Spanish children now more sought after for adoption

The department said that in 2011 there were 94 applications to adopt Spanish children and another 32 were made in the first six months of this year.
The figures were in clear contrast to those of 2010 when only 69 requests for adoption of Spanish were made in comparison to the 87 from people who wanted to adopt foreign children.

Despite the change in trend, the number of foreign children adopted is still higher due to the number of application processes that begun several years ago.

The President of the Balearic Adoption Association, Ramon Rotger said that there were various reasons why families are now preferring to adopt Spanish children, but there are two main ones: the first is economic, each international adoption costs between 15'000 and 20'000 euros whilst national adoptions are free. At a time of full economic crisis, not to have to pay for adoption is of real benefit. Although people wanting to adopt Spanish children have had to wait considerable time for all the necessary bureaucratic and legal papers to be in place, perhaps an average of eight years, in the case of international adoptions, the waiting time has also become much longer. Previously it was possible to adopt a foreign child within a period of two to three years but now the paperwork can take several years more. International adoption has also become more complicated with some countries having closed their doors to the possibility of cross boundary adoption.