China is Tightening the Belt

It's officially true, China has imposed tighter weight and financial requirements. We believe they are doing so to narrow the applicant pool. Neither of these restrictions will have an impact on our adoption of Emma, but there are definitely some families at our agency this will affect, specifically related to weight. Our agency has been encouraging families to be as healthy as possible and to use the wait for our daughters to slim down...they unofficially knew this change was coming about 6 months ago. Families are being told if your paperwork has been logged into China, we should not be affected, but they are not 100% sure until our paperwork goes to "The Review Room". Potentially families could be asked for updated financial and medical reports if the paperwork logged is borderline passing.

In terms of weight restrictions, couples who have Body Mass Indexes (BMI) of 40 or more will probably be rejected unless they can provide medical documentation that indicates they are perfectly healthy despite the high BMI. In my opinion this makes sense...our girl's deserve the best of us and if we aren't healthy enough to live until they make it to adulthood, they'd be better off with healthier parents. A lot of families in our adoption group are freaking out over the weight restrictions more than the financial restrictions. Considering how much we see in the news about the new epidemic of obesity, it's not surprising most of the families are very concerned if they will be denied based on weight. Since the agencies have now been given a definitive number, they can deny couples before they start any of the paper chase and save a lot of heartache.

The financial requirements are that the family gross income be equivalent to $10,000 per each person in each household, including the adopted child. For example: 2 adults, 1 child = $30,000 or more per year. Families also cannot be in the red when it comes to mortgage, car payments etc. I believe China will be using a similar calculation of debt to income ratio that the US uses for loans and credit analysis.

WHEW, at least this doesn't affect us!