The Legal Provisions of an Adoption Procedure

The legal provisions regulating national and international adoption procedure in Russia are:

• Family Code (Chapter 19, art. 165);
• Code of Civil Procedure (Chapter 29);
• Federal Law dated the 16^th of April 2001 No 44-ФЗ ‘The State Data Base on Children Left Without Parental Care’.
• Decree of the Government dated the 29^th of March 2000 No 275 ‘Rules about Placement of Children with View of Adoption and Monitoring of Conditions of Their Life and Education in Families in Russia and Rules about Registration of Children who are Russian Citizens Adopted by Foreign Citizens by Russian Consulars’ (last modification the 14^th of December 2019);
• Decree of the Government dated the 4^th of April 2002 No 217 ‘The State Data Base on Children Left Without Parental Care and Monitoring of its Formation and Use’;
• Decree of the Government dated the 4^th of November 2006 No 654 ‘Foreign Adoption Agencies and Their Activity in Russia’.

Who can be adopted?

 Only a child under the age of 18 can be adopted. Additional requirements for intercountry adoption regarding adoptability of a child are:

• the child cannot be placed in a foster family in Russia;
• relatives of the child, regardless of their citizenship and place of residence are not willing to adopt him/her;
• twelve months have passed from the date of entry of information about a child in the Federal Data Base on Children Left Without Parental Care.

Who can adopt? 

Joint and sole applications can be made, but only a married couple can make a joint application.  A 16-years difference between the prospective adopter(s) and the child is necessary (Art.128 of the Family Code). Neither maximum age limit nor a maximum age difference between the adopter(s) and the adoptee is required.

Art.127 of the Family Code imposes certain requirements on prospective adopters. They are formulated negatively in the sense that the article contains a list of circumstances that make a prospective adopter unsuitable to adopt. Thus, persons who are not suitable to adopt are:

• persons who are incapable or enjoy limited capacity;
• persons deprived of the right of parental custody;
• ex-adopters, if the previous adoption was revoked through his/her fault;
• persons with previous criminal convictions;
• persons whose income does not allow them to financially cover rearing a child;
• persons who don’t possess a permanent place of residence;
• persons whose accommodation conditions do not conform to sanitary and technical requirements and standards;
• persons who cannot discharge their parental duties due to health conditions;
• persons who have not completed parental training courses (“School of Foster Parents”) in Russia or, for foreign citizens, in a respective country, if the program of parental training courses  satisfies the Russian authority in terms of the subjects covered;
• persons who have registered a same-sex partnership/marriage according to the legislation of a respective country;
• single persons who are citizens of countries where it is possible to register a same-sex partnership/marriage.

Administrative Evaluation Procedure

The candidate(s) applies to the child protection office having enclosed the following documents:

• a CV;
• a document from their place of work indicating the level of their salary;
• a document confirming the rights to their home property;
• a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs indicating that the person has no convictions for a crime against health or life;
• an official medical certificate from a  medical establishment regarding their health condition ;
• a copy of the marriage certificate.
• a single foreign citizen must additionally provide a document, attesting that the legislation of that State does not recognize same-sex partnership as a marriage.

The child protection office proceeds with the evaluation of the candidates.  In case it is positive, the candidates receive a certificate of eligibility, and are able to get access to the Data Base of Children Left Without Parental Care.

It is a criminal offence to make private placements of children for adoption.

Court procedure

The procedure of court hearing of adoption cases is regulated by the Russian Code of Civil Procedure. Courts of the first instance at the place of residence of the child are competent to hear national adoption cases, higher courts are competent to hear international adoption cases (Article 269). The сourt hearing takes place in a closed court session with the participation of

• a child protection office;
• a prosecution office;
• the applicant(s), who may be accompanied by a lawyer, as is always the case in the international adoption cases;
• and eventually of other concerned persons (Article 273of the Code of Civil Procedure).  Who the other concerned persons might be depending on the circumstances of the particular case.

The court must  establish whether Russian citizens were willing  take the child under foster care or to adopt him. Hence, the court abides by Article 124 (4) of the Family Code which lais down  the principle of subsidiarity of international adoption.

If necessary, the court speaks to the experts and psychologists involved to assess whether adoption will be in the best interests of the child.

Specific Requirements for an International Adoption

The question of whether the prospective adoptive parents speak Russian and if not, how they are going to overcome the language barrier, is the focus of the court’s attention in each case. Courts also examine whether the adoptive parents-to-be are going to promote the child’s learning of the Russian language, to encourage the child’s interest in the culture of the Russian Federation.

The court needs to examine whether the parental training school completed by the adoptive parents-to-be meets the criteria established in the instructions approved by the Act of the Ministry of Education  of the 20th of August 2012 No. 623 titled ‘Approval of the Requirements for the Training Program for Persons Wishing to Adopt a Child Left Without Parental Care’.

Parental Agreement

Parent(s) must agree to the adoption  (art. 129 of the Family Code) or be dispensed with (Art. 130 of the Family Code) if a child’s parents:

• are dead;
• their whereabouts is unknown, they have been judicially declared missing or dead;
• they are under curatorship/guardianship;
• they have been deprived of parental authority;
• they abandoned the child for more than 6 months.

Since international adoption cases are difficult, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issues International Adoption Reviews (see f.ex. the Review 2020), where any misapplication of legal provisions in the field of international adoption is highlighted.

The Right to Know One’s Origin

Russian family law still firmly adheres to the principle of strict confidentiality of adoption. Article 135 of the Family Code and Article 270 of the Code of Civil Procedure stipulates that the applicants  may ask the court to modify the name (family name, patronymic and personal name) of a child, his/her place of birth, and his/her age (not more than three months). Moreover, Article  139 of the Family Code stipulates that confidentiality of adoption is guaranteed by law and that all persons involved are liable to keep the secret of adoption and may disclose it only with the consent of the adoptive parents.  Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation as to the Constitutionality  of Article 139 of the Family Code allowed judicial disclosure of the information on adoption to descendants of the adopted person in certain circumstances.

Post-adoption follow-up: Adoptive parents are to submit reports about the well-being of the child either through the Russian Consulate in their country or through an adoption agency.