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)