The Adoption Law of our country explicitly provides that the foreign adoption applicants must reach the age of 30; that is the minimum age limit for the adopters. Therefore, when submitting their applications to the CCAA, the adoption applicants should be 30 years of age. Where a couple adopts in concert, both the husband and wife should reach age of 30.

Although the Adoption Law of our country provides no upper age limit for the adoption applicants, proceeding from the principle that "the adoption shall be in the interest of upbringing and growth of the adopted minors", there shall be a reasonable age difference between the adopter and the adoptee. Practice has shown that the best adoptive age for the adopters is 30-45 years old. Adopters at such an age bracket are full of vitality, rich in experience of life, and rather capable of nurturing young infants. With this consideration in mind, the China Center of Adoption Affairs shall, therefore, give priority to the assignment of children around one year old to foreign adoption applicants under 45 years old; and assign, in general, children above 3 years old to the foreign adoption applicants who are within 50-55 years bracket. As to the foreign adoption applicants who are above 55, the China Center of Adoption Affairs shall refrain from assigning Chinese children to them for adoption, taking into account such factors as their physical status, their life expectancy and the reasonable age difference, etc. except for the adoption of step-children and collateral relatives by blood of the same generation and up to the third degree of kinship.

(China-ccaa.org October 16, 2006)

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