Heritage Visits and 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.
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:
Romanian Office for Adoptions [PDF, 923k]
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