The social worker assesses the suitability of the applicants by visiting them at home to discuss motivation and reason for wanting to adopt, personality, stability of marriage (if married), lifestyle and hobbies, home environment, health conditions, prospects for the child, age and gender of the child and possibility of adopting siblings or children with a disability.

Before adoption, guidance, through the legal procedures to adopt, support and social work intervention by the social worker working with the family is provided. Once adoption takes place, the adoptive family can keep contact with the social worker from the Adoption Unit through home visits and discuss issues that might come up during the placement. Parenting skills courses and referrals to other agencies are also possible if the need arises.

No they are not eligible for any financial assistance.

As soon as a prospective adopter/s fills in an inquiry form through their first interview with the Unit’s social worker, applicants are put on a waiting list to attend the preparation group sessions organized by the Unit. After attending the group sessions, applicants will have to decide whether they would like to carry on with their application. The second phase would be for the prospective adoptive family to start the Home Study Report. For inter-country adoptions, where there are children available for adoptions, about a year is needed to finalize all the work required for an adoption. For local adoptions, this depends on the availability of children who need an adoptive placement, since there are few children for adoption. The adoption process in the Maltese courts takes three months to be finalized.

In local adoption it is the Adoption Unit that does the matching of the child with his/her prospective adoptive parents in accordance to the waiting list of the Unit. In foreign adoption, this is done by the adoption agency responsible for placing children for adoption or competent authority in the donor country.

If possible, siblings are adopted in the same adoptive family.

No, adoptive parents become the only parents of that child and are fully responsible for the adopted child. Upon reaching his/her eighteenth birthday, an adopted person has the right to search for his/her natural family.

The Adoption Unit within the Department for Social Welfare Standards organizes preparation group sessions for prospective adoptive parents. In these group sessions, prospective adoptive parents are informed and prepared about adoption issues. These group sessions are held at the Department once a week over a period of six (6) weeks. These sessions are meant to help prospective adoptive parents to decide whether adoption is the right choice, learn about their motivation to adopt, explore their ideas and feelings about adoption and readiness to parent other people's children. Topics covered are:- 1) Introduction to Adoption: Adopted children's dual identity and their birth families and background. 2) Separation and attachments that children have to make when adopted and parenting issues. 3) Meeting with experienced adopters. 4) Helping an adopted child to settle in his/her adoptive family. 5) Helping children who have been abused. 6) What happens next? Overview about the assessment procedures.

All procedures before the adoption are the same, whether the adoption is local or inter-country. However, in the case of the latter, once the child arrives in Malta, the adoptive parents have to: 1) Inform the Department for Social Welfare Standards of the child's arrival, 2) Take the child to the Paediatrics Dept. at St. Luke's Hospital for health check-ups, 3) Apply for (means tested) Children's Allowance at the Social Security Department, 4) Start the legal proceedings in the Maltese Courts. The adoptive parents can collect the child's birth certificate from the Public Registry, two weeks after the finalisation of the legal adoption in the Maltese Courts. A social worker from the Adoption Unit visits the child and the family and writes a report describing the progress and the integration of the child within the adoptive family. This is done after the adoptive parents give their consent to the social worker to visit them and their child and to send the post-adoption report to the donor country according to the Bilateral Agreement in order to monitor in the best interest of the child and to ensure continuity of inter-country adoptions agreements.