Bringing Canadian Adoptive Families Home

International adoptions can be tedious and often take a very long time (years) to complete. This is something that all potential Canadian adoptive parents are fully aware of when entering the process. However, what is not foreseen is the immense amount of additional time required to obtain the proper travel documents to allow the adopted child(ren) to enter Canada. We believe that once an adoption is finalized the children should be able to travel to Canada in an efficient manner, allowing the new family to begin their life together in their new home.

Currently there are far too many families becoming stuck in the country of adoption for many months (up to a year) following completion of the adoption, while immigration papers are processed granting the child(ren) citizenship or permanent residence. It seems that the Canadian Embassies in some countries are more efficient at granting these papers than others, and since visitor visas are rarely granted to children in these situations there is no other solution for these families than to simply wait. Often the parents are forced to give up employment in Canada or the families are separated during this waiting period, with one parent returning to Canada, in order to provide financially for the children. 

Many other countries (including, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, even the UK) have visas or travel documents specifically provided to adopted children allowing them to stay for an indefinite amount of time in their new home country while citizenship or residency is acquired. We believe that Canada needs to follow suit. So many families are wanting to adopt internationally. To open their hearts and homes to the children who need it most in this world (something that Canada advocates for as a country by supporting refugees and immigrants who have nowhere else to turn). With so many families facing incredible obstacles in bringing their legally adopted children home, potential adoptive parents are becoming deterred from pursuing the same path, which is such a shame and will leave so many children without the love of a forever family. 

Please, let's work together with our government to implement a similar system as that available in other countries, and provide special Adoption Visas to children who have been legally adopted internationally. These visas would provide all the rights and privileges to the adopted children as are available to any other resident of Canada. Once the parents have provided proof that the adoptions were conducted ethically, and were in the best interest of the child(ren), the child(ren) should be allowed to enter Canada without months and months of waiting for citizenship to be granted. Currently, part I of citizenship can take up to 8 months to process and part II a further 6-12 months depending on the embassy processing the paperwork. While it is understood why the process for citizenship can sometimes take an extended period of time, it is not understood why the legal children of Canadian citizens are being forced to wait these extended periods of time outside of Canada.

It is for these reasons that we are appealing to the Canadian Government, specifically the Department for Immigration and Citizenship, to implement an Adoption Visa. This visa would be available to fully adopted children and would providing them with the ability to enter and remain in Canada indefinitely until their citizenship or residency paperwork is processed.

Thank you for your time, and for your commitment to ensuring Canadians are granted the opportunity to pursue international adoptions knowing that their children will be granted a life of love and freedom in our beautiful country.