Adopt From Ukraine: Process, Requirements, and Tax Credit

You can adopt from Ukraine only if you fit one of the narrow exceptions Ukraine allows during martial law: relatives of the child, stepparents, parents adopting a sibling of a child they previously adopted from Ukraine, or families who received a referral before martial law was declared and had already met the child. Everyone else has to wait. Because Ukraine is not a party to the Hague Adoption Convention, qualifying families use the older U.S. “orphan” process built around Forms I-600A and I-600, plan on at least two trips to Ukraine, and typically spend $30,000 to $40,000 before the child comes home.¹

Who Can Still Adopt Right Now

Ukraine has suspended general intercountry adoption for the duration of martial law and for three months after it is lifted.² Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 576 created four exceptions:

Adopting a biological sibling (full or half) of a child you previously adopted from Ukraine.
Adopting a child to whom you are related up to the sixth degree of kinship under Ukraine’s Civil Code.
A foreign citizen adopting the child of their Ukrainian spouse.
Families who received a referral from the National Social Service before martial law was declared and had already met the child.

If your situation does not fit one of these categories, Ukraine will not accept your dossier or issue a referral, and the U.S. State Department has confirmed it cannot override the restriction.¹ The rest of this article describes the process itself, which applies both to families in the current exceptions and to anyone preparing for the eventual resumption.

Who Qualifies as a Parent

Ukraine expects foreign adopters to be married. Two unmarried people cannot adopt the same child jointly, and single adopters are generally accepted only when they are relatives of the child or a stepparent. The adopter must be at least 15 years older than the child. Any adoption service provider working on the case must be accredited under U.S. law, because the Universal Accreditation Act of 2012 extended accreditation to orphan-process cases even though Ukraine is not a Hague country.¹

On the U.S. side, at least one parent must be a U.S. citizen. An unmarried petitioner must be at least 25.³ USCIS requires household income of at least 125% of the federal poverty guidelines. For 2026 that starts at $19,950 for one person and rises to $41,250 for a family of four, with $7,100 added for each additional person.⁴ Count the child you plan to adopt when you figure your household size.

Every family must also complete a home study by an accredited provider. That includes at least one in-person interview, at least one home visit, FBI and state child-abuse registry checks, and a review of your health, finances, and family history.⁵ International home studies typically run $900 to $4,000.

Which Children Are Eligible

Ukrainian law places domestic placement first. A child becomes eligible for intercountry adoption only after those options have been exhausted, and only if the child is legally classified as an orphan or as deprived of parental care because both parents are deceased, missing, or have had parental rights terminated by court order. The child also has to satisfy the federal “orphan” definition under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which covers children who have lost both parents or whose sole surviving parent cannot provide proper care and has irrevocably released the child for adoption.³

Healthy children must generally be at least five years old and must have been on Ukraine’s national adoption registry for at least a year without a domestic family stepping forward. Exceptions apply for children with medical conditions on a list maintained by Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, for sibling groups where at least one child meets the age threshold, and for relative adoptions. The child usually has to be under 16 when the I-600 petition is filed, though a sibling of a previously adopted child may be up to 17.³

The Adoption Process Step by Step

Step 1: File Form I-600A With USCIS

Before you approach Ukrainian authorities, you need federal clearance that you are eligible to bring an orphan into the United States. That comes from Form I-600A, the Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition.⁶ The filing fee is $920.⁷ You submit the completed home study, fingerprint clearances, and financial evidence with it. Approval comes on Form I-171H, which stays valid for 18 months.⁸ If you don’t file an I-600 within that window, the approval is treated as abandoned and you start over.

Step 2: Prepare and Submit Your Dossier

With the I-600A approval in hand, you assemble a dossier for Ukraine’s National Social Service, which handles adoption referrals under the Ministry of Social Policy. It includes your home study, the I-171H, marriage certificate, medical clearances for both parents, criminal background checks, financial documentation, notarized passport copies, and a signed commitment to register the child with Ukraine’s consular office and submit post-placement reports. Every document must be notarized, apostilled, and translated into Ukrainian by a certified translator. Apostille fees generally run $10 to $26 per document, and you should budget for translating a dozen or more. Once submitted, review usually takes 25 to 35 days before Ukraine schedules an appointment.

Step 3: Travel to Ukraine for the Referral

When the National Social Service accepts your dossier, you receive an invitation to travel for a referral appointment. Officials present files of children who match your approved criteria. You are generally allowed up to three appointments; if no child has been identified after the third, your dossier is returned. Once you accept a referral, you travel to the child’s region to meet and spend time together during a mandatory bonding period. While you are bonding, a regional facilitator gathers paperwork from local authorities and obtains the National Social Service’s formal approval of the adoption, usually within five to ten days.

Step 4: Court Hearing and 30-Day Appeal Window

Your case then goes before a Ukrainian civil court. The judge reviews the file, holds a hearing, and usually issues a decision the same day. The decree does not take legal effect for 30 calendar days, during which anyone with standing can appeal.⁹ Appeals are rare, but the wait is mandatory. Once the 30 days pass, the decree is final and you can obtain a new Ukrainian birth certificate listing you as the parents, followed by a Ukrainian passport for the child. That post-decree paperwork typically takes another five to twelve days.

Step 5: Get the Child’s Immigrant Visa

With the final decree and Ukrainian passport, you file Form I-600 (Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative) at the U.S. Embassy.¹⁰ If this is your first I-600 filed during an active I-600A approval, there is no additional filing fee.⁷ The child must pass a medical exam by a U.S. government-approved physician before the visa interview. The visa the Embassy issues depends on how the adoption was completed:

An IR-3 visa is issued when the adoption was fully finalized in Ukraine and at least one adoptive parent personally saw the child before or during the proceedings.¹¹
An IR-4 visa is issued when the adoption was not fully completed abroad, so the child comes to the U.S. to be adopted or re-adopted in a state court.

Most Ukrainian adoptions finish in a Ukrainian court before the family departs, so IR-3 is the more common outcome.

Citizenship After You Come Home

Which visa the child receives determines when they become a U.S. citizen. Under the Child Citizenship Act, a child admitted on an IR-3 visa automatically acquires U.S. citizenship the moment they enter the United States as a lawful permanent resident, provided they are under 18 and in the legal and physical custody of their U.S. citizen parent. USCIS generally mails the Certificate of Citizenship within 45 to 60 days with no separate application required.¹²

A child who enters on an IR-4 visa does not acquire citizenship automatically. You first finalize or re-adopt through your state’s family court, then file Form N-600 (Application for Certificate of Citizenship) with USCIS.¹³ Even IR-3 families sometimes choose to re-adopt in their home state anyway, because a state-issued adoption decree and a domestic birth certificate can simplify school enrollment, driver’s licenses, and other everyday paperwork down the road.

Ongoing Reporting to Ukraine

Your obligations to Ukraine continue after you come home. Ukrainian law requires adoptive parents to register the child with the Consular Office of the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, D.C., and to submit post-placement reports annually for the first three years, then once every three years until the child turns 18.¹⁴ Reports describe the child’s living conditions, health, and education. Your agency will usually help prepare them, but the legal responsibility is yours.

You also agreed in your original dossier to allow Ukrainian consular officers to maintain contact with the child. Parents must preserve the child’s Ukrainian citizenship until adulthood; the child then chooses whether to keep it. Missed reports can affect Ukraine’s willingness to process later adoptions from the United States, so agencies take the obligation seriously.¹⁵

What It Costs and the Adoption Tax Credit

Costs stack up across several categories: the $920 USCIS filing fee for the I-600A, the home study at $900 to $4,000, document authentication and translation, agency and foreign program fees, and at least two trips to Ukraine that may last several weeks each. Total spending commonly lands in the $30,000 to $40,000 range, with travel and in-country expenses taking a large share.

The federal adoption tax credit helps. For adoptions finalized in 2026, the maximum credit is $17,670 per child. Families with modified adjusted gross income below $265,080 can claim the full amount; the credit phases out gradually and disappears entirely above $305,080. Starting with the 2025 tax year, part of the credit became refundable, so you can receive money back even if you owe no federal income tax. For 2026 the refundable portion is up to $5,120, and any remaining nonrefundable credit can be carried forward for up to five years.¹⁶ If your employer offers an adoption assistance program, up to $17,670 per child in reimbursements is excluded from taxable income in 2026, and you can use both benefits as long as you don’t claim the same expenses twice.

Qualified expenses include agency fees, court costs, attorney fees, travel, and other costs directly tied to the legal adoption of an eligible child. You claim the credit by filing Form 8839 with your tax return for the year the adoption is finalized.

1
U.S. Department of State. Ukraine Intercountry Adoption Information
2
U.S. Department of State. Ukraine: Limited Resumption of Intercountry Adoption during Martial Law
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions
4
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2026 Poverty Guidelines – 125% Thresholds
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 5 Part B Chapter 4 – Home Studies
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule
8
Federal Register. Extension of Validity Period of Approved Form I-600A
9
U.S. Department of State. Changes to Ukrainian Civil Code Affect Timeframes for Adoptions
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Filing Instructions for Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Before Your Child Immigrates to the United States – Section: Visas
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 5 Part F Chapter 3 – Eligibility, Documentation, and Evidence
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part H Chapter 4 – Automatic Acquisition of Citizenship after Birth
14
U.S. Department of State. Post-Adoption Reporting Overview
15
Embassy of Ukraine in the United States of America. Adoption of Ukrainian Children
16
Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit