# Adopting a Filipino Child



## Darby Allen (Sep 22, 2014)

I've been married to a Filipina for three years now, and we wish to adopt her 11-year-old daughter.
I'd be grateful for any advice, happy endings, horror stories, etc.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

I had such a tough time trying to bring my legally adopted kids in 1992 (two) to the U.S. I even had the passports but couldn't get that Visa so I retired here, I now have grandkids a 2-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy.

The cost in 1993 was well over 100,000 pesos not including all the trips back and forth with our lawyer and the courthouse in Manila, my wife was able to do everything all I had to do was show up and sign documents with the lawyer.


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## Darby Allen (Sep 22, 2014)

Thanks for that. I've no intention of moving my family to the UK, so I don't have to worry about that. It's just that my daughter wants my name/her mother's married name.
I mentioned this in my branch of the BPI once when I was there discussing a mortgage, and they said that they could deal with the whole thing for P50,000! Perhaps that's too good to be true, given that you paid twice that 25 years ago.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Ok we are here in the UK so I don't know if this is possible in the Philippines but we just changed my wife's son name by deed pole, costed about £50.


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## JShannon (Jan 28, 2014)

I am in the final stage of adopting my wife's son. Only substancial $$ is for your Lawyer, ours was 100K. And a lot of patience!! Have to get clearances from Barangay, Municipality, NBI and a couple more for you and your wife, all minor stuff really. Also have to attend a DSWD adoption seminar.

It took 4 court appearances and 2 years right about now, we are supposed to hear the verdict by the end of the year.

My only suggestion is to get a lawyer who has experience in adoptions to make things as quick as possible.

Will update you when we are finished. Feel free to ask any Q's you have.

Cheers


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## Nickleback99 (Aug 6, 2011)

JShannon said:


> I am in the final stage of adopting my wife's son. Only substancial $$ is for your Lawyer, ours was 100K. And a lot of patience!! Have to get clearances from Barangay, Municipality, NBI and a couple more for you and your wife, all minor stuff really. Also have to attend a DSWD adoption seminar.
> 
> It took 4 court appearances and 2 years right about now, we are supposed to hear the verdict by the end of the year.
> 
> ...



Been about 6 months since your post on this and said you were close to hopefully finishing up adoption; so, just wanted to see how it went? We are pursuing same with two nieces of my wife there starting next Spring when we will arrive and they will move in with us. Hoping we can do in 2+ years and then get them back to USA on Visa process. Any updates or new suggestions your end? Thanks in advance.


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## JShannon (Jan 28, 2014)

Hi Nickleback, The adoption was official Feb 27th so I am now officially a Dad, that was a great day!! It took 3 months to get the verdict not the 1 month they suggested.

I didn't post yet because still jumping through a few more hoops. After the court ruling then paperwork has to be sent to MNL to be acknowledged by the Solicitor General I believe it is. It was sent Mar 05, supposed to be back to the local court within 30 days. It seems like the paperwork acknowledging they received it has disappeared. We tried to follow up on it a number of times but always running into a brick wall of how they can't follow up on it. I guess we finally bugged them enough that they sent another copy of the docs to MNL.

Once that is done then the local court here does some magic to make it officially official, if that makes any sense. After that need to get the new birth certificate issued from NSO and it will all be done.

If things go your way it might be done in 2 years, our court appearances were 3 months apart with 2 of them being cancelled which meant more delays. Also make sure nobody mentions your plans to take them to the States. If the court hears that, they will never approve an in-country adoption, you would be forced to it international. A lot longer, tedious and expensive process Doing it in-country they will be wanting to hear you are planning to stay in the PH. 

Best of luck, I will let you know when it's finally done.

Cheers Jerry


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## Nickleback99 (Aug 6, 2011)

Congratulations and Thanks Jerry for the info, feedback and guidance. Awesome for you that you all are able to get it done. I greatly appreciate it and hope that your process rest of the way goes as you hope. It's such a paperwork/carbon paper copy society still, it's amazing how some of it gets done. Enjoy being a Dad and advance Happy Father's Day to you! Regards, JC


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## Nickleback99 (Aug 6, 2011)

Long talk last night after all this and we are just going to go for the long haul, settle down and give the kids the best opportunities there. Maybe they can go to college later on visas or OFW....we can only do so much. Was always the "retirement dream" anyway prior to arrival of our son and want to give it a go now that we found what he needs there. Was hoping for Dumaguete before, but happy to go where we need to go as well. Figure if health goes down the toilet in 20 yrs or so, will always have somewhere to come back to if need medical then. In this world, 20 yrs is a lifetime and all subject to change. Look forward to meeting others over there and living the dream!


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## Zep (Jun 8, 2017)

Nickleback99 said:


> Hoping we can do in 2+ years and then get them back to USA on Visa process. Any updates or new suggestions your end? Thanks in advance.


You might want to dig a little deeper into the USA policies on bringing adopted children in to the US. Years ago I was looking in to this and the only adoptions the USA recognized was those done under the Hague Convention. I don't think a lot of these adoptions done in the PI are under that convention. Also they did not allow the adoption of relatives under this convention.

Things may have changed though.:fingerscrossed:


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## Nickleback99 (Aug 6, 2011)

For sure....see my last just above yours I think. Thanks.


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## Nickleback99 (Aug 6, 2011)

Thanks Everyone for the great insight. All I can say now is “stupid me” And lesson learned: Talk LESS, Listen MORE and Ask LOTS of Questions first. Same as I’d do with any major life event here at home. 🤦🏼*♀ I also did not ask enough follow on questions of Asawa whose close friends and husband succeeded...turns out to a Different western country, Not a close relative and took 10 yrs sounds more the international adoption route overall. So time to just go give the Dream a a shot and help There, wherever that might be. Lots for me to learn in the meantime.


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## Nickleback99 (Aug 6, 2011)

M.C.A. said:


> I had such a tough time trying to bring my legally adopted kids in 1992 (two) to the U.S. I even had the passports but couldn't get that Visa so I retired here, I now have grandkids a 2-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy.
> 
> The cost in 1993 was well over 100,000 pesos not including all the trips back and forth with our lawyer and the courthouse in Manila, my wife was able to do everything all I had to do was show up and sign documents with the lawyer.


Mark, Tried to PM you several times, but they seem to disappear into cyber space and don't show up in Sent of any other messages (my box way below limit). Even tried to just reply to one of our prior PM exchanges on retirement, but nada. Suggestions?


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

Nickleback99 said:


> Mark, Tried to PM you several times, but they seem to disappear into cyber space and don't show up in Sent of any other messages (my box way below limit). Even tried to just reply to one of our prior PM exchanges on retirement, but nada. Suggestions?


I got your emails the trouble is that my internet is down and it worked briefly and I sent you a PM but now it's not working again, I won't have my internet fully restored or possibly upgraded for another two weeks. 

I'll use the internet cafe for now until things are restored.


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## Nickleback99 (Aug 6, 2011)

Thanks Mark...wasn’t even showing in my own Sent mssg so though vanished into the cyber space. Must be the Russians! &#55357;&#56834;


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Sent emails*



Nickleback99 said:


> Thanks Mark...wasn’t even showing in my own Sent mssg so though vanished into the cyber space. Must be the Russians! ��


It's a little tough to find this link but here goes, the above green link if you look under "USER CP" and then off to the left "PRIVATE MESSAGE" and select "LIST MESSAGES" .... Next... the center of the page in green it reads Private Messages in Folder select sent messages.


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## JShannon (Jan 28, 2014)

Hello Nickleback,

Final update on the adoption,

As I mentioned in my last post the paperwork got lost enroute MNL. From here they did send it again to MNL and we got confirmation about 10 days later. Unfortunately that was 3 months wasted waiting for something that wasn't coming. Once we got the confirmation back the Court where the adoption took place had paperwork that needed to be done, Certificate of Authenticity, Certificate of Finality to name a couple of them. From there docs needed to be filed with the Municipal Clerk. 

Then the final step, the Municipal Clerk then forwards the paperwork to MNL again, this time for the new birth certificate. Unfortunately that can take up to 6 months before being issued because it is an adoption. If it was just a request for a BC without an adoption involved it usually takes 3 months.

So that's the saga of our adoption in the Philippines. We will just wait for the new BC to be issued now. Two years and 8 months to this point. Hope all this helps with anybody else looking to adopt here.

Cheers


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Hurry Up and Wait*



JShannon said:


> Hello Nickleback,
> 
> Final update on the adoption,
> 
> ...



Been there done that JShannon and I think it took us a couple years to adopt our kids the burden of paperwork, redundancies, travel to and from Manila several times and the final signature required both of the adopting parents followed by the lawyer who said he'd like to see if we could afford to take care of our kids by treating him to (a very pricey lunch) at Spago's he drove us though.


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