Samoa Adoption Program

• View children available 
• Samoan children from infancy to teens are available for adoption.
• Children available are of Polynesian (Pacific Islander) descent.
• Both boys and girls are available and gender preference may be specified.
• Sibling groups are available.
• Children with Special Needs are available for adoption.

Married couples and singles may adopt from Samoa.  Married couples must be between 23-55 years of age.  Singles must be at least 24 years old at the time of the I-600A filing and 25 years old at the time of the I-600 filing.  Applicants must be in good health, show financial stability and the ability to provide financially and emotionally for a child through adulthood.  Canadian residents may be eligible to adopt from Samoa subject to the approval of their home study agency and approval by their provincial authority

1. Submit application to Nightlight Christian Adoptions
2. Complete your adoption home study and submit form I-600A to USCIS.
3. Begin to assemble your dossier. We will give you detailed instructions.
4. For U.S. families, once USCIS has approved you to adopt from Samoa, you will receive your I-171H approval notice.
5. For Canadian families, once you have received your Part 1 Immigration approval, you may proceed with dossier preparation.
6. Once your USCIS approval has been received (or your Part 1 Immigration approval for Canadians), your dossier is complete, your dossier is sent to Samoa and your name added to the waitlist to be matched with a child. Current approximate wait times to be matched with a child are anticipated to be 24 – 48 months and are dependent on the characteristics of child you are hoping to adopt and the children eligible for adoption at the time you are placed on the wait list.
7. Upon referral acceptance, NCA will assist you with updating your dossier if needed and processing of your Court adoption petition.
8. You will complete the Court legal process and Attorney General approval process, which generally takes 9 – 12 months to complete.
9. Upon Court approval of your adoption, the attorney in Samoa will obtain your child’s post-adoption birth certificate, Samoan passport and for U.S. families your child’s New Zealand travel visa.
10. Upon completion of your legal adoption process in Samoa, NCA will assist U.S. families with filing your form I600, for Canadian families, you will file application through Canadian Immigration and Citizenship (CIC).
11. Upon provisional approval of U.S. form I600, your file is sent to the U.S. Embassy in Auckland, New Zealand for visa processing. For Canadians, your file is processed through Australia.
12. Once your child’s visa is approved by the U.S. embassy, you will travel to Apia Samoa to meet your child, then onto Auckland New Zealand for visa medicals and final visa processing.
13. Once your child’s visa is received you travel home with your child!
14. Please note, Canadians are only required to travel to Apia Samoa and not required to travel to Auckland New Zealand. Visa processing for Canadians occurs in Australia and application for adopted children is made through Canadian Immigration and Citizenship (CIC). Canadians travel once to Samoa and return to Canada with their adopted child.
15. The children reside at the SVSG shelter while waiting adoption.
16. Samoa adoptions can take on average from 30 – 60 months to complete from dossier submission.

You receive a proposed match of a child from Nightlight Christian Adoptions in collaboration with SVSG.  The child’s documents will include a medical examination of the child, a photo of the child, applicable consents and legal paperwork and any available known history. We highly recommend that you have this information reviewed by a doctor who specializes in international adoption before you make a decision. Once you decide to accept the proposed match, you will be considered “matched” with the child. You will then wait to complete the legal adoption process in Samoa, apply for the child’s visa, then wait for an invitation to travel to Samoa to bring your child home.  Most families invited to travel will receive approximately a four week notice prior to travel.  When you are invited to travel, you will know the date of your embassy visa appointment (U.S. families).     U.S families travel to Samoa to be united with their child(ren), and then travel to Auckland, New Zealand to attend the child’s visa medical appointment, the embassy appointment, and receive the child’s Orphan Visa.

Canadian families only travel to Apia Samoa to bring their child home. Both parents are not required to travel to bring the child home.

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.

Within 30 days of your arrival home, you must have a home visit by your home study provider. Your home study provider will prepare a full post-adoption reports and submit them to Nightlight Christian Adoptions at 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months from the date of placement and pictures of the child with family, every three months for the first year e-mailed to the parents’ program director.  Reports include your child’s developmental progress and pictures. This is a very serious commitment; Nightlight Christian Adoptions is committed to showing the Samoan Government and birth families that children adopted by US citizens are healthy and well cared for. Compliance with post adoption reports is also required by the U.S. Department of State.  Therefore, Nightlight charges a fee to monitor and process these post placement reports and also requires families to pay for the cost of the post placement report in advance.