India Mainstream Program
General Information:
- Program opened in 2005.
- This program is open to those of Indian descent, overseas citizens of India and also non-Indians.
- Open across Canada (except Quebec)..
- Applicants should be open to a child of either sex, and must be open to children minimum of 18-months and up. In some cases, sibling groups are available for adoption from India. Applicants wishing to adopt siblings must be open to children up to age 8 (minimum). These adoptions are processed through the Special Needs Stream.
Considerations:
- Both parents are required to complete one trip of approximately 2 weeks. Some provinces require two trips (Hyderabad).
- Majority of the children reside in orphanages with voluntary and professional staff.
- Both boys and girls are waiting for families.
- Children range in age from a minimum of 18 months+ at time of referral. Many older children are waiting for families in India.
Requirements:
- Adoptive parent’s composite age must be under 85 years in order to be eligible to apply to adopt a child who is 0- 2 years of age; under 90 years to adopt a child 2-4 years of age; under 100 years to adopt a child 4 – 8 years of age and under 110 years to adopt a child over 8 years of age. NB: All families must meet the age requirements at the time their dossier is uploaded to CARA for review and approval.
- Single men or women: Single adoptive parents are eligible to adopt. The parent must be over 30 and under 40 years to adopt a child 0- 2 years of age; under 45 years to adopt a child 2-4 years of age; under 50 years to adopt a child 4 – 8 years of age and less than 55 years to adopt a child over 8 years of age.
- A single or unmarried male can only adopt a male child.
- The minimum age difference between the child and either of the prospective adoptive parents should not be less than 25 years.
- Married couples must have a minimum two years stable marital relationship.
- Couples living common-law are not eligible to adopt.
- Families must maintain an adequate financial portfolio to provide a good upbringing for the child.
- Applicants should be physically, mentally and emotionally stable; financially capable; motivated to adopt a child; and should not have any life threatening medical condition.
- Both applicants must be free from criminal record.
- Applicants with more two (2) or more children in the home already are only eligible to adopt via the special needs program.
Process:
- Completion of a home study and approval in province.
- Complete dossier, including India specific home study.
- File notarized by The Children’s Bridge, then sent to Canadian Foreign Affairs and the India High Commission for authentication and legalization.
- Completed dossier sent to CARA in Delhi, who will review and approve it.
- Following approval, CARA will assign the family’s dossier to a specific orphanage. Families and The Children’s Bridge have no influence on which province or orphanage a dossier is sent by CARA.
- Child referrals come to The Children’s Bridge, who will share the information with the family.
- Family consults with Adoption Practitioner and physician and is requested to accept the proposed referral within 96 hours.
- Court hearings usually take place 4-6 months after acceptance documents are sent to India.
- Both parents are required to travel to India following the court process, and after the issuance of all travel documents and IRCC approval (approximately 6 – 10 months following a child proposal is received).
Timelines:
- Home study completion varies (average time 3 – 6 months).
- Provincial approval takes between 4 and 16 weeks.
- Family matched with a child within approximately 3 – 4.5 years following CARA approval. This timeline varies depending on openness to age range, etc.
- After accepting a referral, court finalization takes place within approximately 6 – 8 months.
- Family travels to India approximately 2-4 months after the final court hearing.
- Stay in India is approximately 2 weeks.