The Department of State shares your humanitarian concern for the children of Kosovo and applauds your desire to assist them in their time of need. However, at this point in time, adopting children from this region is not a feasible way to assist them. In particular, most Kosovar children are not adoptable. There are a number of reasons for this.

In general, adoptions are private civil legal matters governed by the laws of the nation where the child resides. The process involves complex foreign and U.S. legal requirements. The laws in the former Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro) give priority to their own citizens and make adoptions by foreigners very difficult. In a crisis situation, such as the Kosovo refugees are experiencing at the present time, it can be extremely difficult to determine if children whose parents are missing are truly orphans. It is not uncommon in a hostile situation for parents to send their children out of the area, or to become separated during an evacuation. Even when children have been truly orphaned or abandoned by their parents, they are often taken in by other relatives. Staying with relatives in extended family units is generally a better solution than uprooting the child completely.

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