First the child must be declared abandoned. This is a very lengthy process unless the mother of the child signs the documents herself which rarely happens. A child is declared abandoned after he/she is in the orphanage system and meets many requirements.
- The birth parents have to be either deceased, or claimed permanently unfit to care for the child. To be claimed permanently unfit to care for their child they must fail the mental, and physical tests, have documented evidence of repeated abuse, and not show any signs of improving their behavior. It should be noted that poverty alone is never a reason for a child to be declared 'abandoned'.
- The child must have no immediate family or directly related family willing and able to care for them. This means that if there's some aunt, uncle, grandparent, or sibling somewhere in Peru that has a desire to care for the children they are the first people the child will go to. While this is a good standard it also delays many adoptions, because if there is a relative somewhere who knows for a fact they do not want the kid but also does not want to see the child adopted they can just write a letter to the judge saying they are interested.
- Any relatives who claim a desire to adopt the child must not visit the child for a period of more than six months. If no one visits the child within the defined six month period then the papers can be moved forward to declare the child abandoned and ready for adoption.
Secondly, the adoptive parent/s must meet the requirements, this is the expensive part. They must go through an approved agency by the Peruvian government. The agency will be responsible for all the paper work on the behalf of the adoptive parent/s. This usually costs around $25,000-$30,000. Here is where I would recommend which agencies to use but I have not had or heard of a good experience with any particular one so I don't feel comfortable advertising for any of them. The adoptive process for the parents usually takes around one to one and a half years to be completed. This process involves mental and physical exams, proof of citizenship, proof of means to care for child ect. You can find the official list here on the MIMDES website, be warned that it is in Spanish.
Some tips to help speed up your adoption that they might not tell you are,
- MOST IMPORTANTLY Be willing to adopt more than one child at a time. There are hardly any children without siblings in the orphanage system. In all my time in Peru I have only met four kids that were in an orphanage without siblings and of those four only two were adoptable.
- Be willing to adopt older children. Age five and over usually get through the process faster, older than 7 and it will even quicker.
- Be willing to adopt children with special mental and physical needs. A lot of the kids in the orphanage system are put in the category of special needs even though most of the time it is just because they are developmentally behind because of neglect or abuse.
- Call the MIMDES office in Peru yourself or if you don't speak Spanish have a friend call for you.
The reason these are good tips is that all Peruvian couples get their choices first. So usually if there are single, young, healthy children they almost always go to the Peruvians before foreigners.
