Searching For Birth Relatives
The ICANZ team are available to share their experiences of the process of searching for and maintaining contact with birth families in your child’s country of origin. We can advise on the process and in some cases provide direct assistance.
The postadoptbirthparentseek discussion group is for adoptive parents who have adopted a child from Russia or the former Soviet Union. Aims of the group are to answer the many questions adoptive parents have about contacts, methods used, advise on the probabilities of success and offer practical, free help where possible.
ICANZ can assist with invitations needed to obtain visas for Russia for trips back and in most regions can assist with translators to help on your trip. Please note that adopted Russian children/young people must enter Russia on their Russian passport, not their New Zealand one. This process takes up to 9 months to complete. Two visits to Wellington are required, one to submit the application and one to collect the passport.
More information is in Renewing Russian Passports. The form for renewing a passport can be printed out from here.
The Romanian Government offers the following advice to obtain information on birth relatives:
Search and Reunion Articles
The Impact of Birth Country Travel
Identity is a continuum. Who I am today is not who I will be tomorrow. For tomorrow I will be a culmination of who I have been in all my yesterdays and who I hope to be in my "tomorrows".
Adoptive parents around the globe are seeking their children's first families, even before these children voice an opinion on the matter. But do we know what we're doing?
Our adoptions did not end the day we were placed in the waiting arms of our adoptive parents.
Tips on Searching and Reunions
Information summarised from the Adoption Reunion Handbook.
Related Resources
The on-line adoption magazine Adoptive Families
More related websites.