India

ELIGIBILITY TO ADOPT:

• A married couple with 5 years of a stable relationship.  The financial and health status of the couple with reasonable income to support the child should be evident in the Home Study Report.
• Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) having a composite age of 90 years or less can adopt infants and young children. These provisions may be suitably relaxed in exceptional cases, such as older children and children with special needs, for reasons clearly stated in the Home Study Report. However, in no case should the age of any one of the PAPs exceed 55 years.
• Single persons (never married, widowed, divorced) up to 45 years can also adopt.
• A single adoptive parent must be at least 21 years older that the child to be adopted.
• A Foreign Prospective Adoptive Parent (FPAP) in no case should be less than 30 years or more than 55 years.
• A second adoption from India will be considered only when the legal adoption of the first child is completed.
• Same sex couples are not eligible to adopt.

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS: The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) does not have any residency requirement.   However some Recognized Indian Placement Agencies (RIPA) may ask the PAPs to reside with the child for seven days in India cumulative from the time of identifying the child to the time of departure from India .

TIME FRAME: It generally takes two months after CARA issues the No Objection Certificate (NOC) for a competent court to issue the guardianship/adoption order.    However, the courts have sometimes taken as long as three months.

(All information taken from the U.S. Department of State website)

http://www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/country/country_398.html