Russia Adoption Factsheet, Page 3
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REGISTRATION OF RUSSIAN ORPHANS WITH THE MFA: Adopted Russian children must be registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before they leave the country. For U.S. citizen families, this is done after an adopted child receives an immigrant visa to the United States.
The Consular Section of the MFA is open for the registration of adopted children
Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for intake and 3 p.m-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday for issuance. The process takes two days; issuance takes place the day after the intake of documents. The fee for the registration is 2,040 rubles.
The following documents are needed for registration:
- Original of the child's passport;
- Copies of the parents' passports;
- Letter from the orphanage (orphanage release);
- Letter from the Ministry of Education of Russia;
- Court decision;
- Adoption certificate;
- Immigrant visa of the child (original).
DOCUMENTS REQUIRED FOR ADOPTION IN RUSSIA: The following documents are required by the Russian court for an adoption:
- Home Study;
- US CIS approval notice (I-171H or I-797);
- Copies of prospective adoptive parents' passports;
- Marriage certificate/divorce certificate (if applicable);
- Police certificate;
- Medical examination report;
- Financial documents: employment verification letter, bank statements, tax forms;
- Evidence of place of residence.
All of these documents should be translated into Russian and apostilled (see below for information on authenticating documents).
After prospective parents identify the child they should fill out the adoption application, which can be obtained at the Russian court where the adoption hearings will take place.
Additional required statements for the court hearings from the parents, which should be signed in front of a Russian notary, are:
- Prospective adoptive parents have been informed about the health conditions of the child and they accept them;
- They will register their adopted child with the MFA; and
- They will provide the Department of Education with periodic, required post placement reports on time.
AUTHENTICATING U.S. DOCUMENTS TO BE USED ABROAD: All U.S. documents submitted to the Russia government/court must be authenticated. Russia is a party to the Hague Legalization Convention. Generally, U.S. civil records, such as birth, death, and marriage certificates, must bear the seal of the issuing office and an apostille affixed by the state's Secretary of State (an apostille is a special seal applied to a document to certify that a document is a true copy of an original). Documents must be apostilled in the state where they are issued. Tax returns, medical reports and police clearances should likewise be authenticated. Prospective adopting parents should contact the Secretary of State of the state where documents originated from for instructions and fees for authenticating documents.
Documents issued by a federal agency must be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State Authentications Office, 518 23rd St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20520, (202) 647-5002 Fee: $6.00. For additional information, call the Federal Information Center: 1-800-688-9889, and choose option 6 after you press 1 for touch tone phones. Walk-in service is available from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 am Monday-Friday, except holidays and is limited to 15 documents per person per day (documents can be multiple pages). Processing time for authentication requests sent by mail is 5 working days or less.
Please visit our Web site at travel.state.gov for additional information about authentication procedures .
Credits: U.S. Department of State
