There’s this kid, my daughter’s age in the Philippines. I won’t go in to details, but both her parents abandoned her, since her birth. She’s being raised by my wife’s parents. My daughter and her are friends. I think they’ll make great sisters. The parents & the current caretakers are okay with us adopting her.
I asked my wife to look in to the laws/process in the Philippines. But I am more concerned about recognition in Taiwan, and dealing with TECO Manila and all that cabal again (immigration, MOI etc…).
Will we be able to bring her here easily ? Will she get rights as a daughter of a citizen ? I need to ask because I can’t even get freakin rights for my own daughter, due to the clusterf%#k that is Taiwan’s “foreigner’s” laws.
Just want to guage how many years of suffering will it take to give her a home here in Taiwan.
I think the best you can do is to provide financial support or maybe get her over to live here and go to school here somehow.
This is from hearsay, but to qualify to adopt even within Taiwan you need to enter a years long process of training and going to sessions before you can be deemed ready (even if you have children). And if you are over 40-ish or so you do not qualify to adopt anyway as you are too old.
Could you adopt her in the Philippines and then get her a dependent visa? She would have to renounce at 18 as your first daughter to get Taiwanese citizenship.
Adopting at 40 when they grew to be 20 you’d be 60 at most .
I think if you had enough money maybe she could go to school here as a foreign student . Like a weekly boarder ? I’ve heard there are decent boarding schools here .
You’d be like her legal guardian rather than adopted father)mother.
A weekly boarder is one who goes home at weekends. But home would be stay with you guys at the weekends . I think that might be an easier route if you have the money.
I am not sure about the exact age. I have heard stuff. I just remember it is difficult and you become a less ideal adopter beyond 40.
Having said all this, everyone that is serious about adoption should do their due diligence and definitely persue that idea. Being a parent to a child is wonderful.
Yes, it’s doable. We are talking to relevant authorities there to see if we can get it done from there. Then, I’ll only need to figure out how to get her a dependent visa from a TECO then ARC.
I just need to check if and how Taiwan acknowledges adoption processed in another country.
I think that’s okay. In her case, the urgency isn’t citizenship, but getting a home. Even just an ARC is acceptable, initially. Just to get her in to Taiwan is the priority.
Also, I just dealt with the Manila TECO folks. They were extremely helpful. I used an agent here in Taiwan to do my paperwork and she said the Manila folks are really great to work with.
Email them with your situation. They’ll probably get back to you asap.
I’d also contact an adoption lawyer in Manila, maybe ask about power of attorney.
Thank you for saying that but I think anyone in my position would do this, if they just met this child. She is kind and sweet, and it’s heartbreaking to see her alone since birth without any parents.
I actually invited her to Taiwan on visa on arrival. She was with us for 2 weeks. She’d copy my daughter and call me papa. So now I have no choice, I need to do it.
Wow, realy ? I am surprised to hear that. Unfortunately, we haven’t had good experiences with them. We work with them like on a daily basis. My wife and I run an agency to help Filipinos in Taiwan with marriages, burial subsidies etc… We (me especially) lock horns with them quite often.
I’m pretty sure it’s an age difference thing and not a cut off age. Like you can’t be more than 40 years older than the adoptee, not that you can’t adopt after age 40
The kid I want to adopt is my wife’s niece’s daughter. She is being raised by my parents in law and they are struggling to raise her. No one else is stepping up, which is why I want to do it.
I don’t know if she falls in to above category, i.e I can’t adopt her because she is an in-law of sorts.
Paogao got himself adopted here to a Taiwanese family and that’s how he become a citizen but he also had to renounce.
As you are now a citizen with HHR and ID card an adopted child would like your daughter not be able to renounce Philippines citizenship as a child and end up in your daughters situation.
Of course first you would need to become the legal adopted parents of the child in the Philippines.
Wow! That’s incredible. First time I’ve heard this.
That’s what we are trying to do. We want to finish the adoption process in the Philippines first and then figure out how to get that acknowledged in Taiwan.
In her case, the highest priority is just getting her into Taiwan and giving her a home and a family. It doesn’t matter if she’s on ARC, as long as she can stay here long-term, go to school, and have a normal life.
It’s in process, but going very slowly. I want to finish as much of the adoption procedure as possible in Philippines before having to deal with Taiwanese authorities.
Turns out adoption in Philippines is not easy. It’s especially difficult for foreigners. There’s a lot of beauracracy involved and in some cases it can take years.
We will need to do it by ourselves, so it will take some time.
I am currently preparing documents for the initial application. They asked for police clearance covering the last 15 years, so I need to get one from Taiwan and one from my home country (which is difficult because I am no longer a citizen there). But I should have these ready this month.
Hopefully, I can get the first set of documents ready and be able to file the application within 6 months.
I will not give up on the child as I promised her already. But to be honest, I don’t have high hopes of success, as long as I am in Taiwan, especially since I’ve miserably failed to get my own biological daughter listed in my household register. I don’t even know how I’ll get it done for an adopted child.
In case you are interested, here’s a rough checklist (for part of the process) :
Undertaking and Application Form
PSA copies of birth records of the adoptive parent/s and the child;
Marriage Certificate or CENOMAR in SECPA copy or Decree of Annulment or Authenticated Divorce papers
Written consent of the child ten years of age or over;
Written consent of marital and adopted children of adoptive parent/s, ten years of age or over
Written consent of marital of the biological father or mother of a marital child or of the biological mother of a non-marital child
PSA Copy of the Death Certificate of the child’s biological parent/s, if applicable
Result of the Medical Evaluation of the child
Result of the medical evaluation of the adoptive parent/s by a duly Physician (Serology for Syphilis, Urinalysis, Blood Pressure and xray) prepared within 6 months prior to application
Psychological Evaluation report of the adoptive parent/s within two years based on the date of the report
Psychological Evaluation report of the child five years old and above within two years based on the date of the report
Letters attesting to the character and general reputation of the adoptive parent/s from at least three non-related character references. The contact details of the person attesting and the date when the letter was prepared must be indicated in the document;
NBI Clearance or Police Clearances or Court Clearance
Latest ITR or any document showing financial capacity
Recent 5R (127X178 millimeter) close-up and whole body-pictures of the adoptee and the PAP/S taken within the last six-months;
Child Study Report and Home Study Report of adoptive parent/s - to be prepared by M/CSWD Social Worker
*Forms provided by the RACCO
Undertaking and Application Form
Medical Evaluation Form
Undertaking Regarding Completion of Adoption Trainings, Fora, Counseling, and Seminars
