Adopting a baby from China is no longer possible for most American families. On August 28, 2024, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs ended its intercountry adoption program, and civil affairs departments across the country stopped processing foreign adoptions. One narrow exception remains: foreigners may still adopt a stepchild or a child of a blood relative within three generations. Everything else, including cases that were already matched and waiting for travel, has been closed off.1
What Changed in August 2024
The Ministry of Civil Affairs notified the U.S. State Department that, starting August 28, 2024, foreign adoption work would stop entirely except for the relative-adoption exception. The U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou confirmed in early September 2024 that the policy applied to all pending cases, not just new ones.
Roughly 300 American families were mid-process when the announcement came. Some had been matched with specific children and had waited years for travel authorization. China processed the small group of cases that already held travel authorizations, then stopped. By late 2025, the U.S. State Department told the remaining waiting families they had received as final an answer as they were likely to get. Those adoptions will almost certainly never be completed.
Who Can Still Adopt From China
The only path that remains open is adoption of a stepchild or a child of a collateral blood relative within three generations. In practice, that covers a niece or nephew, a grandniece or grandnephew, or the child of a first cousin, as long as the child lives in China. It also covers a Chinese spouse’s child from a previous relationship.
If you do not have that kind of family connection to a child in China, there is no longer a route to adopt from China. General intercountry adoption is closed, and the State Department’s guidance to waiting families indicates it is not expected to reopen.
How the Remaining Process Works
For families who fall inside the relative exception, the same legal framework that governed the closed program still applies. Both China and the United States are parties to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. China’s Central Authority is the China Centre for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA). The U.S. Central Authority is the State Department.
The order of steps is fixed by the Convention. You cannot take custody of a child before USCIS has approved your suitability application and provisionally approved your petition for the specific child. Skipping ahead can make the child ineligible for a U.S. immigrant visa.
Working With an Accredited Agency
Hague adoptions require an adoption service provider accredited or approved through the Intercountry Adoption Accreditation and Maintenance Entity (IAAME). The agency coordinates your home study, prepares the dossier, communicates with Chinese authorities, and guides each stage. The home study itself is extensive: a licensed social worker interviews every household member, visits your home, reviews finances and medical records, and runs criminal background checks.
The Dossier
China requires a packet of personal, financial, and legal documents from every prospective adoptive family. Typical contents include birth certificates, marriage certificates and any divorce decrees, employment verification, medical reports, psychological evaluations, police clearances, and personal reference letters. Every document must be notarized, certified by the secretary of state in the state of notarization, and then authenticated by the Chinese Embassy or a Chinese Consulate. Authentication alone can take several weeks.
USCIS Filings
Two USCIS forms handle the immigration side, and they must be filed in sequence.
Form I-800A comes first. USCIS uses it to determine whether you are suitable to adopt from a Hague country, and you file it before any match. The filing fee is $920. The approval is valid for a limited period. A first or second extension is free; a third or later extension requires a $455 fee for the Supplement 3 filing.
Form I-800 comes after you have accepted a referral for a specific child. It asks USCIS to classify that child as your immediate relative. The first I-800 filed during the I-800A approval period is free. Additional petitions for non-sibling children cost $920 each.
Referral, Travel, and Finalization
Once USCIS approves the I-800A and the authenticated dossier reaches the CCCWA, you wait to be matched. Timelines for relative adoptions under the current exception are not predictable, since so few cases exist.
A referral arrives with photographs, medical history, and social background. Accepting it triggers the Form I-800 filing. After that petition is approved and China issues travel authorization, you travel to China, typically for about two weeks. Most families spend a short time in Beijing and then travel to the child’s home province, where the adoption is registered with the local Civil Affairs Bureau. That registration creates the parent-child relationship under Chinese law. You then obtain the child’s Chinese passport and an exit permit.
Every U.S. adoption immigrant visa interview for a child adopted from China takes place at the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou. It is the last stop before leaving the country.
Citizenship on Arrival
The visa your child receives determines when U.S. citizenship attaches, and the difference matters.
An IH-3 visa is issued when the adoption was fully finalized in China before the child enters the United States. A child arriving on an IH-3 generally acquires U.S. citizenship automatically on entry, as long as the child is under 18 and lives in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent. USCIS mails a Certificate of Citizenship without any further form or fee.
An IH-4 visa is issued when the child is coming to the United States to be adopted here rather than abroad. That child enters as a lawful permanent resident and becomes a citizen only after the adoption is finalized in a U.S. court. You then file Form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship, to obtain the certificate.
The controlling statute is the Child Citizenship Act, codified at 8 U.S.C. ยง 1431. A child born abroad becomes a U.S. citizen automatically when four conditions are all met: at least one parent is a U.S. citizen, the child is under 18, the child is a lawful permanent resident, and the child resides in the United States in the citizen parent’s legal and physical custody.
After You Come Home
Obligations do not end at the airport. China requires post-placement reports, submitted through your adoption agency to the CCCWA, covering the child’s health, development, bonding, and overall well-being. The CCCWA sets the intervals, which historically included reports at one month, six months, twelve months, and then at two, three, and five years after finalization. Some programs also required annual updates until the child turned 18.
On the U.S. side, you should pursue either re-adoption or judicial recognition of the Chinese adoption in your home state. About nine states and Puerto Rico require families to register or validate the foreign decree, and roughly three states require full re-adoption in certain circumstances. In the other states, re-adoption is optional. Even when it is not required, re-adoption protects the Chinese decree from later challenge, secures inheritance rights, and lets you obtain a U.S. birth certificate from your state of residence. You will also need to apply for a Social Security number for your child.
Costs and the Adoption Tax Credit
Historically, adopting from China cost between $20,000 and $40,000 all in. That range covers agency fees, the home study, dossier preparation and authentication, USCIS filing fees, translation, China’s fees, travel and lodging for the two-week trip, and post-adoption report preparation. Home study fees alone typically ran between $1,000 and $5,000 depending on the agency and location. USCIS filings start at $920 for the I-800A, with additional costs possible for extensions or later petitions.
Families who finalize an adoption can claim the federal adoption tax credit for qualified adoption expenses, including agency fees, court costs, attorney fees, and travel. For adoptions finalized in 2026, the maximum credit is $17,670 per child. It begins to phase out for modified adjusted gross income above $265,080 and disappears entirely at $305,080.
The credit is nonrefundable, so on its own it can only reduce federal tax liability to zero. For 2026, a refundable portion of up to $5,120 is available for families whose liability falls below the full credit. Any unused credit can be carried forward for up to five years. The credit arrives at tax time the following year, so it does not reduce out-of-pocket costs during the adoption itself.