New Age Guidelines for Colombian Families

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ICBF recently announced a major change in the adoptions process. This will significantly impact adoptive families of Colombian origin. In turn, this will also have an impact on foreign families who are on the waiting list to adopt. Let me explain.

Previously all adoptive parents -- Colombian or Foreign --wishing to adopt a child younger than 36 months (0-3 years) needed to be 38 years of age or younger. Now, while foreign adoptive parents must still be younger than 38 years of age, Colombian adoptive parents may be up to 40 years of age to qualify to adopt from this youngest age category.

Additional changes include: Colombian families 41-45 years of age may adopt a child 3-4 years of age, while foreign families must be 39-41 years of age. Colombian families wishing to adopt a 5-6 year old will be between 46-50 years of age, and foreign families for this same category must be between 42-45 years of age. Finally, Colombians up to 54 years of age may adopt a child as young as 7 years of age. Foreigners must be younger than 49 to do the same.

This change was made in hopes of encouraging more Colombians to adopt Colombian children. Might I first say that this is really wonderful news for Colombian kids because it means that more children will be able to remain in their birth country, or at least have one parent from that country.

This, however, could potentially impact the wait lists for all of these categories. In fact, ICBF writes in a footnote on the new document "The Wait List for these age ranges may be impacted by this change." It is unknown to me how many Colombian families are currently on the wait list, however, this change might encourage more Colombians to consider adoption, and all Colombians, whether in Colombia or living abroad, receive priority over all foreign families in the process of adoption.

Comments

Anonymous said…
wow, thanks for that information. I have been following your blog closely and enjoy the content. always so enlightening. I am a Colombian adoptee and find this information very helpful in staying connected with Colombian culture.

Joshua Miguel
October 21, 2010 at 3:57 PM
tara said…
Thanks for this information. Do you know if these ages refer to the parents' age at time the dossier is submitted or the age at time of adoption, because in some cases there are many years difference between the two.
October 23, 2010 at 11:22 PM
Colombian Mommy said…
The age refers to the age of parents at the time their dossier is approved by ICBF. And again remember only Colombian Families have had a change is adoptive parent age range.
October 24, 2010 at 6:32 PM
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