China Adoption Travel Paperwork

When you travel to China to adopt your child, you'll need to take quite a few documents with you! Your agency will provide you with a list of required paperwork prior to your travel. This list is NOT intended to replace that guidance from your agency. I am simply going to tell you some of the most commonly needed documents so you can get a general idea of what you'll need.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Always bring every document your agency asks you to bring to China, whether or not you or anyone else thinks you'll need it. For our last adoption, our agency asked us to bring several unnecessary documents. We never needed them, but I am glad I brought them anyway just in case. There are rare situations where certain documentation is needed, and you do NOT want to be caught in China without the proper paperwork!

Also, please note that this list is specific to I-800/Hague families.

• Two Original Travel Approvals (and five copies): Your agency will send you both original Travel Approvals (yes, there are two of them!). The Civil Affairs office in your child's province needs these to process your adoption. Usually only one original TA is needed, leaving you to keep the second one as a nice keepsake! But take BOTH Travel Approvals anyway, even though you'll probably only need the one.

  You'll also need to take four or five (depends on your province) copies of the original travel approval.

• Copies and/or original I-800A approval: I took both the original and a copy.....I only needed the copy. I brought the original back home with me. If you don't have the original because you sent it to China in your dossier, then a copy is just fine.
• Copies and/or original I-800 approval: I took both the original and a copy.....I only needed the copy. I brought the original back home with me. If you don't have the original because you sent it to your agency, then a copy is just fine.
• Five copies of each parent's passport: You'll need these for both the adoption paperwork and your Consulate Appointment paperwork. Take a couple extra copies especially if only one parent is traveling - I ran out last time and had to email my family back home to fax me more!
• Five copies of each parent's visa: You'll need these for the adoption paperwork. If only one parent is traveling, you obviously won't have a visa for the non-traveling parent, which is fine.
• Copy of your LOA (Letter of Acceptance): This is sometimes an unnecessary document - we've adopted from China twice and never needed this on either of our trips. But it doesn't matter, take it anyway!
• Copy of your child's Chinese referral: Get this from your agency if you don't already have a copy of it!! This is very important, as you'll need it for your Consulate Appointment paperwork.
• Copy of your home study and all updates: This is sometimes an unnecessary document - we've adopted from China twice and never needed this on either of our trips. But it doesn't matter, take it anyway!
• Extra passport photos of both parents (even if only ONE parent is traveling) Take at least two extra passport photos of each parent. These will be affixed to the notary paperwork in your child's province. Very important!!!!

Please remember that if only ONE parent will be traveling, you'll need to prepare a Power of Attorney and a few other documents. Make sure to notify your agency immediately if you plan to travel without your spouse!

OTHER OPTIONAL DOCUMENTS

As always, if your agency directs you to take any of these documents to China, TAKE THEM!!

You'll also need Chinese visas in order to enter China. We applied for ours after we got our LOA. Ask your agency for directions when completing this step!

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