With the close assistance of your FTC case manager, you will prepare a foreign dossier for your Kazakhstan adoption. We will have your dossier translated and sent to the Kazakhstan Embassy for approval. Next, FTC will send your dossier to Kazakhstan and wait to receive an invitation for you to travel. Parents in our Kazakhstan adoption program should be prepared to receive their travel invitation quickly (currently one to three months after the dossier is sent to Kazakhstan). 

Once your Letter of Invitation has arrived from the Kazakhstan officials, we will schedule your adoption trip. No adoption agency is legally permitted by the authorities in Kazakhstan to make an official child referral before the parent travels.

Our team in Kazakhstan ensures that FTC parents will only be invited to travel if there are orphaned children cleared for adoption who meet your desired gender and age preferences. This is important, as no hopeful parent wants to travel to a foreign country only to find that there is not an appropriate child match. 

FTC is able to offer three unique travel options and parents may choose the option that suits their circumstances. 

During all in-country adoption business, FTC parents are accompanied by a bi-lingual team member. You will have a translator and driver in Almaty and also in the region of your child’s orphanage. Our team will take excellent care of you while you are there.

One to two weeks after you commit to your child, there will be a court hearing, after which parents travel depending on the travel option previously chosen.   

Kazakhstan Adoption – The Details

Phase I  - The Paper Chase

This part of the process can be especially overwhelming but with our expert advice and support, you will finish! First, you will be assigned an FTC case manager who will closely assist you with all of these details (among other things). In addition to being adoption professionals, all of our FTC case managers are adoptive parents themselves, so they understand what you are going through.

You will need an international home study, a dossier, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approval. If you are not in Texas, your FTC case manager will provide you with contact information for our recommended homestudy provider in your area.

Once your dossier is finished and reviewed by your FTC case manager, you will send it to us. We will assure that it is complete and correct, and then have it translated into Russian. Next, it will be forwarded to the Kazakhstan Embassy in the US. The Embassy then approves and certifies your dossier and returns it to FTC. From there, your dossier goes to Kazakhstan.

Once your dossier has been approved by the Kazakhstan government, you will be assigned to a region (depending on where there are children in need of families who meet your specified criteria). You will then be issued a letter of invitation. Typically a letter of invitation to travel is received in our office within one to three months of your dossier arriving in Kazakhstan. A letter of invitation for older children can happen more quickly.

Phase II  - The Adoption Process: Travel, Referral and Court

Parents (both if married) travel to Kazakhstan. You will travel first to Almaty from the US and then on to one of the regions in which we work. Your adoption then progresses in the following general order:

• Visit the Regional Ministry of Education for an interview to be matched with a child
• 14 day bonding period, visiting child's orphanage daily
• Kazakhstan court hearing
• Legal process to finalize adoption and complete regional paperwork for child (including mandatory 15 day appeal period)
• Medical exam from U.S. Embassy doctor in Almaty
• U.S. Embassy Interview with family
• Register adoption with Kazakhstan Consular in Astana via courier
• Bring your child home!

For more detail about the trip in Kazakhstan, see our Kazakhstan Travel Information page.

Don't forget to check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for more in-depth information and the answers to questions parents ask most often.