI to obtain information about a number of topics on international adoption and to meet an adoption counsellor who can guide you in choosing a country from which to adopt.

The SAI can also direct you towards a certified agency. It is this body that will tell you about the requirements that you will have to meet, the process that you will have to follow, the estimated cost, the trip and its duration, etc.

You will have to sign a contract with the certified agency. Then, it will make you fill out the Adoption file request form. The certified agency will send this form and the required documents to the SAI. The SAI will make sure that everything is in order and will send you a letter confirming that your adoption file has been opened.

A psychosocial evaluation is a mandatory requirement for anyone who wants to adopt. It is done at your own costs.

You must bring the letter of the SAI that confirms that your adoption file was opened.

When the child that you wish to adopt comes from a country that’s a member of the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Convention), the psychosocial evaluation will be conducted under the supervision of the Director of youth protection.

When the child that you wish to adopt does not come from a country that’s a member of the Convention, you can choose your own evaluator from a list provided by the Ordre des psychologues du Québec or the Ordre professionnel des travailleurs sociaux du Québec.

Sometimes, these non-member countries require that the psychosocial evaluation be conducted under the supervision of the State. If that is the case, you will have to contact a youth center.

It is also a youth center that will conduct the evaluation if the adoption was not pronounced in the child’s country of origin before the child was brought into Quebec.

You must obtain certain documents that will be placed in your file. Your certified agency will send these documents to the foreign authorities along with a letter from the SAI that proves that your psychosocial evaluation was favourable. You may have to translate these documents at your own costs.

The adoptive parents’ birth and marriage certificates as well as a certificate of good conduct from the RCMP are the documents most frequently requested by your child’s country of origin.

You must also contact Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

If the adoption is pronounced in your child’s country of origin, you must start the process to obtain Canadian citizenship for him (or ask first for permanent resident status for him).

If the adoption is pronounced in Quebec, you must follow the immigration process that starts with an application to sponsor the child and an undertaking.

The “proposal of a child” is basically when you are paired with a child. In most cases, it is your child’s country of origin that makes this proposal. You have a certain delay in which to accept or refuse the proposal.

Once the proposal of a child is accepted and you have obtained the authorizations of the SAI, in most cases, you will have to travel to your child’s country of origin. You may have to stay there for a long period of time. Be prepared to spend between $10,000 and more than $45,000 in various costs, including the costs of travel, an interpreter and the donation made to your child’s orphanage.

During your stay, you will have to finalize the adoption process with the foreign authorities. You will also have to obtain the documents needed for your child to enter into Canada.

You must follow Quebec’s standard two-step adoption procedure.

First, you and the Director of Youth Protection must make a joint request to have the Youth Division of the Court of Quebec order that the child be placed in your family for 6 months.

Then, if the child has successfully adapted to your family, you must, on your own, ask the Court to grant the adoption. To find out more, read our Infosheet Adopting a child in Quebec.

The Court of Quebec will issue a certificate if the child’s country of origin signed the Convention. This certificate will establish that the adoption meets the requirements of the Convention and that it is recognized by all of the countries who have signed it.

If the Convention is in force in your child’s country of origin, the adoption judgment will simply be recognized in Quebec. It will have the same consequences, just as if it were pronounced in Quebec.

You have 60 days to send the foreign adoption judgment and accompanying documents to the SAI.

The SAI will transmit the adoption judgment to the Directeur de l’État civil along with the form to name the child. It is at this point in the process that you can give your child a new name.

If the Convention is not in force in your child’s country of origin, you have to get the foreign adoption judgment recognized by the Youth Division of the Court of Quebec in order for the adoption to be official. On your own, or with the help of a lawyer, you must present a motion for recognition of the adoption judgment. At the same time, if you wish, you can ask for your child to be given a new name.

To find out more, read our Infosheet Adopting a Child in Quebec.

Not anymore. Since February, 2006, the Convention applies in China. Adoptions in China follow the same rules as adoptions in other countries where the Convention applies.

However, adoption plans approved by the Court of Quebec before February 1, 2006 are still subject to the old rules. Therefore, the SAI recommends that adoptive parents who received approval for their adoption plan before February 1, 2006 visit the clerk of the Court of Quebec to receive a certificate of registration.