5 Things to Know About Our Bulgaria Adoption Program

Did you know that Holt has a Bulgaria adoption program?

Holt is a long-standing partner of Vesta, a licensed agency in Bulgaria with over 20 years of experience advocating for children, especially children with special needs and older children who have been waiting a long time for a family.

Here are five things you should know about adopting from Bulgaria:

1. Boys, girls and siblings, ages 2 to 15, of Bulgarian, Turkish and Roma heritage are waiting in Bulgaria for families. The majority of children are 5 to 14 years old or part of a sibling group.

2. Children waiting for adoptive families from Bulgaria have varying degrees of special needs. The most common are related to institutionalization, abuse and neglect and parents should be willing to learn about and meet the needs of children with developmental trauma.

3. Bulgaria is one of the most flexible and open country programs in terms of eligibility. Couples, single men and single women are eligible to adopt through the Bulgaria adoption program, although single men will only be approved to adopt a boy age 8 or older with moderate to significant special needs. Applicants must be at least 25 years old. Parent eligibility may be flexible depending on the needs of the child.

4. The wait time to adopt from Bulgaria varies depending on the profile of child and their needs and ages. Your wait time to be matched depends on the profile of child you are approved to adopt, and could be 1 to 5 years. Families who are more open in terms of age, gender and special needs will see shorter wait times. When a family applies to adopt a waiting child, the wait time is limited to the time it takes to assess and approve the match — making the overall process approximately 12-18 months from application to placement.

5. Bulgaria requires two trips. The first trip is one week and will occur about 1-6 weeks after you’re matched with a child, and the second trip is approximately 10 days and will occur 3-6 months after the first trip.