Adoption Process
Approval to Adopt
You must be approved as an adoptive parent by the New Zealand Central Authority for Adoption (referred to as the NZCA), which is the Department of Child, Youth and Family. This is a critical step, involving a 3 day Adoption Education and Preparation course, police and medical checks, referees reports, social worker interview and assessments. The information gathered will form the basis of a report called a Homestudy.
Contact your nearest CYF Adoption Service to start this process. There is no charge as the costs are covered by government funding.
Home Study
You need to select a country to adopt from, checking you meet their specific requirements. Your social worker will write up a “home study”. If you choose to work with ICANZ, CYF will forward the homestudy and supporting documents to ICANZ.
Registration with ICANZ
To engage ICANZ as your facilitating agency, register with us after you are approved by CYF as an adoptive parent, or alternatively you can wait until the Homestudy is completed. At any stage, if you are considering adoption or want to learn more about our adoption services, we encourage you to call the ICANZ office, attend an ICANZ information evening if you are in Auckland, or contact your local ICANZ parent network coordinator to meet other adoptive parents. Find out more at Events.
Complete Your Documents
We assist you with preparation of your document file to meet the overseas country’s requirements and arrange for these to be submitted to the overseas country in the appropriate way, via the New Zealand Central Authority which is NZCYF.
The Child Referral and Acceptance
A “referral” is a term used for the information on a child. Before the information is given to you, you must be approved by NZCYF as suitable parents for this particular child. Sometimes the process is referred to as “matching”. You may seek advice before accepting a child offered to you.
The Adoption Proceeding
Documents are filed in the foreign courts, or government departments, to adopt the designated child. Depending on the country, ICANZ may work with lawyers, facilitators, translators, representatives or an approved agency.
Travel and Finalisation
You travel to the foreign country to meet your child. You may complete the adoption in the foreign court, or you may be granted custody or guardianship to bring the child to NZ and finalize the adoption here once satisfactory post placement reports are written.
Travel Home
You bring your new son or daughter home!
Post-Adoption Reports
In all cases you must have visits by a social worker, in some cases from ICANZ, for other countries from CYF. This may be required in order to finalize the adoption, or to report to the foreign country.
Please note - This is generalized information. Details vary for each specific country. Specific information about each country's adoption programmes is available here.