China Hong Kong Adoption Program

Nightlight offers international adoption from Hong Kong, known officially as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR), and is a special administrative region in south Eastern China. This program was launched in 2011 and has been a successful program for families interested in adopting special needs children. Nightlight works directly with two social welfare institutes approved by the Hong Kong Central Authority to do intercountry adoption. Those institutes are Po Leung Kuk (PLK) and International Social Services (ISS).

Nightlight began a partnership with Po Leung Kuk (a social service organization in HKSAR) to place orphaned children into loving homes in 2011. Our partnership with International Social Services (ISS) has been in place since 2017. We work directly with these two social welfare institutes who are approved by the Central Authority of Hong Kong to conduct intercountry adoption. Hong Kong, SAR is a party to The Hague convention as well.

All children adopted from China Hong Kong are considered to have special placement needs. PLK and ISS make available a list to Nightlight of waiting children. This program is unique because prospective adoptive families receive a great deal of information about the child they are considering including medical reports from the time the child entered care; educational reports; social history; and as much information about the birth family as has been recorded. When a family expresses an interest in adopting a specific child, they make application with either PLK or ISS, the social welfare institute currently responsible for matching that child.

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To learn more about adopting from Hong Kong, you may contact us, call our office at (502) 423-5780, or email Rebecca Tolson at Rebecca@nightlight.org

View available children.Children from 1 year to 15 years of age with special placement needs are available for adoption. Special placement needs may include medical health needs, mental health needs, or birth family issues. Some waiting children have moderate to severe special needs such as Thalassemia or Down syndrome and some children over the age of 8 years are available who have no apparent medical problems. To view waiting children from China Hong Kong, please visit our waiting child page on adoptionbridge.org

Hong Kong SAR’s eligibility requirements include married couples must be at least 25 years of age and may not be more than 45 years older than the child they wish to adopt. Applicants must be married at least 3 years. When it is a second marriage, applicants must be married for at least 5 years. Singles may also adopt from HKSAR but must have sufficient child care experience and a strong support network. Applicants need to be in good physical health and have a stable income. Hong Kong, SAR prefers families with no more than 3 children in the home.

Families submit an application, home study, and dossier to Hong Kong. Once the documents are received and reviewed, the Hong Kong Central Authority through the approved social welfare institute sends the family a referral of a child meeting the family’s specifications. The screening and referral process takes about 8 to 12 weeks, as long as a child is available that meets the family’s criteria. If a family has pre-identified a waiting child, they will receive that child’s full referral upon submitting their application. The Hong Kong Central
Authority will review the family’s documents and provide an official match. This can take 6-10 months. Once the match is accepted by the family, the legal procedures in Hong Kong  take approximately 8 weeks and the family is granted guardianship by the court in Hong Kong. Your family will then process the I-800 with immigration here in the US and upon approval of your I-800, either PLK or ISS will apply for the visa and passport for the child. The visa is granted prior to the family traveling to Hong Kong so time spent in Hong Kong
can be spent simply bonding with your child. The entire adoption process from Hong Kong generally takes about 18 months.

Both prospective adoptive parents are required to travel to Hong Kong SAR to accept placement of the child. Time in country is approximately 7 days though this time may vary slightly. Families receive guardianship orders from the Hong Kong SAR court and then finalize their adoption in the US upon return. Travel to HKSAR is comfortable for most families as it has many of the modern conveniences we have here in the US and because the city is trilingual speaking English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.

Nightlight Christian Adoptions is committed to preparing families for the adoption of a child with special needs. We provide pre- and post-adoption education and information regarding medical resources.

HKSAR requires the first post placement report at 1 month after arrival home and then 4 quarterly reports in the first 12 months after the child returns to the US. This is a total of 5 reports to be completed by your home study social worker and photos of your family and your adopted child are included.

The program fee for a Hong Kong adoption is around $10,000. Additional estimated expenses of $11,915 – $16,815 will bring the total cost to approximately $21,915 – $26,815. Your out-of-pocket expenses may further be reduced if you receive scholarships or employer-provided adoption benefits. For additional fee information please see Exhibit A.

Please call or e-mail Rebecca Tolson, Rebecca@nightlight.org or at (502) 423-5780 with any questions.

Hong Kong Adoption Program Details
  • Children will be 12 months of age and older
  • Adopting parents must be between 25-55 years of age
  • Referral times will typically range from 6-10 months
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