A relinquishment or release by the parents to the prospective adoptive parents or for a specific adoption does not constitute abandonment. A child who is placed temporarily in a orphanage shall not be considered to be abandoned if the parents express an intention to retrieve the child, are contributing or attempting to contribute to the support of the child, or otherwise exhibit ongoing parental interest in the child. A child who has been given unconditionally to an orphanage shall be considered to be abandoned. Adult member of the prospective adoptive parents household means an individual, other than the prospective adoptive parent, over the age of 18, whose principal or only residence is the home of the prospective adoptive parents. The application must be signed in accordance with the form s instructions by the married petitioner and spouse, or by the unmarried petitioner.
Application is synonymous with advance processing application.
Competent authority means a court or governmental agency of a foreign-sending country having jurisdiction and authority to make decisions in matters of child welfare, including adoption. Desertion by both parents means that the parents have willfully forsaken their child and have refused to carry out their parental rights and obligations and that, as a result, the child has become a ward of a competent authority in accordance with the laws of the foreign-sending country. Disappearance of both parents means that both parents have unaccountably or inexplicably passed out of the child s life, their whereabouts are unknown, there is no reasonable hope of their reappearance and there has been a reasonable effort to locate them as determined by a competent authority in accordance with the laws of the foreign-sending country. Foreign-sending country means the country of the orphan s citizenship, or if he or she is not permanently residing in the country of citizenship, the country of the orphan s habitual residence. In the case of an orphan whose adoption has been finalized abroad and whose adoptive parents reside abroad, the home study preparer includes any party licensed or otherwise authorized to conduct home studies under the law of any state of the United States, or any party licensed or otherwise authorized by the foreign country s adoption authorities to conduct home studies under the laws of the foreign country.