My husband and I have been looking into this last year (China as well) and this is what we found out during an information evening from the Department of Child, Youth and Family: www.cyf.govt.nz

China: Intercountry Adoption Programme (Info is from Feb 2005)

Programme: China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA), Ministry of Civil Affairs, The People's Republic of China Website: http://www.china-ccaa.org

Legislation: The adoption occurs in China and is recognised in NZ under section 17 of the Adoption Act 1955

Hague Convention: The adoption is not a Hague Convention adoption as China is yet to ratify the Convention. The intercountry adoption arrangement between NZ and China however does follow the same Hague processes and incorporates the same principles and safeguards.

Citizenship: One or both the applicants must be a NZ citizen and habitually resident in NZ.

Age of applicants: Applicants must be aged over 30 yrs or over. There is no legislated age ceiling; however one spouse must be under 55. If one spouse is under 45 a child less than 12 months may be offered. Applicants over 50 yrs may be offered a 3 to 6 yr old child.

Applicant couples: Marriage is required. Couples in a defacto, gay or lesbian relationship are not accepted. No restrictions are placed on the marital history or number of divorces.

Single applicants: Single applicants can apply. There is a quota on numbers of single applicants of 8% of the total applications from any one country. Gay or lesbian applicants are not accepted.

Religion: No requirement, but members of the Jehova's Witness congregation are not eligible.

Infertility: not a criterion

Health: Healthy applicants are required. Applicants with any type of contagious or serious disease will bot be acecpted. E.g. diabetes, psychiatric conditions, cancer. An applicant who has had cancer will need to have been in recovery from treatment for at least 5 yrs.

Number of children in the family: Applicants must have no more than 4 children (which includes both birth and adopted children) in their family. A minimum of 18 months age difference must exist between children already in the family and the child to be placed.

Description and age of children: Infants and older children in the care of the State. The average age of children at time of offer is 11 months and the majority are female. Only 1 child may be adopted at a time unless a sibling group. The child must be under 14 yrs of age to be eligible for NZ citizenship.

Waiting time between receipt of documentation in China to a child being matched: Approx. 7-14 months

Time between acceptance of a mathce child by applicants and travel:
Approx. 2-3 months

Travel requirements: Both applicants are requried to travel and length of stay in China is up to 2 weeks to finalise the adoption. Other children may accompany the applicants. The China Travel Service acts as interpreter and escort. The applicants generally travel in groups.

Child's background: Medical background, very limited social history (as most children are abandoned) and detailed developmental assessment provided for each child. To date none of the placed children have been provided with identifying information about their birth family.

Approximate costs: $NZ 7,500 adoption, Government fees, immigration, citizenship; $NZ 2,500 internal travel, accommodation and cost of Travel Service interpreter/escort/assistance per person + travel to and from China (We've been told during the evening that it will approx cost $25,000)

Post placement reports: Following the adoption China requires 2 post placement reports on the adoptive family - 1 at 6 months and 1 at 12 months after placement

Sorry it's longer than I thought, but this is all the information we received from CYF.

Hope it will do for you guys for now...