Hello All,
My family is in a bit of a situation at the moment, My Mum's sisters husband died recently, leaving her with 3 boys to take care of, She is unable to financially sustain them and take care for them and has discussed with my mum the possibility of adopting her children(two of them)

This will be an international adoption (My mum's sister lives in Nigeria).

My mum's sisters' late husband was quite well off, but upon his death his belongings were split among in-laws, companies etc, and there nothing left- my mum currently has to send a lot of money for their upkeep - which she will not ordinary need to spend due to the differences in the way the countries are run, She loves her nephews and would obviously hate to see them in a situation where they cannot have what she considers basics. (Ages 10, 12 14)

I was wondering what process should she be going though/where should we be looking to get this "official" so that the children can come over and live here with my mum, go to school etc and be well cared for? I am thinking adoption agencies (but aren't these for unrelated children?). Or what type of lawyer should we be seeking?

Sorry if i haven't explained myself coherently! hope you understand!

The legal rules that govern an adoption can be found in the ZGB (Zivilgesetzbuch) articles 264 et sqq.

German version here http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/210/index2.html#id-2-2-7-4

It seems that the child would need to be living with your mum before the adoption process may start. Best would be to ask the family office in Zurich.

The adoption won't be possible if the children do not agree to the adoption.

I found a few links online - I would suggest you contact them with your situation and see if they can help or refer you on.

http://tdh.ch/en/news/tdh-is-accredi...cy-for-nigeria
http://adopt.com/nigeria/index.html

Reality is that the biggest hurdles will be at the Nigerian end of things. The mother of the children should be able to get better answers if she speaks to a lawyer or women's organisation in her local state...

I definitely know of one family I've met in the past 4 years who were in a similar situation and who adopted the child and was able to bring them to switzerland. However, I would be very wary of seeing an intercountry adoption as an 'easy' solution - it may end up costing far more money to have them here in Switzerland, than to keep them to a high standard of living in Nigeria with Swiss money... and the social loss could be very high - especially for teenagers...

It might also be possible for your mum to bring them over as students on a family reunion basis for a year or two, but I guess it wouldn't give the same security as an adoption...

Would your mum be able to financially care for the children, pay for their health care, etc - or would she rely on social services to provide for them financially?

I don't understand the thread title. Who is (was) the sibling? Do you consider your aunt's husband to be your mother's sibling?

It is quite clear if you read the post carefully - so why be sarcastic about a non-English speaker's use of English. Do you never make mistakes in German yourself. Not needed, really, is it?

Thanks for assuming the worst. Actually, it's a genuine question prompted by experience of posts designed to elicit sympathy and ultimately money from the forum membership. I doubt very much that this case is one of those con jobs, but it's worth checking, since the post content doesn't match the thread title.

Agreed that caution is required.

Reading earlier postings by LimaMichelle, I see nothing to think this was buildingup to be a con.

Limamichelle, are you talking about adoption in Switzerland, or the UK?

Why do you presume the OP is a "non-English speaker"?

It also took me a while to figure out who was who in the story. Seems it is the OP's cousins that the OP's mother would like to adopt. The way I read it: The OP's aunt's husband is the one who died and now the aunt does not have the money on her own to take care of the children.

Anyway, SwissPea is right in that it's going to be much much more expensive to raise these three children (basically teens) here in Switzerland. Your mother will have to go through the social services to see that she is "qualified" to adopt and that she has the right environment, housing, funds, etc to raise the kids. She could well need 3 bedrooms extra bedrooms!

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In resume, she wants her mum to adopt he three grand-children, is that it? I thought a child lost his/her sibling assuming a brother or a sister and the family wanted to adopt another child.

Nope. miniMia has it right: it's the OP's cousins, or her mom's nieces/nephews, that the OP's mom wants to adopt.

Because of the use of the word 'sibling' dear DB (or because I am white middle-class and own a tagine, of course )

I'm sure it was.

She writes English remarkably well for an African, don't you think?

oh yes Dougal's Breakfast you are right, sorry I got confused! What a situation!

Hello all, despite my atrocious gramatical and spelling (and maybe mis-defination of words) lol. I am infact british born n bread.

My mum told me to enquire and i was totally at a loss about the rules.

I would infact be thinking about a uk adoption but i asumed european law would surfice anyway.

I work so does my husband my mum etc. So no, these kids will not be living off taxpayers funds plus im sure that the authorithies will ensure that before they arrive.

As my aunts husband was quite well off you'd be suprised at the ammount it costs for money for school fees, food and maintainance. She was a stay at home mum and can hardly sustain herself let alone provide a good education for the boys without help.

Plus we believe they would get a better education n security here.

My apologies for my lack of spell check. My messages are sent from my monile

Just to confirm: you're talking about your mother adopting the children in the United Kingdom, not Switzerland, is that right?

Yes i am... Althrough i now feel slightly apprehensive asking this in the swiss english forum . But you guys are always so helpful! I feeel like you know everything. Lol (i neeer used forums in London)

Ah! That's useful to know - and a whole different kettle of fish.

You were using "here" a lot in your posts, and most of us naturally thought "here" was Switzerland.

You might want to ask a moderator to change the thread title accordingly.