1. Apply to local Health Board or approved Agency for an Adoption Assessment;
A written application should be made to the Adoption / Fostering-Adoption
section of your Health Board or to an approved Adoption Agency. Once the application is made, the Health Board
or Agency deal with your application in due course and guidance in respect of
preparation etc. for the assessment should be sought from your local Health Board or Adoption Agency. In general terms, the assessment amounts to the compilation of
information about the prospective adoptive couple. One could certainly
anticipate coverage of the couple’s individual and joint personalities and
backgrounds (detailed individual & joint interviews), their financial
security (P.60s, trading accounts, schedule of assets etc.), their
health/infertility(medical reports), their good character (Garda Clearance
& personal testimonials) etc. At present, the assessment procedure is
being standardized for all Health Board areas.
2. Take up Declaration of Suitability and Eligibility from the
Adoption Board: Upon completing an adoption assessment, the Health Board or Adoption Agency
will forward it’s Assessment Report (or Home Study) to the Adoption
Board who then consider it. If satisfied with the applicants’ suitability
and eligibility to adopt, the Adoption Board issues a Declaration of
Suitability to adopt. This document, along with the Health Board or Adoption Agency’s report
should then be forwarded to the applicant(s). The Declaration of Suitability
expires after 12 months and consequently should be continually renewed until
the final Irish Adoption order is made.
3. Compile an Application to Adopt from Thailand:
Applicants must complete a Thai Adoption Application Form (copies available
for TAG (£5.00 for form, post, ancillary materials etc.) or the Irish Adoption Board) and compile a series of ancillary
documents which the Thai authorities
require. This completed application entails a considerable degree of
duplication with materials sought by the Health Board or Adoption Agency for it’s assessment
(most, or all of which, will not have been returned to applicants and will
have to be obtained a second time). A list of the required materials set out
in an Index to Booklet format can be seen at the LIST button. When
compiling the Application, applicants would be well advised to liaise with
the Adoption Board to ensure you are up to date with the Thai requirements.
It is vital to appreciate that an Application does not really enter the
system in Thailand until it is full and complete. If there are difficulties,
it will delay an application for as long as such difficulties remain. This
phase is the only one where an applicant has any real input into the
efficiency of the application. Do this well.
4. Furnish the Application to the Adoption Board for checking.
This is a facility whereby assembled application documentation can be
reviewed to ensure that it is in order and therefore unlikely to encounter
difficulties in Thailand. Applicant’s would obviously be well advised to
heed the guidance from the Adoption Board following such a check.
5. Copy, Bind, Notarise and Authenticate the Application.
This entails the attendance at a series of Official Agencies in Dublin in
order to have an Application properly certified for forwarding to and
recognition in a foreign country: ie Thailand. A detailed guide through this
procedure is set out under the ENDORSEMENTS button. Upon completion
of this phase, applicants should possess 3 notarised
application booklets (1 original; 2 copies)
6. Place the Application with the Adoption Board for forwarding to
Thailand. Applicants should present the original booklet and one of
the copies with the Adoption Board. The Adoption Board forwards the original
booklet to Thailand on your behalf and retains one copy booklet. You retain
the other copy booklet. You should check with the Adoption Board after about
1 to 2 weeks to ensure that the documents have arrived in Thailand and are
in order.
7. Matching & Traveling to Thailand. Notification of
being matched with a Thai child is received by applicants from Thailand via
the Adoption Board. If applicants accept the matching (which, at
this stage is for the purposes of pre-adoption placement with the
Applicant(s)), travel arrangements
are put in place. Bring the 3rd Copy Booklet with you along with
the original Immigration Clearance and original Declaration of Eligibility
and Suitability. In Thailand, the child is initially
placed in the custody of the adoptive parents by the child home management.
Before leaving Thailand however, it is necessary to attend and be approved
by a Child Adoption Centre Panel Meeting of the Thai Department of Public Welfare in Bangkok. This
meeting is usually brief and informal. Following this meeting, the child is
placed formally in the parents custody and documentation is executed for
that purpose and to enable parents bring the child out of Thailand. This is
not however a final adoption order: it is a pre-adoption placement.
8. Returning to Ireland with your child. For this
purpose, parents will require all necessary documentation to enable the
child to be brought out of Thailand (as furnished after the Board Meeting in
Bangkok) and into Ireland (Immigration Clearance from Dublin).
9. Post-Placement Monitoring & the Final Thai Adoption Order.
The final Thai adoption order issues from the Royal Thai Embassy in London.
Before that occurs, a Health Board or Adoption Agency Social Worker will have visited and prepared
for forwarding to Thailand, 3 bi-monthly post-placement reports confirming that the
placement has been proceedings satisfactorily. The last of these reports
must be dated at least 6 months after returning to Ireland. The Royal Thai
Embassy, upon being advised to so do by the Department of Public Welfare in
Bangkok, will invite the parents and the child to make an appointment to
travel London for the execution of the Final Adoption Order. To date, no TAG
couple has encountered difficulties at this phase.
10. Recognition & Registration in Ireland. The Final
Thai Adoption order with an officially recognised translation can be furnished to
the Adoption Board and saving very exceptional difficulties, the adoption
will be entered in the Register of Foreign Adoptions and an Adoption
Certificate will issue to the parents. Such a foreign adoption order has
equal status to a domestic adoption order. . To date, no TAG couple has
encountered difficulties at this phase. Indeed, the Adoption Certificate has
generally arrived, if not by return, then certainly within a week or two.
