Each child available for adoption between 1 and 18 years of age is entered in the Register for adoptions in the respective Social Welfare Directorate at the place of residence of the child. Within one month after the child has been entered in the register, the Adoptions Council of the Regional Social Welfare Department is obliged to identify suitable prospective adoptive parents, according to art. 95, par. 1 of the Family Code. If, 6 months after the child has been recorded in the regional register no suited adoptive parents habitually residing in Bulgaria have been approved, or no less than three sets of prospective adoptive parents habitually residing in Bulgaria have been identified and none of them have applied for adoption, the information for the child is automatically sent to the Ministry of Justice (acting as Central Authority for Intercountry Adoptions) for determining a suitable foreign adoptive parents. A child can only be entered into the Register if, 6 months after the child has been recorded in the National Register, no less than three sets of prospective adoptive parents habitually resident in Bulgaria have been identified and none of them have applied for adoption or if, despite all efforts made, no suited adoptive parents have been approved.

A child with habitual residence in Republic of Bulgaria can be adopted by a person with habitual residence in another country only in case the child is entered in the National Register maintained by the Ministry of Justice.

Twins are adopted together as a rule; they may be adopted separately only in exceptional cases. Siblings are also adopted together if they are emotionally attached to each other.

Subject to Art. 113, par. 1, point 1 of the Family Code within 60 days from the entering of a child in the Register, the Intercountry Adoption Council /IAC/ reviews the applicants to select a suited prospective adopter in compliance with the criteria set out in art. 95, par. 1, namely: following the chronological order of prospective adopters appearing in the Register, their preferences and any circumstances of significant importance to the child's interests. The following information should be provided for each child that is filed in the Register to the Ministry of Justice: personal details of the child, ethnic origin, registered address, date of accommodation, legal representative, information regarding genetic predispositions, physical and psychological status, full information regarding child’s health condition, any medical examinations and results, mandatory immunizations and re-immunizations. A child with habitual residence in Republic of Bulgaria can be adopted by foreign citizens only under the terms of a full adoption. Foreign citizens who wish to adopt a Bulgarian child must demonstrate their capabilities and trustworthiness by providing documents the required by law for their entry in the public register of Ministry of Justice. A mandatory prerequisite for the procedure to be admitted is the prospective adopter to be entered in the registers.

The age difference between the prospective adopters and the adopted child must be at least 15 years, subject to the requirements of the respective legislation in force where the prospective adopters reside.

The provisions of the Bulgarian Family Code do permit unmarried foreign citizen to adopt a Bulgarian child. By evaluating the information for every single child, IAC selects and approves prospective adopters from the register of waiting families.

The children's files are reviewed by the Council as per the chronological order they were first recorded in the Register, and matched against the prospective adopter's information and the conditions in the adoption permits. To select an adopter, the Council discusses all suitable applicants; when making its decision to determine the most suitable adopter, the Council is also guided by the prospective adopter's ability to ensure the physical, mental and social well-being of the child, as well as any information about the personality of the adopter and other circumstances pertaining to the adoption. The determination is made mostly on the basis of the home study reports about prospective adopters prepared by the respective competent authorities. In order to take a decision, IAC is guided by the child’s interest, the abilities of the prospective adopters to assure child’s physical, mental and social well-being, as well as any information about the personality of the adopter and other circumstances pertaining to the adoption, subject to the chronological entries of prospective adopters in the register. When children are of higher age or require special care, IAC review adopters’ applications in short terms and give priority to those who apply for adoption of such children. IAC sends formal proposal to the Minister of Justice to approve a suitable adoptive parent- foreigner. The Minister of Justice gives its decision within 14 days.

During the approval procedure for adopters habitually residing abroad, Ministry of Justice prepares a report for the child. This report, together with a photograph in full length, and if needed video and other materials, is made available to the accredited organization in Bulgaria.

Within two months after receiving the report, the adopters should make personal contact with the child for not less than 5 days and express their consent or refusal for the procedure to continue.

In extraordinary cases, if the prospective adopters are unable to meet the child in person due to illness, financial difficulties, business commitments or difficulties in travel arrangements, only one of them shall meet the child. In case both adopters are unable to attend, a representative of the accredited Bulgarian organization that acts on behalf of the adopters shall meet the child. In this case the adopters shall justify and explain why they have been unable to meet the child in person and provide a notarized declaration that they accept any risks relating to the child’s origin and future physical and mental state and development. Adopters have the right to call for a prolongation of the two-month period with additional one month to be approved by the Minister of Justice in exceptional and extraordinary circumstances.

Within the same period of two months, adopters should explicitly provide their written consentor refusal for the procedure to continue. If they fail to meet this requirement, their entry is deleted from the register of adopters in the Ministry of Justice. In case adopters provide their consent for the procedure to continue, after meeting the child in person, they shall present all documents required by law. In case adopters explicitly express their refusal to adoption proposal, they are automatically entered in the register under a new number as of the date on which the Ministry of Justice receives their explicit refusal and their application is reviewed over again.

The Minister of Justice formally approves the adoption procedure and 3 days after the written consent is received, the file is duly sent to the Court. The application for adoption is reviewed by the Sofia City Court within 14 days of its submission. After hearing the procedural representative of the adopters /the lawyer provided by “Happy Family”/, the Court announces its decision. The decision enters in force 7 days from its announcement by the Court. After the decision is enforced, Metropolitan Municipality issues a new birth certificate for the adopted child /generally the term is 7 business days/ on the grounds of the submitted certified copy of the Court decision. The adopters are entered as child’s parents in the newly issued birth certificate. The old certificate of birth becomes void automatically. After the new birth certificate is obtained, the personal details of the minor child are submitted in the national database of the Ministry of Interior. This procedure generally takes 3 business days and after that an application for passport of the adopted child can be submitted. The passport is issued within 3 days from the application.