Information on international adoptions from the Republic of Kazakhstan 

 

Currently the adoption legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan is based  on  the  Constitution  of  Kazakhstan,  Convention   on Children's   Rights  (Kazakhstan  joint   this  convention  in  1994), the Marriage and Family Law of Kazakhstan  as well as other laws and regulations.
 

According to the current laws  of  Kazakhstan, Kazakh children are  available  for adoption   by    foreigners    if    the    citizens  of   Kazakhstan, who permanently reside in Kazakhstan, do not take care of them, if relatives of these children  do  not  adopt them, regardless of their citizenship or place of living. In  order  to  regulate  the  process  of  international adoption and according  to  the  article  209  of  the  Marriage  and  Family  Law of Kazakhstan,   remedial   legislation   made   by   the   Government   of Kazakhstan  on  the  12th of November 2002 #1197, the Rules of adoption  of  children - citizens  of Kazakhstan - by foreigners were approved. The children can be adopted by citizens of Kazakhstan who do not reside on the territory of Kazakhstan, by foreigners, who are not relatives of the children, in 3 months after putting the children on the centralized registry at the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan. 

In  compliance  with  the  current  system of adoption, foreign citizens  who  wish  to  adopt  in   Kazakhstan  need  to   turn   to  respctive institutions in Kazakhstan through diplomatic and consular  institutions  of   Kazakhstan   and prepare a dossier according to the following instructions. After the completion of the dossier, it should be delivered to the Consular Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Washington, DC with a cover letter.
 

Afterwards, the adoption dossier is submitted to the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan for consideration by respective institutions. The  registration of foreigners who wish to adopt children from Kazakhstan  is  carried out by diplomatic and consulate institutions of Kazakhstan. The  Ministry  of  Education  and   Science  of  Kazakhstan  and regional Educational Departments have the right to issue invitations to Kazakhstan for foreign prospective adoptive parents. Registration of foreigners as candidates for adoption and issuance of a Kazakh visa  do  not  mean  aiutomatic permission to adopt, because final adoption decisions  in  Kazakhstan are made by judicial authorities only. In  case  of  a positive  court order, respective institutions  of  Kazakhstan  issue  a certificate  for   adoption,  birth certificate and national passport where it is registered that a child heads for a permanent place of residence of his/her adoptive parents.  

According to the Law of Kazakhstan on changes and additions to the Law of Kazakhstan on Kazakh citizenship  of May 17, 2002 #322-11, the child who is a citizen of Kazakhstan and   is   adopted   by   foreigners  maintains his/her citizenship until the age of consent. The child can become the citizen of another country only after coming of age and according to his/her free will. This requirement was introduced to protect the rights of adopted children.