Preliminary Process
When you have reviewed the Policies and Requirements and feel like you meet these qualifications you will complete and return to Lifeline the Doctrinal Statement and Christian Questionnaire (located on the forms page). You will then be sent an application or you can access the application online.
Fill out the application and return this application to Lifeline with the $250.00 application fee. This fee covers the costs associated with opening and maintaining your adoption file, as well as retaining the services of our international consultant. Please see the fee schedule for a breakdown of estimated expenses. This application fee is not refundable once the home study portion of the adoption process has begun.
You will be contacted by the Lifeline office once the application and application fee have been completed and received.
If you are pursuing adoption of a waiting special needs child you will have to complete a preliminary application for that child to be filed with the MOJ, so that the child could be kept on hold for you while you are completing your home study and CIS process and gathering your Bulgaria dossier. Lifeline will provide you with these documents. You will have to complete a declaration of commitment form for the specific waiting child you desire to adopt. You will also need the contract from Dreams Foundation. These will need to be notarized and apostilled prior to beginning the main dossier. If you are pursuing adoption of an unidentified child, your application to the MOJ will be part of your Bulgaria dossier.
Adoptive Home Study and Dossier Preparation
You will receive the Dossier preparation packet and other miscellaneous adoption paperwork. You will be instructed to begin the home study process. Depending on your state of residence you will begin the home study process with a social worker from Lifeline or you will begin the process with an agency that meets the requirements for the preparation of a home study for a Convention Country. If you are not from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, or Washington State please be sure to have your home study agency approved by Lifeline. There is documentation that needs to be completed between Lifeline and the agency preparing your home study.
A part of the Dossier preparation will be the I800A Form. This form is part of the process to allow you to be found eligible to adopt by the U.S. Government, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
You will need your approved home study as part of the I800A process. All the dossier documents must be originals, notarized and apostilled by your Secretary of State. Once you gather your dossier, you will provide the dossier to the Lifeline office. It is at this point that the dossier will be reviewed. If all the documents are correct and the dossier is complete, it will be sent to Bulgaria to submit it to the MOJ.
Your dossier will be reviewed in Bulgaria and then it will be translated and authenticated by the Bulgaria team. They will file it officially with the MOJ. The MOJ will review your dossier. If everything is in correct order you will be officially approved to adopt from Bulgaria.
Travel to Bulgaria
The International Adoptions Committee at the MOJ will refer you a child within about 24 months if your request is for a young healthy child, much sooner if your request is for siblings or older child and immediately if your request is for a waiting special needs child. You then have two months to travel to Bulgaria to spend at least five days with the child referred and to file the second stage documentation which shall be provided to you by Lifeline and our Bulgaria team. Upon submission of the second stage documentation with the MOJ your dossier shall be transferred to the court for final approval. You don’t have to be present at court. Your attorney will represent you. After the court decree is issued a new birth certificate and international passport of the child are issued. Adoptive parent(s) should be present for the filing of the passport for their child. The passport usually takes about 3 business days to be issued and during that time the adoptive family and child are just waiting for the passport to be issued. It is usually 3-4 months after the first trip when the child is ready to be picked up by you. Due to change in policy escorting may no longer be an option.
Bulgaria prefers that at least one parent travels to meet the child after the referral and prior to finalizing the adoption. During your stay in Bulgaria you will be accompanied 24/7 by our Bulgaria team which speaks excellent English. Your Bulgaria fees cover all the travel within the country. The first trip to Bulgaria usually takes about 5 days and is to take place within two months of the referral. The second trip is slightly longer than the first trip of 5 days – this trip will be more like 6-7 days due to the wait for the passport to be issued.
We feel that it is very important for both parents to travel. It will help you to gain a greater understanding of your child’s birth country and culture, which will serve to help your child understand and value his/her origins. It also serves the children better for attachment and bonding purposes.
It is necessary to have a passport to travel to Bulgaria. You do not need a visa to travel to travel to Bulgaria. Adoption travel is not a vacation. Travel within Bulgaria may not be easy or relaxing. It may be extremely exhausting as you deal with jetlag and caring for a new child who may not adjust very easily.
Post-Placement Reports
Once you return from Bulgaria with your child, your social worker will contact you about setting up post-placement meetings. Four post placement reports are required after the child is placed in your home. Reports are due at the following times: 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and the final report due at 24 months.
Finalization & Citizenship
For Bulgaria, the adoptions are finalized in the Bulgarian court. If both of you traveled to spend time with the child prior to the adoption, the child becomes automatically a US citizen upon arrival on US soil. In this case IH-3 immigrant visa is issued to your child. (In this case your will receive the COC or certificate of Citizenship within a few weeks of arriving in the U.S.) If either or both of you did not travel to spend time with the child prior to the adoption IH-4 visa is issued to your child and he/she must be readopted in the USA. After your child’s adoption is finalized, your child will automatically become a U.S. citizen. At that time it is highly encouraged, although not mandatory, that you apply for proof of your child’s citizenship by using the N600 form available from USCIS.
