Adoption allowances

The adoption allowance is a tax-free, non-recurrent payment that varies from country to country. In all the Nordic countries, potential adoptive parents must be approved by official public-sector agencies. The number of adoptions from abroad for which adoption allowance was paid has been decreasing in recent years in all the Nordic countries.

Parents who have adopted a child from a foreign country can apply for a subsidy in the form of a one-time payment if the adoption was processed through an approved organisation and the parents are permanent residents of Denmark.

A subsidy is granted for a child adopted from another country through one of the approved organisations. The allowance is payable only to people residing in the Faroe Islands.

Adoptive parents may apply for a subsidy when an international adoption institute has selected a child aged under 18 years for placement and the adoption board has approved the adoption. To obtain the subsidy, the adoptive parents must be resident in Finland.

It is a precondition that a child adopted from abroad was born to citizens of another country who are not resident in Iceland at the time of adoption. The adoptive parents must be resident in Iceland and must not be related to the child.

The parents must be approved by the authorities before they can adopt a child from another country. This approval, known as prior consent, is given for a period of three years, with the possibility of extension by up to two years. Prior consent is only given for children up to five years old. An expert committee evaluates the adoption of children over five.

It is a precondition to receive adoption allowance that a child adopted from abroad is under 10 and was born to citizens of another country who are not resident in Sweden at the time of adoption.