Continued from here, where I've been writing about the nuts and bolts of adopting from India ...

After the the dossier docs are submitted, a No Objection Certificate must be awared by CARA.

If all goes well, this should be how the process goes:

1. After they receive the relevant documents the Indian placement agency will register the name of the potential foreign parents in a register meant for them.

2. They will compare the Home Study Report with the Child Study Reports they maintain and secure suitable matches.

3. Once a match is found the placement agency will seek the clearance from the Voluntary Coordinating Agency.

4. With the clearance in hand they will then send across the Child Study Report together with the photograph of the child, his/her medical report to the foreign placement agency for the approval of the prospective parents.

5. Once their approval is in place, CARA's role begins - they will now have to clear that particular child for inter-country adoption after ensuring that all the efforts made to find that child a home in India have failed. The recognized placement agency will provide all the necessary information along with a clearance from the Voluntary Coordinating Agency - these should be adequate to convince CARA that inter-country adoption is in the best interests of the said child.

6. Now the placement agency will get the case processed by court to award the custody of the child to the foreign national. For this a scrutinizing agency has to clear the case after going through all the relevant documents and circumstances to ensure that inter-country adoption is in the best interests of the child. The relevant competent court then awards the guardianship of the child to the foreign parents, within the stipulated time and based on the testimony of the scrutinizing agency.

7. The placement agency then seeks a passport from the Regional Passport Office for obtaining a valid Indian Passport for the child. Then a visa is secured from the relevant Embassy/High Commission of the concerned country for the child, prior to the departure of the child to the new country of residence either with an escort or with the new parents.

On protecting the rights of birth parents ...

The procedure of the surrender of the child begins by informing the biological parents of the effects of their agreeability to the adoption of their child and also to counsel them on the alternative venues of care available should they wish to change their mind.

It becomes the duty of the placement agencies to ensure that they are not coerced/compelled in anyway, nor paid any compensation of any kind by any agency concerned.

Their preference for the religious upbringing of the child may be respected but should not come in the way of what is ultimately the best possible option for the child.

They are given 60 days to think over their decision even after the signing of the surrender document.  Within this time they may change their mind and reclaim their child but after the lapse of the 60 days the agency becomes free to hand over the child for in or inter country adoption.

As far as possible the surrender document should be executed on stamped paper and in the presence of two re-callable witnesses.  The onus of proving the authenticity of the surrender document lies on the placement agency.  The agency can best do this by getting both the parents to sign the relinquishment document and get the death certificate if one of the parents is dead.  For a child born out of wedlock, only the mother has the right to surrender the child.  If the surrender is done by a person other than the biological parents then the surrender is treated the same way as in the case of an abandoned child [here every effort is made by the police authorities to locate the biological parents even as the agency which found/was given the child moves the Juvenile Board/Court to release the child for adoption - a procedure expedited with police consent (within 6 weeks for a child under 2 years and within 3 months in the case of a child over that age) if the authorities have been unable to locate the child in spite of all the efforts required to be taken by the law].

There were 320 Immigrant Visas issued to adoptees from India in 2006, down from a high of 472 in 2003.

More information can be found here at the US State Department site, and at the US Embassy sites in New Delhi , Chennai, Mumbai, and Calcutta, and the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC.
There is also more at Adoption.Com, of course.