Hand In Hand’s program in Ukraine began in January 1992, following a trip made by MaryLee Lane, founder and Executive Director of Hand In Hand, to Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.  Meetings with governmental officials in each of these former Soviet States yielded a very positive result and welcome to assist in the placement of children from orphanages into adoptive families in the United States.

Ukraine is an independent country, located in southeastern Europe and bordered on the east by Russia, on the south by the Black Sea, on the north by Belarus and on the west by Romania, Hungary and Poland.  The Ukrainian government has been allowing international adoptions since 1992 with periodic moratoriums since then.  In September of 2005, the Ukraine government stopped accepting new applications and began again in January 2007 after forming a new adoption authority, the State Department for Adoptions and Protection of Rights of the Child (SDAPRC).  In November, 2006 Hand In Hand was officially registered with the SDAPRC. 

Eastern Europe Program Director is Patricia Beristain, located in the Hand In Hand office in Tucson, Arizona.

Types of Children Available: 

• Boys and girls  age 13 months old and older are available.
• Ukraine policy on international adoption permits children to be exempted from the domestic registry if they present medical conditions that warrant surgery or treatment, including tumors, bladder disease, anatomic defects, sensory impairments or joint anomalies.
• Families may adopt one child, siblings, or two unrelated children from the same region in Ukraine. Permission to adopt unrelated children may be banned in the future, if some new law/regulation is introduced.

Types of Families Accepted: 

• Married couples are eligible to adopt from Ukraine.
• Single women are allowed to adopt from Ukraine. Just recently, a new law was proposed to ban single women from adopting and limiting the age of adoptive parents. This draft law was dismissed and not approved. However, there is no telling what will happen in the future, so single female applicants may still apply, but they should be aware of possible changes in the law.
• While there are no specific maximum age criteria in Ukraine’s adoption law, we believe that in most cases it is in the best interest of a child to have at least one of two parents that is not older than 65 years old.
• There are no restrictions regarding the number of children already in the family’s home or the length of marriage.

Travel Requirements:  Both spouses need to travel to Ukraine for the adoption, although both do not have to remain during the entire adoption process. The presence of both parents is absolutely required for the appearance at the SDAPRC and the court procedure.  After court, one of the parents may leave and the other parent may stay to obtain the child’s immigrant visa and accompany the child to the US.       

                                   
Timeframes / Process:  

• Dossier completion to match (invitation to travel): 3 to 4 months (after complete dossier is received in Ukraine).
• Match is done by the SDAPRC in Kiev while the family is in Ukraine. No information about the referral is provided prior to travel; however, prospective parents may have their prospective child evaluated by an independent medical examiner while in Ukraine.
• Typically, the total length of stay in Ukraine is one trip of 3  to 4 weeks, which includes the 10-day waiting period.  Two trips is an option also:  the first trip is approximately 2 weeks with both parents present, and the second trip is 1 week with the presence of only one parent required.