Choosing a country is one of the first decisions that those adopting internationally have to make. There are a number of reasons why you need to decide on a country. First of all, the country you choose determines the agency that you choose. Not all agencies work in all countries. Instead, agencies tend to focus on just a few nations.
Secondly, you need to have a country selected in order to have your homestudy done. If you change your mind, you can have the homestudy rewritten, but you will have to pay an extra fee and it will also take extra time to have the homestudy revised.
Finally, most people want to get the country decision out of the way because it seems like a step towards their child. Adoptive parents can begin to imagine the dark almond-shaped eyes of their baby from Korea or the silky dark hair of their child from Guatemala.
While making the decision about which country is right for them, potential adoptive parents often want to know where other parents have adopted. Here are the top 20 countries for 2005 and the statistics of how many orphan visas were issued for each country:
China – 7,906
Russia – 4,630
Guatemala – 3,783
South Korea – 1,630
Ukraine – 821
Kazakhstan – 755
Ethiopia – 441
India – 323
Colombia – 291
Philippines – 271
Haiti – 231
Liberia – 182
Taiwan – 141
Mexico – 98
Poland and Thailand – 73 (both)
Brazil – 66
Nigeria – 65
Jamaica – 63
Nepal – 62
To access the U.S. Government website where these figures were posted, click HERE.
Keep in mind that just because there were few adoptions from a country last year does not mean that it is a bad choice to adopt from there. Some countries are simply more popular than others and as a result people tend to adopt from those countries. Remember to consider each country and it’s requirements carefully and also try to stay flexible and don’t get your heart set on one country until you have gathered all of the information you need to make a good decision.
Be watching for future blogs on adopting from many of these countries.