Americans who are single, obese or over 50 can’t adopt from China

The new regulations, which have not yet been formally announced by the government-run China Center of Adoption Affairs, or CCAA, are expected to take effect on May 1, 2007, and have raised concern and anxiety among prospective adoptive parents in this country.

China has in recent years been the No 1 source of foreign-born children adopted by Americans—in the fiscal year 2006, the State Department granted 6,493 visas to Chinese orphans—and its regulations on who can adopt have been less restrictive than those in some other countries, adoption agencies said.

Now, however, the agencies said, the Chinese government has formulated guidelines intended to recruit adoptive families with qualities that Chinese officials believe will provide the greatest chance that children will be raised by healthy, economically stable parents.

“They need somehow to cut down on the number of families that are submitting” adoption requests, said Jackie Harrah, executive director of Harrah’s Adoption International Mission in Spring, Tex.

“Their feeling is that while singles can be good parents,” Ms. Harrah said, “it is better for a child to be raised in a two-parent family, it’s better for a parent to be educated, it’s better for a parent not to be obese because they have a chance of living longer.”

Several agencies said they had been flooded with confused, anxious or disappointed calls and e-mail messages from people wanting to adopt or those going through the application process. Most of those who had already initiated adoption applications were told that if they got all their paperwork in by May 1, they were likely to be approved.

But international adoption agencies have already begun turning away applicants who did not meet the new criteria.

The guidelines include a requirement that applicants have a body-mass index of less than 40, no criminal record, a high school diploma and be free of certain health problems like AIDS and cancer. Couples must have been married for at least two years and have had no more than two divorces between them. If either spouse was previously divorced, the couple cannot apply until they have been married for at least five years.

In addition, adoptive parents must have a net worth of at least $80,000 and income of at least $10,000 per person in the household, including the prospective adoptive child.

Parents can be as old as 55 if adopting a child with special needs.