About this ebook...

This ebook is a compendium of articles written by legal professionals and law students in Mexico on the subject of Family Law. Mexico's rich family tradition makes the family unit an important part of everyday life in that country and therefore the laws pertaining to these family institutions reflect that importance.

About the authors:

Gustavo Calderón

Born in Mexico City, Mr. Calderón graduated with a Law Degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Santa Fe Campus in Mexico City, and is in the process of obtaining a Masters Degree in Corporate Law from the Universidad Anahuac Cancún. He is a Professor at the Universidad Interamericana para el Desarrollo (UNID) and the Universidad de Quintana Roo (UQROO), both located in Playa del Carmen. Mr. Calderón is fluent in Spanish and English and also has the ability to communicate in French and Portuguese. He has published several articles on real estate matters, foreign investment affairs and family law; and is located in the City of Playa del Carmen. As of March 18th, 2011, Mr. Calderón passed the exam that certifies him as a formal aspirant to become a Commercial Notary Public (Corredor Público).

Gustavo Calderon’s academic, educational and professional experience is mainly focused on Real Estate Law, Corporate Law, Agrarian Law, Contracts, Family Law and Foreign Investment Affairs. Prior to founding Calderón & Asociados, Mr. Calderon was the main and founding partner at the law firm Calderón & Capilla S. C., Closer at “Stewart Title”, Riviera Maya; Associate Attorney at the Law Firm “Connell & Associates” in Ixtapa – Zihuatanejo; Associate Attorney at the Financial Grup “Inbursa” in Mexico City, Jr. Attorney at Notary 56 in Mexico City and trainee at the multinational power company “ABB” (Asea Brown Boveri) in its corporate offices for Latin America in Mexico City.

Marisol Hernández

Born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Ms. Hernández received her Law Degree from the Universidad Panamericana, and has attended the following seminars: Training on Adoption, Alimony and International Child Abduction, Workshop Seminar for the Attention, Detection and Management of Victims of Sexual Abuse of Children and Teenagers, Gender Violence and Regional Congress for the Children Rights. Ms. Hernández is about to complete her Masters Degree in Corporate Law from the Universidad Anahuac Cancún.

Marisol Hernández’s work experience began in the “Ochoa Legal Bureau, S. C.”, in Aguascalientes, followed by the Office of the Defence of Children and Family System for the Integral Family System Development of Aguascalientes (DIF); she has resided in Quintana Roo since 2008, where she has worked for various Public Notaries.

Solomon Freimuth

Solomon Freimuth is an American citizen who has lived in Playa del Carmen for the last six years and worked in the real estate field in different capacities: builder, administrator, vender and on occasion buyer as well.  He speaks Spanish fluently and has worked hard over to maintain a good working relationship with the local community, both Mexicans and expats.  After spending years trying to navigate Mexico, Solomon decided to try to get his degree in Mexican law in order to try and gain a better understanding of how things work in this little slice of paradise.  Solomon is married and has an infant son who takes up most of his free time, but when not chasing the baby around the house Solomon enjoys diving and fishing.

Patricia Clemente

Patricia Clemente recently graduated from the law program at the Universidad Interamericana para el Desarrollo and specializes in corporate management.

About the law firm:

Calderón & Asociados is a law firm in Playa del Carmen, Mexico specializing in family, commercial and immigration law.  We can be contacted at:

info@c-a.mx

Please visit our website at:

http://chflawyers.com

Our office is located at the corner of 45th Avenue Nte. and Calle 2-Bis, Centro, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico.  Our office number is:

From the USA: 888-401-2263

From inside Mexico: 984-803-4882

Getting Married in Mexico

By Solomon Freimuth and Gustavo Calderón

Getting married in a Mexican Beach or in a Mexican Hacienda is becoming a trend among foreign couples looking for a different and extra romantic wedding. Unfortunately, even when the foreigners-wedding business is clearly growing, the authorities have not made enough efforts to facilitate the process. It is not that it’s impossible to get married here, this procedure can be done by anyone with a little bit of initiative, a moderate amount of Spanish (or a translator) and a lot of patience, but for people who are accustomed to a more fast paced and efficient world, don´t want the hassle involved or just don´t want to bother trying to speak Spanish, Mexico can be a frustrating place to try to get anything accomplished, for these reasons we have written this article which in a few sentences will try to explain this process.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

The first thing you need to know is that as established by the Mexican Constitution, the regulation of the Civil Registry acts is a State’s exclusive power. There are 31 states in Mexico and 1 Federal District (Mexico City), therefore there are 32 different Civil Registries and a Federal regulation for Federal Jurisdiction cases.  In general terms most of the requirements in all Mexico are the same, however some places like Mexico City have shown a very progressive attitude by simply not making any difference between “traditional” marriages and same sex marriages.

Second thing to know is that even when Mexico is a very Catholic Country, it has made a great effort to maintain a separation between religion and government since the 19th Century. For this reason, Religious Weddings are not officially recognized, the only way to get officially married is by doing it before an Official/Judge of the Civil Registry, whereas inside the Registry Office or, with an extra fee, in a different place (the Beach, a Hotel, an Hacienda, etc.). Most of Mexican Catholics usually get married 2 times the same day, first in a little ceremony with their most close friends and family before the Civil registry’s Official/Judge, a few moments later they do it in a church before a Priest as regulated by the Catholic Church.

Third important thing: the Property Regime. All the Mexican States will give 2 options to choose from (i) a Common Regime, when both parties agreed to share all their assets; and (ii) a Separated Regime, when each party maintain the ownership of their own assets. In some cases there is a third option depending on the State, which is a mix of the 2 first regimes and a marital assets agreement. It is very important to be informed about the regime and it’s consequences. The couple usually will be inquired at the moment of getting married about the property regime they have chosen, however  according to the regulation of some states if nothing is mentioned,  it can be understood as a Common Regime, while in other States will be understood as a Separated Regime.

PROCESS, TIMETABLE AND PAPERWORK

In order to get “officaily” married in most states of Mexico, each partner will need an original of his/her birth certificate which in case of been a non Mexican certificate, it will need to be legalized or accompanied by an apostille seal.  To get an apostille in the USA, a certified copy of the birth certificate from the vital statistics department of the state where each partner was born must be submitted to the Secretary of State where the birth certificate was issued for apostille.  Each State’s procedures are fairly easy to follow, but a little research is required on the Secretary of State’s website for the proper addresses and fees.  There are services available online which can take care of the apostille process easily and affordably, a Google search for “Apostille Services” will render a wealth of options.

This document then needs to be translated into Spanish by a Mexican court-authorized translator, who can be found and contacted online, then each birth certificate and it´s corresponding apostille certificate will need to be sent via courier service to the translator at least a month before the wedding, so they have plenty of time to get the paperwork done.  The documents can then either be sent back to the States or picked up in Mexico City. It might provide more piece of mind to have the documents in hand when before leaving for Mexico, but having the documents sent back to the United States from Mexico is going to add at least a few weeks to the process.

The legal ceremony can take place in the Civil Registry office or in an offsite location, the cost to perform the wedding outside of the office is marginally more.  It is best to schedule the judge´s time well in advance, they are often booked at least a month ahead of time.

Before leaving for Mexico it is necessary to finish gathering the paperwork required for the wedding: proof of address (an electric bill), passports and a few forms that need to be filled out for the marriage certificate.  This paperwork (for Mexico City) is available in PDF format at Mexico City’s Civil Registry website:

http://www.consejeria.df.gob.mx/detalle.php?contenido=ODI=&direccion=MQ==&

The paperwork is all in Spanish and the answers need to be in Spanish; Mexico is very picky about official documents, so it is best to get help if the language is a problem.

The next step will be to get on the plane.  It is a good idea to plan to be in Mexico at least two weeks before the actual marriage, paperwork needs to be presented in the civil registry at least a week before the actual date.  Some States in Mexico require that, in addition to all the paperwork mentioned already, both partners will need a current prenuptial health exam, which can be done in many public or private health facilities and tests for HIV, VD´s and blood types.  The last requirements for the marriage are a copy of the visa (tourist card) received upon entrance to Mexico and if one of the spouses is of Mexican birth, permission from the Mexican Immigration authority for a foreigner to marry a Mexican citizen.  All of the paperwork must now be turned into the Civil Registry in original and copy.

After presenting the paperwork, the registry will provide a payment form, which in the case of Mexico City, it can be taken to any bank for payment of the corresponding fees; afterwards the receipt of payment will need to be returned to the Registry.  The lapse of time between presentation of the paperwork and the actual ceremony is a great opportunity to do any last minute planning or, everything is already buttoned up, a great chance to explore a little bit of Central Mexico or any part of Mexico where you are located.

The wedding ceremony will be simple, the ceremony itself takes less than half an hour, in some cases the Civil Registry will have an in-house photographer that will take pictures for their records and for the local papers, though it is a good idea to consider hiring a professional photographer to take pictures as well.

Before returning to home the marriage certificate must be apostilled by the Secretary of Government in Mexico City in order for it to be a legal document in the United States.  After receiving this apostille certificate, the marriage can be registered in the United States..

SAME SEX MARRIAGES

In November of 2006 the local congress of Mexico City passed a law recognizing some of the rights that same-sex couples around the world have fought for in the last decades, such as inheritance and community property, they did this by creating a new legal institution called “Coexisting Society (Sociedad de Convivencia)”.  This was a big step towards the elimination of discrimination in Mexico towards homosexuals, but some gay-rights groups still opposed the distinction between real marriage for straights and the civil union for gays, claiming that equality means the same rights for everyone – in fall of 2009, the government of Mexico City agreed to change the Civil Code of Mexico City so that the definition of marriage reads “the free union of two people sharing a life to obtain respect, equality and mutual aid for both.”  This modification provides equal rights and possibilities to marriages of any sex composition, even adoption. It is important to mention that even when some States and the Federal Government complained about this modification, the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice declared that the modification was constitutional.

This change, a monumental decision for a notoriously catholic country, paved the way to making families equal, without importance on the gender of its components. Now, all families can take advantage of health care and other benefits formerly reserved for traditional one-man/one-woman families.  This change in the laws also makes Mexico a convenient and fun option for making that commitment which may not be possible at home.

CONCLUSION

As said before, this marriage procedure can be done by anyone with a little bit of initiative, a moderate amount of Spanish and a lot of patience. For people without time, without any knowledge of Spanish or couples just looking to reduce the stress, looking forward to have the most romantic wedding and leaving the paperwork to someone else, the use of an experienced consultant can help to streamline the marriage process making it a completely out-of-the-box experience.

Adoption in Mexico By Gustavo Calderón, Patricia Clemente and Marisol Hernández  Translated by Solomon Freimuth

BRIEF HISTORY OF ADOPTION IN MEXICO

The perpetuation of the species has been a concern of mankind as long as it has existed, a concern that even goes beyond the religious. Just knowing that we can leave a print on future generations translates into hope, as P. D. James mentions in his novel "Children of Men" which presents a world without children; with no future, that is a world without hope. In any case, we could say that adoption is the result of one of mankind´s necessities, be it for moral, religious, social, economic or even political reasons.

Adoption as we know it today has been evolving throughout the ages. Various civilizations have recognized and utilized it, we can find one of its most remote predecessors in the civilization of Ancient Egypt, as well as in the Roman Empire under Justinian (527-565 A.D.), where two classes of adoption were established: adoptio plena, where the adopted person became an member of the family, and adoptio minus plena, which allowed the adopted person to maintain a bond with his own family. These figures were very similar to those of today in some States of Mexico, which are known as "Full Adoption (Adopción Plena)" and "Simple Adoption (Adopción Simple)", respectively.

In Mexico, the figure was not clearly regulated until 1917, when President Venustiano Carranza published the Law on Family Relations, stating in its 20th Article that "Adoption is the legal act whereby a person of legal age, agrees to accept a minor as his child, gaining in respect to (that child) all the rights that a parent has and acquiring all the responsibilities that this (relationship) brings, as if it were his (biological) child", however the adoption recognized by this law did not establish a legal relationship between the adopted person and the adoptive family.

The Civil Code of 1928, which at the time applied to Mexico City (Federal District), to federal territories and to the entire Republic at the federal level, included the figure of adoption; however, the tendency that prevailed at that time would be considered, today, demeaning to adoptive parents as well as those who were being adopted. This law was modified several times over the years, but it was only after 1970 that it allowed adoptive parents to give their name to the adopted child.

Mexico approved and enacted the Hague Convention on Protection of Children in 1994, as a result of this Convention, the Federal Civil Code (and the code for the Federal District at the time) have been integrating several of its principles in their texts. Thus, in 1998, full adoption, simple adoption and international adoption were all recognized in one text. The adaptation process at a national level has been very slow, since state laws exclusively regulate the acts of civil registration, therefore, each State must include these principals in their respective legislation. To promote these changes, in 2007 there were several regional roundtables discussing the streamlining of the adoption process by the National System for Integral Family Development (DIF for its initials in Spanish). As a result, some states modified their civil codes and others issued special laws on adoption, as is the case of Quintana Roo, which published the Adoption Law of the State of Quintana Roo, which came into force on July 1st of 2009 and repealed several articles of the civil code to make way for this new law.

The fact that it is each state's exclusive authority to legislate on this material has resulted in over 30 different laws in force in the country that regulate the same figure, in addition to this, the procedure must be carried out before different municipal and state government agencies, as well as the federal authority in cases of international adoption, not to mention that the issue will have to appear before a Family Court Judge, which means that all together and if there is no appropriate council, the case might take longer than many people would be willing to wait, giving rise to the abandonment of the procedure or do it by means contrary to law, even though in many cases the goal is genuinely humanitarian.

While it is true that some of the substantive requirements may vary, as the case of marriages between same sex, which allowed the Federal District but not in the rest of the country, the fact is that there are several efforts in Mexico to unify criteria in order to facilitate the process of adoption. Unlike other eras, the focus given to adoption today is that which seeks to protect the child’s best interest, a principle which has guided the changes that have occurred throughout the Republic which hopefully will lead to a clear harmonization and unification of this procedure, which will translate, at the end of the day, to less homeless children and more children with opportunities for a better life, children with hope.

VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND ADOPTION AS PART OF THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL BREAKDOWN IN MEXICO.

Being able to adopt in Mexico is considered, by international standards, as difficult, say some authorities to shelter them from being subject to sexual exploitation, organ trafficking or slavery.  Quintana Roo, particularly, is considered one of the worst states to adopt and one of the states least active in the matter. According to the Center for Adoption Studies (CdEA for its initials in Spanish), during the years 2007, 2008 and in the beginning of 2009, only 26 juveniles were adopted in this state, while in Jalisco a total of 461 minors were adopted.  One could assume that this has to do with the number of habitants, although that is incorrect: If we compare our state with Campeche, during the same period, Campeche granted adoptions for a total of 38 youths, and Campeche has a population 40% smaller than that of Quintana Roo.

Based on telephone interviews with diverse state and municipal authorities on the material, during the previously signaled period, in the State of Quintana Roo, only one adoption was issued to a couple of foreign origin, in which case the procedure took more than 3 years.  It is worth mentioning that the CdEA has no documentation to back up this information, because even though the organization solicited said information from the State-level Whole Family Development (DIF in Spanish) system, using the mechanisms of the state-level Transparency Law, said information, regarding international adoptions, was omitted.

VULNERABLE MINORS

The adoption process, even though it is changing and clearly it is improving, is long, cumbersome and on occasion is subject to the discretion of a public authority, who without any real knowledge about the topic, can deny or reject the viability of the application on their own personal criteria, not derived from any real systemized, trustworthy, secure or agile process.  As we saw in the antecedents, the ultimate objective of the figure of adoption has changed and now encompasses a greater moral burden and social responsibility for the adoptive parent, while for the adopted child it implies an opportunity of an alternative of a more dignified life, in accordance with the international standards on the material: So much so that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in Mexico determined that the adoption should have as its principal purpose “the higher interests of the child”  (Supreme Corte, Full Session, 2010), which should be the parameter to follow, however in many cases it is not that way.  Cases exist where couples have, after spending time and, because of the complexity of the procedure, money, decide to abandon the legal route and resort to the so called “Private Adoption”, which today, according to some non-government organizations, is much more frequently used than the process outlined in the law; therefore, are the interests of the child really being protected?

Embarking on this theme is the article by E. Jimenez published the 31st of January of 2010 in Milenio weekly, “Adopting in Mexico: An Issue Without Law”, which states:

“The lack of control in Mexican adoptions gives breath to the black market for boys and girls, who on occasion are sold to couples with good intentions and in other cases are used as slaves who realize forced labor or sexual exploitation…In Mexico the Federal Authorities have do not possess updated information on how many children are housed in shelters, public and private assistance homes, nor in state and municipal orphanages, nor how many of these are apt for adoption.  Until the first week of the last year only 13 states had sent pertinent information to the National (Whole Family Development) organization, and the numbers are varied:  Chiapas indicated that they only had 400 children, while Tijuana claims to have three thousand.”

In his 2010 article, A. Martinez indicates, “with the argument of the decentralization, the state-level DIF systems have been permitted to act upon their own free will.”  In the words of Cecilia Landerreche Gomez Morin, the then head of the National System of Whole Family Development (SNDIF in Spanish), in a speech which she offered during the Regional Roundtables on the Agiligization of the Adoption Process, in the city of Durango on the September 6th of 2009, manifested alarming data, such as the fact that during recent years many adoptions have been realized with very little supervision from the DIF, as much at the federal level as state and municipal.

Still yet, according to information given by UNICEF in 2005, that year there were in Mexico 1.6 million children in a high state of vulnerability, be they partially or completely orphaned or victims of accidents, HIV, post-partum death of the mother or labor-related immigration, as well as other causes.  Even graver, according to the same report, these children are living on the street, in clandestine shelters, in the homes of other family members or in the process of immigration.  En other words, these 1.6 million children never are presented in the proper institutional setting.  The same national DIF system, the 32 state systems and the diverse private institutions operated, at the end of 2010, a network of 657 attention centers, of which approximately 10 percent are managed by the DIF system (68) and the rest belong to private institutions (589).

It should be mentioned that, according to the information obtained by the CdEA, the number of institutionalized minors is 17,759 children, practically half of what is reported by the SNDIF and less than 11% of the amount estimated according the data given by UNICEF.  It is also important to mention that the DIF system of Quintana Roo reported, the same year, a total of 94 institutionalized children, a quantity that, we can clearly see, doesn’t correspond with our reality.

ADOPTION AS PART OF THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL BREAKDOWN IN MEXICO

The so-called “War on Drugs” being waged by Mexico’s Federal Government which has resulted in the severe damage to various criminal organizations, has brought forth the recruitment, by delinquent gangs, of youths with little or no expectations for their future.

Through the diverse communication mediums we have become acquainted with children who work as part of a criminal band as messengers, dealers or even triggermen.  The lack of a clear strategy, which attends to the needs and gives hope to the children and young people of our country, puts at risk not only their future, but also that of the whole nation.

Adoption is a figure that definitely can and should be promoted, not only towards persons that cannot have children of their own, but also towards any person, of any nation, sex or religious belief, as long as they demonstrate themselves to be a person or couple who can offer an alternative of hope and a better future for the child, always attending that child’s higher interest.  Promoting the figure of adoption with nationals as well as foreigners in no way implies neither disregarding the safeguards built into the process nor putting the child at risk.

It is critical that we generate strategies which make adoption an agile, transparent and effective process, which grants legal certainty to the adoptive children as well as the adoptive parents, but which more than anything, grants the opportunity for a better future to the minors who are not blessed with a home or family.

REQUIREMENTS, PROCEDURE AND INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION

Currently, the adoption procedure in Mexico is considered long and on occasion can become difficult or tedious, this derived from lack of knowledge of the procedure or of the lengths of time that each stage of the process requires, therefore this article will give a brief overview of the procedure with the purpose of orienting those who have interest in the topic.

As has been mentioned in previous parts of this series, the legislation on adoption varies from state to state, but Mexico is currently in the middle of the harmonization process, where the higher interest of the child is always sought and which consequentially guaranties the fundamental rights of the child before, during and after the process of adoption.  In the last years, various entities of the Republic have started to incorporate the principles and commitments acquired by Mexico, through the Hague Convention on the Protection of

Minors, in their laws.  As mentioned, the Federal District (Mexico City) started this process more than 10 years ago when that city assimilated the figure of what we today know as international adoption, the State of Quintana Roo modified its own laws in 2009 and, at the writing of this article, news has arrived that the Congress of the State of Veracruz has approved unanimously their own Adoption Law.

In this process the authority that has the obligation to intervene in a direct manner or as a consultant is the Whole Family Integration (DIF for its initials in Spanish) system of each state, even though in some cases the process can be initiated directly before private institutions, properly accredited and authorized to carry out such procedures.

WHO CAN ADOPT?

Married men and women, couples in common-law marriage or single persons, over 18 years of age, who possess mental capacity to exercise their rights, of which at least one of those who intends to adopt is 15 years or more older than the person they are trying to adopt, who have sufficient means to provide accordingly for the subsistence and education of the child whom they intend to adopt and who have been declared suitable by the local Whole Family Development system or the corresponding central authority.  It should be mentioned that, adoption by same-sex spouses is only permitted in the Federal District (Mexico City), although at the time of this writing, not one single case of this type of adoption has concluded.

INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION

Foreigners can adopt a Mexican youth, as long as they fulfill all the previously mentioned requirements as well as accredit their legal status in the country, and in the case that they do not reside in the country, should possess a certificate of suitability and eligibility for adoption issued by the central adoption authority of their country of origin, according to the guidelines that said country establishes.

In the case of international adoption, a central authority has been mentioned:  This central authority refers to the figure established by the Hague Convention, which is part of the adoption process.  The so-called “Central Authority” really refers to two authorities, the first of them, the central authority of the “State of Origin”, that is the nation where the minor who is being adopted originates from; the second central authority being the “Receiving State”, which is the nation where the solicitants originate from or where they have their residence and where the minor will finally reside, once the process is finished.

In Mexico the central authority designated for the process of adoption is the Ministry of Foreign Relations, which in this case acts in coordination with the Whole Family Development system from each state and the national system of Whole Family Development if the adoption takes place in the Federal District (Mexico City).

For cases where foreigners wish to adopt a minor of Mexican nationality, it is necessary that they obtain permission from the Ministry of Government, which is processed before the National Immigration Institute, where it will be necessary to present an application form, in Spanish, as well as a letter from the institution which has initiated the adoption process, migratory documents and passports, among other documents.

ADOPTION PROCESS

The process begins with the decision to adopt, the willingness to comply with all the requirements and all the patience required for a process like adoption, which for its utter importance requires all possible safeguards, and may well take more time than expected.

The process is technically without cost, although it must be considered that some minor costs will be incurred and various days will be spent in diverse government offices.  It could be said that the process can be divided into three stages, the first consists in (i) reuniting the necessary requirements, next the solicitants are submitted to an (ii) approval process and finally, if they are approved, they are (iii) assigned a child.

In the first stage, the requirements that the institutions solicit, as well as the laws, are basically the same in every state, keeping in mind that the process can vary a little depending on the state where the application is presented.  These requirements are mostly documents that are easy to acquire, such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, proof of income, proof of address and letters of recommendation, among others and this documentation must be presented to the agency that will start the adoption process, be it public or private.   In the case that the adoption will be carried out through a public institution, it must be the Whole Family Development system, or in case of a private agency, it must be properly accredited and authorized to carry out such processes.

Once all the documents are presented, the corresponding record must be submitted to an approval board, where experts in the material such as lawyers, psychologists, social workers and others determine if the solicitants are candidates to receive a minor child in adoption.  In terms of the Hague Convention, this is known as “the Suitability and Eligibility report or declaration”. Once obtained this approval, the adoptive parents automatically appear in a waiting list along with other solicitants who have received said declaration and are waiting for a minor susceptible to be adopted to be assigned to them.

At this point it is important to mention that, contrary to popular belief, not all children found in temporary homes or shelters are susceptible to be adopted, meaning that, their legal situation has not yet been “liberated” and therefore the institutions in charge of this minors will not obtain custody over them and it is not possible to put them up for adoption.  To accomplish this they must pass through a process independent from the adoption, which also takes time, and during which the minor passes more time in foster homes and shelters.

During this period, which can vary depending on the particular situation of each child, the children are known as “institutionalized minors”, being that they even though they are under the care of an institution there is still a possibility that they will be returned to their family of origin.

Once all of the requirements have been met, the declaration of suitability has been obtained and the perspective parents have been assigned a minor, the legal adoption process actually starts before a Family Court Judge in the jurisdiction where the application was presented.

During this process, the court will hear testimony from the agencies, people and authorities which have intervened during the whole process, such as personnel in charge of the shelters, foster homes or other corresponding authorities, the Public Minister and the Attorney for the Defense of the Minor and the Family from the corresponding state-level Whole Family Development system.  The court will also take into account social, psychological, medical, socioeconomic and judicial studies, realized by the corresponding authorities in order to make its final decision.

Some aspects that are of the utmost importance to take into consideration are obeying the prohibitions included in adoption law, which among others are:  The adoptive parents must follow the legal dispositions established by international treaties celebrated by Mexico, as well as state and federal laws, they must not make direct contact with the perspective adoptee’s biological parents and that no economic benefit can be obtained from the adoption.

In the case that one of these hypotheses is fulfilled during the process of adoption, the process can be suspended immediately and as a consequence the adoption will not be authorized.  To add to all this, criminal charges may be applied.

Even though the described process doesn’t appear overly complicated, the reality is that various situations complicate the process little by little, be it the lack of cohesion with the international treaties in which Mexico is part, the multiplicity of legislations in the country, the diverse authorities with whom one must deal, the vigilance over the procedure in order to secure the correct outcome for the child, the demand (which has substantially increased in the recent years), the fact that currently institutionalized youth are not always susceptible to be put up for adoption or that the whole procedure  is contained in a file that rests for months on various desks until the process is finally concluded.  The best way to handle this type of process is to be informed about all the steps that it involves, the authorities which play a part in the process and, most importantly, about the time that the process is going to take, knowing that much patience is necessary and that the persons soliciting the adoption must be available during the time period.  Even though it is true that the process can be carried out by the institutions authorized to do so, it is always important to have an attorney who is expert in adoption material who can give legal certainty to those who are trying to adopt and will accelerate substantially the completion of the process.

Table of Contents

About this ebook...

About the authors:

Gustavo Calderón

Marisol Hernández

Solomon Freimuth

Patricia Clemente

About the law firm:

Getting Married in Mexico

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

PROCESS, TIMETABLE AND PAPERWORK

SAME SEX MARRIAGES

CONCLUSION

Adoption in Mexico By Gustavo Calderón, Patricia Clemente and Marisol Hernández Translated by Solomon Freimuth

BRIEF HISTORY OF ADOPTION IN MEXICO

VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND ADOPTION AS PART OF THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL BREAKDOWN IN MEXICO.

VULNERABLE MINORS

ADOPTION AS PART OF THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL BREAKDOWN IN MEXICO

REQUIREMENTS, PROCEDURE AND INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION

WHO CAN ADOPT?

INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION

ADOPTION PROCESS