The Philippines

In February 2012 Coram IAC was accepted as a partner agency by the Central Authority of the Philippines, ICAB.  Currently The Philippines is seeking to find families for children in the following categories through their special home finding programme:

• Children with physical or mental disabilities or both including global delay
• Children with correctable conditions (e.g heart conditions, club foot)
• Older children 8 plus
• Siblings groups of two or more (generally older children unless the groups are of four or more children).

Eligibility for The Philippines

• Single adopters and heterosexual married couples may apply
• Prospective adopters must be at least 27 years of age at the time of application
• They must be at least 16 years older than the child to be adopted; the female prospective adoptive parent has to be less than 43 years to be considered for a child under one year of age
• The maximum age gap between the prospective adoptive parent (generally the female prospective adoptive parent) and the child to be adopted must not exceed 45 years at the time of matching (exemptions can be made in cases of relative adoption, special needs children, and step parent adoption).

Please enquire with the Advice Line for further information about eligibility.

Who can use the special programme?

Prospective adopters who consider adoption of a special needs child from the Philippines must be:

• Eligible to adopt from The Philippines – Please check eligibility with the Advice Line
• Approved to adopt, with advice that the approval is for a child with special needs from the Philippines
• Not be adopting an identified child.

Prospective Adopters living outside of the Local Authorities who contract Coram IAC to undertake their assessments may need to request an assessment of their Local Authority before joining the Philippines Special Needs programme but please speak to Coram IAC before you make an enquiry about becoming an approved adopter.

There is a service charge to adopters for this service.

For further information about the special programme please contact the Coram IAC Advice Line.