After you adopt

Congratulations! Your match is made and your child is home. Don't miss out on tax and health care benefits, updating your will, and scholarship opportunities for adoptees.

Child tax credit | Health care benefits | Scholarships and bursaries | Will and alternate caregiver planning

Child tax credit

The Canada child tax benefit (CCTB) is available for families with children under 18 years. Rates are determined by number of minor children in the home and family net income.

The CCTB may also include a child disability benefit (CDB), a monthly benefit providing financial assistance for qualified families caring for children with severe and prolonged mental or physical impairments.

New arrivals under 6 years old are eligible for the universal child care benefit (UCCB). The UCCB is a taxable benefit of $100 per month, per child under age 6. It is designed to assist with child care costs.

Check with Revenue Canada or your accountant to ensure you are receiving maximum benefits for your family.

Health care benefits

In BC, once your child physically joins your family, you must apply to add her to your Medical Services Plan (MSP) account. Please complete the forms using your child's adoptive name. If your adoption is not yet  finalized, use your child's date of placement as her date of adoption.

Adopting a child within BC
Your application includes a photocopy of the notice of placement letter which indicates the date that the child was placed in your home. Your agency or MCFD provides this letter.

Adopting a child from outside of Canada
Your application includes photocopies of documents that support your child’s name and immigration status in Canada.  If she has been granted Canadian citizenship, provide a copy of her Canadian citizenship card or Canadian passport. Otherwise, if Citizenship and Immigration Canada has issued the child a “Confirmation of Permanent Residence” document that indicates the adoptive parents’ names, a copy of this document is usually sufficient.  If the child either holds a Confirmation of Permanent Residence document that does not include this information, or holds a different immigration document, two items are required: 

• A copy of the child’s current immigration document, for example her Confirmation of Permanent Residence, Permanent Resident Card (fro0nt and back), or Temporary Resident Permit, and
• A letter from the Director, Adoption Branch, Ministry of Children and Family Development, to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, stating that the Ministry has no objection to the adoption (a letter of no objection). 

If the child is being adopted from the United States and arrives in BC before an immigration document has been issued, include a note to this effect and a copy of the letter described previously, with your completed form.

If you are covered under a self-administered account, you need to include a completed MSP account change form. 

If you are enrolled under a group plan administered by an employer, union or pension office, you need to include a completed group change request form.

Scholarships and bursaries

Many scholarship and bursaries are designed specifically for adoptees and former youth in care. If you know of an adoption or fostering scholarship or bursary open to BC residents, please let us know and we will add it to our list.

View the full list of scholarships and bursaries here.

Will and alternate caregiver planning

Your adopted children are legally entitled to the same inheritance rights as a biological child. Adding your newly adopted child to your  will and assigning an alternate caregiver provides him with fiscal and legal assurances. More importantly, formally naming an alternate guardian ensures that if something were to happen to you, your child would not have to risk entering or re-entering government care until a care giver can be identified.

If you adopt through MCFD and are receiving post adoption assistance, those funds or services can be transferred to a named guardian. If no one is identified in your will, however, PAA funds are not transferrable to your child's next caregiver.