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Kazakhstan Adoption

There are many children living in orphanages in Kazakhstan. The orphanages are clean and the caregivers try hard to take care of the children, but orphanages are poor with limited resources. Kazakhstan children are very beautiful and are of Russian and Asian ethnicity. Children available vary in their ethnicity and range from light skin tones, blond hair and blue eyes, very Asian with soft black hair, brown eyes and olive skin tones or a combination of both Russian and Asian descent. Adoptive parents can request a specific age and gender of the child they want to adopt, but cannot choose the ethic background of the child they are assigned.

The ages of the waiting children range from 12 months to teenage years with a sliding fee depending on the age of the child adopted. It is possible to adopt a young child from Kazakhstan, but obtaining a referral for a very young child may take some time after the submission of the dossier. Older children are normally available and assigned to families very quickly. Adopting younger children from Kazsakhstan is also more expensive than adopting older children. All children are tested for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV.

The Kazakhstan adoption program is open to married couples and single women. Parents adopting from Kazakhstan must be no more than 43 years older than the child they adopt. The age limit for parents completing a Kazakhstan adoption is 45 years old, although there is some flexibility with Kazakhstan officials. If you would like more information about adoptions from Kazakhstan, please contact Kathy Junk at kathy@wiaa.org.

Kazakhstan Adoption Timeline

As with all adoptions, much depends on how quickly you can complete your dossier. Once the dossier is submitted to Wasatch, it is sent off for translation and then on to the Kazakhstan Consulate in Washington D.C. It goes through a review and approval process here before being sent on to the foreign country. This takes approximately 4-6 weeks. After the dossier is accepted in the foreign country and registered with Foreign Ministry there is a 2-4 month wait before the family will receive their Letter of Invitation. When they do, the family can apply for their visas to travel.

Both parents are required to travel and the option of it being one or two trips is at the discretion of the in-country facilitator and the judge in the region you are adopting from. If the judge does not waive the waiting period, the facilitator may wish for the family to return home for a few weeks and return for the child after the waiting period. Most often this waiting period is waived and the procedure is completed in approximately 30 days. In this instance the facilitator may wish for the family, or at least one parent, to remain and finish up the procedure. This will take about 10-14 days following the court date.

Either way, both parents must travel and remain through the court date which is 14 to 19 days following the acceptance of the referral. One parent may leave the country if need be after this date. If two trips are required, only one parent has to return on the second trip. This trip is approximately 5-7 days long.

A very realistic time frame for a Kazakhstan adoption is 6-9 months following dossier submission.

Please see our Kazakhstan Adoption FAQ page for more information.

Fees

Item

Cost

*Application Fee

$500

*Program Fee

$2500

*Home Study Review (for out of state clients)

$150

*Referral Fee

$2000

*Post Placement Fee

$800 (Utah clients) or $600 (out of state clients)

**First Child Foreign Fee

$16,000

**Second Child Foreign Fee

$16,000

Home Study

$1200 (Utah) $1000-$2500 (depending on social worker found out of state)

USCIS Fee - I600A

$720

Fingerprinting

$85/person

Authentication of documents

$200-300***

Translation of dossier

$850.00***

Dossier Submission, Translation Fee, and Registration Fee

$5455

Flight #1 to Almaty

$1450(winter/adult),$1680(summer/adult)
$890(winter/child), $1050(summer/child)

Domestic Travel

$350-$550 per person

Food/Lodging in Kazakhstan

$80-100/day***

Passport for child

$50

Embassy Medical Exam

$75-100***

Visa for child

$230

Consular Registration

$100

Dual Entry Visa

$150***

* Country Fees are never to be considered a stable or set fee as it is not determined nor in the control of Wasatch International Adoptions. The Agency makes every effort to stay current as to fees but third party and country fees may change without notice or reason.*

*These fees are required by the agency, Wasatch International Adoptions.
**These fees are required by the foreign country.
***These fees may vary from dossier to dossier depending on the number of documents (for example a single person’s dossier will be smaller than a married couple’s dossier). Expenses also may vary depending on where you stay in Kazakhstan, the size of your family, and the length of your stay.

If you are interested in more information about adopting from Kazakhstan, please email Kathy at kathy@wiaa.org.

Please note that the timeline for international adoption is not completely predictable and there could be many factors that might change our estimated timeline for completion. Some of these factors may include political upheaval, changes in policies and laws regarding adoption with foreign government officials or our own government, war, terrorism, natural disasters, the approval of the adoptive parents by either the U.S. government or the foreign government or possible reemergence of birth families. Wasatch does our best to help you as families to understand the realities of the international adoption process, but things can change quickly and timelines for adoption completion can lengthen through no fault of Wasatch International Adoptions.