Ethiopia
The Ethiopian-Australian Intercountry Adoption Program operates under a bilateral arrangement. Please note, there is a quota established for this program whereby only 11 files of approved Queensland applicants can be forwarded to Ethiopia at any one time.
Specific eligibility criteria
- Couples under 41 years of age at the time of a placement decision can be considered for children under two years of age.
- Couples over 41 years of age can be considered for children over two years of age or for special needs children. In Ethiopia, special needs refers to sibling groups of three or more children if one child is under five years of age, or older children.
- There may be some flexibility in relation to couples who exceed the upper age limit if the prospective female adoptive parent is still under 41 years of age and significantly younger than the male.
- Couples seeking to adopt a sibling group need to be aware that the assessment process will involve consideration of their capacity to parent siblings and to meet the children's individual and joint needs. Couples can only be approved to adopt a sibling group if it is determined that they have the capacity to parent siblings.
- Existing children in the family is acceptable. However, couples who have biological children and have also adopted from two countries other than Ethiopia may not be able to apply.
- Couples need to carefully consider and accept possible health risks for babies and children adopted from overseas. Due to poor hygiene and health conditions, the health risks for countries such as Ethiopia may be higher than for other countries.
- Although rare, couples also need to consider very carefully the possibility that a female child may have been circumcised. Information about female circumcision is available from our Adoption Services Queensland Unit.
- Couples need to name their religion and be considered to be living by Christian principles.
- Past experience with this program suggests that couples do not necessarily have to be practising their religion or attending church.
- However, according to the Ethiopian authorities this is preferable and a letter from a pastor or priest is required as part of the file.
- Religion is a sensitive issue in Ethiopia and couples whose religion is not mainstream, for example not Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant, need to discuss this with the Adoption Services Queensland and provide written information about their religion if needed.
- This information can then be clarified with Ethiopia and couples will be advised whether files can or cannot be sent to Ethiopia.
- Ethiopia will not consider couples who are Jehovah's Witness or Buddhist.
Waiting times for the Ethiopian program are approximately 2 years once a couple's documents are forwarded to Ethiopia. Please note that due to the quota system, there are a number of approved applicants waiting to forward their file to Ethiopia. Because of this, it is expected that approved applicants will be waiting at least 2 years before their file may be sent to Ethiopia for consideration of an adoptive placement.
Costs
- The costs of this program are approximately A$25,000, including airfares, accommodation, legal costs and translation of documents.
- New foster care fees came into effect on 1 March 2007 which equates to US$1950/child.
Further information
For further information on the individual country programs, refer to overseas country information or contact our Adoption Services Queensland Unit.- Last updated
- 26 October 2007