Adoption in Vietnam: How Long It Takes and What It Costs

Adoption in Vietnam: How Long It Takes and What It Costs

The time and cost of adopting a child in Vietnam vary enormously, and almost all of that variation comes down to a single question: is it a domestic adoption or an intercountry one? A domestic adoption is measured in weeks and costs a few hundred thousand dong. An intercountry adoption is measured in years and can run to tens of thousands of dollars. The gap between the two is wide, and it is worth understanding before committing to either path.

There is a clear reason for that gap. Vietnamese law prioritises placing a child with a family inside Vietnam, so a child becomes available for adoption abroad only after a real effort to find a domestic family has failed. This is what makes the intercountry route both slower and dearer, and it is the thread running through everything below. The two routes are compared in full in our article on domestic and intercountry adoption in Vietnam; here the focus is squarely on how long each takes and what each costs.

How Long Does a Domestic Adoption Take?

For a domestic adoption, where a Vietnamese individual or couple adopts a child in Vietnam, the process is handled at the commune-level People’s Committee and moves relatively quickly. The registration stages together take in the region of 37 working days, made up of the verification of the adopters’ circumstances, the review of the dossier and consultation with the relevant people, a fixed reconsideration period during which a consent can be reviewed, and the final registration and handover.

Allowing for gathering and certifying documents beforehand, a straightforward domestic adoption is realistically a matter of a few months from start to finish, rather than years. It is by a wide margin the quicker of the two routes.

How Long Does an Intercountry Adoption Take?

An intercountry adoption, involving a foreign adopter or an overseas applicant, takes far longer, and it is better to set expectations clearly at the outset. Families should realistically plan for a process measured in years, commonly somewhere between eighteen months and three years or more from application to bringing a child home, depending on the case.

Several stages account for the length:

• The domestic search comes first. A child does not become available for intercountry adoption until an effort to find a domestic family has been made and has not succeeded. This search runs for a set local period and then a nationwide notification period before the child is eligible for adoption abroad.
• Document preparation and dossier review. Foreign documents must be gathered, legalised, and translated, and the dossier is then reviewed. The provincial Department of Justice checks the child’s eligibility for adoption abroad within around twenty days, and the Ministry of Justice completes its part within around fifteen days of a valid application, but these official windows sit inside a much longer overall process.
• Matching, decision, and travel. Once a child is matched and the adoption is approved, there are further steps before the family can bring the child home, including the requirements of the adopter’s own country.

The official processing windows, in other words, are short, but the surrounding stages, especially the domestic search and the cross-border paperwork, are what make an intercountry adoption a multi-year undertaking.

What Does a Domestic Adoption Cost?

The official cost of a domestic adoption in Vietnam is very low. The registration fee set by law is VND 400,000 per case, and for most domestic adopters the state fee is the smallest part of the picture.

The real costs tend to be incidental: obtaining and certifying documents, any notarisation and translation, and, where a family chooses to use one, legal assistance to make sure the process is handled correctly. Even with these, a domestic adoption is inexpensive next to an intercountry one.

What Does an Intercountry Adoption Cost?

Intercountry adoption is a different order of expense, and here it helps to separate two things that often get run together: the Vietnamese official fee, and the total real-world cost.

The Vietnamese government fee is fixed and modest. For an adopter residing abroad, the registration fee is VND 9,000,000 per case; for a foreigner residing in Vietnam, it is VND 4,500,000 per case. That is the charge for the Vietnamese side of the process, and it is not where the real expense lies.

The total cost of an intercountry adoption is far higher, and it is not set by Vietnamese law, because most of it is not a Vietnamese government charge at all. It is made up of the things that surround the adoption:

• Agency fees in the adopter’s home country, usually the largest single component.
• The home study and approvals required by the adopter’s own country.
• Document preparation, legalisation, and translation across two legal systems.
• Travel and accommodation in Vietnam, sometimes for more than one trip.

Taken together, these commonly run to the equivalent of tens of thousands of US dollars. Because they are largely foreign agency and travel costs rather than Vietnamese fees, the total varies considerably by country, by agency, and by the circumstances of the particular child, and anyone planning an intercountry adoption should get a current, itemised estimate from their accredited agency rather than rely on a single figure.

Why the Two Routes Differ So Much

The gap between a domestic adoption measured in months and hundreds of thousands of dong, and an intercountry adoption measured in years and tens of thousands of dollars, comes down to how the system is built.

A domestic adoption is handled at local level, uses Vietnamese documents, and needs no foreign agency, no cross-border legalisation, and no international travel. An intercountry adoption carries all of those, and sits on top of the domestic search that must happen first and the safeguards of the international framework Vietnam operates under. The cost and the time reflect the protections that surround moving a child across a border, rather than any inefficiency in the system.

What Affects the Timeline and Cost in Your Case

Within these ranges, several things move a particular adoption faster or slower, cheaper or dearer. The child’s circumstances matter: adoptions of older children, sibling groups, or children with special needs sometimes proceed differently from others. The completeness of the dossier matters most of all, because incomplete or defective documents are the commonest cause of delay, and delay is also what drives up cost. Whether the adoption is of a specific, identified child, often a relative, or a non-specified child affects the path. And the requirements of the adopter’s home country, for an intercountry adoption, add their own timeline that runs alongside Vietnam’s.

The rules themselves also continue to evolve. The domestic-search and notification process was adjusted by a government decree in 2025, and a broader overhaul of the adoption law has been approved and is being drafted, so anyone beginning an adoption now should confirm the current position, which is one of the practical reasons to take advice early. The eligibility side of all this, who may adopt and who may be adopted, is set out alongside the conditions to adopt in our related writing.

Planning Around the Time and the Cost

The sensible way to approach an adoption in Vietnam is to plan around the realistic figures rather than the official ones. For a domestic adoption, that means a few months and a small state fee, plus modest document costs. For an intercountry adoption, it means a multi-year horizon and a budget in the tens of thousands, most of it outside Vietnam, with the Vietnamese fee itself a small part. Going in with those expectations, rather than the headline processing times, is what prevents the frustration that catches families who expected something quicker or cheaper.

If you are considering an adoption in Vietnam and want a realistic picture of the timeline and cost for your particular situation, our team of family lawyers can explain what to expect, prepare and check the dossier that so often determines the pace, and guide the process through to completion. You can reach us for a confidential consultation at [email protected].