Your Perfect Guide to Successful Surrogacy in Albania
Nowadays more and more couples and singles are entering into arrangements wanting to fulfill their desires to have babies using surrogates. The reasons can be different: high–risk previous pregnancy, post–birth complications, health issues, infertility, same–gender family, and many more, but in all cases, surrogacy is the only way to give the intended parents a comfortable pregnancy and a nice healthy baby in the end of the journey.
From here, the second question arises — which country to choose for a surrogacy. And for many aspiring parents the dilemma between stopping their choice on the United States (where surrogacy legal framework is inclusive but pricing is often too high) and the other countries (where the legislation may limit their eligibility but the cost is more affordable), is so challenging, that it may take from several months to several years.
Additionally, some may have a limited budget, some may look for a destination where their marital status or sexual orientation is not restricted, and some may want to complete the process in a European country. This new destination within Europe is Albania, — a small country that offers a unique chance of having a baby via surrogacy for single intended parents and couples with no discrimination on marital status or sexual orientation.
Surrogacy in Albania is unregulated, meaning that it is neither approved nor banned by the law.
In April 2024, Albanian government proposed to allow surrogacy and established the transparent regulations for the process. But the proposal was criticized by an opposition, leading to no positive changes towards transparency and the same unclear legal status.
The lack of a legal framework made Albania “a grey zone” where surrogacy arrangements are available to anyone and everyone, regardless of their gender, marital status, and sexual orientation. Such inclusivity offers a unique opportunity for single mothers and fathers, single gay men and gay couples, single lesbian women, and female couples who are not eligible in most surrogacy destinations to go through this experience and become parents. Consequently, intended parents from diverse backgrounds can pursue surrogacy without serious issues or legal hassles.
Although there are no specific laws governing surrogacy, Albanian fertility clinics follow the guidelines outlined in the Law on Reproductive Health (“Law 8876”) and Article 261 of the Family Code when initiating the process. Albania recognizes only gestational surrogacy. Traditional surrogacy, in which the surrogate is the biological mother of the baby, is avoided.
According to law 8876 (dated 04 April 2002), any individual may receive fertility care regardless of gender, marital status, or sexual orientation. Article 261 of the Family Code of Albania mentions that surrogacy is subject to the same rules as the adoption of the child. This means that the intending couple considering surrogacy must follow an adoption procedure that requires the approval of the adoption commission and a court hearing before taking their surrogacy newborn at home. Although the adoption scenario is involved in all surrogacy cases, same–gender couples cannot adopt the child as a couple, regardless they are married or not. The Albanian Family Code prohibits same–sex marriage, but one parent can do it as an individual.
Surrogacy services and medically assisted pregnancy are continuing to be the leading topics of public discourse in Albania. After facing a failure to approve the new law on reproductive health and rights in the previous parliamentarian debates, the work on drafting the final version is now underway, disrupting the Status Quo and envisaging transparent legislation to balance the rights of intended parents, surrogate mothers, and the surrogacy newborns.
The upcoming hearings for the new Assisted Reproduction Law have not been scheduled yet, but most likely, they will take place not earlier than 2025.
If the new Assisted Reproduction Law is approved, couples and singles will have more rights and options, which is likely to lead to increased access to fertility treatments, including gestational surrogacy.
However, the changes in fertility legislation to officially allow surrogacy for couples may have biased consequences. For instance, homosexual couples might be legally excluded from those who are eligible. Single men may face more legal hurdles when opting for surrogacy. Or, in the other scenario, the changes to the law may mean that surrogacy will be permitted for married heterosexual couples who are unable to conceive a child on their own because of health conditions.
Albanian legislation does not recognize a difference between legitimate and illegitimate births. In other words, each child is born with equal legal status regardless of their parents’ marital status.
In the case of a heterosexual couple, both parents are named on the birth certificate. Thus, both of them have parental rights and responsibilities.
For cases where both parents are from the same–gender couple, the parental rights & responsibility is on the partner who adopted the child and became the legal parent.
Each birth should be registered with the Civil Registry Office within 60 or 90 days:
The Birth Certificate includes the child’s name, the parents’ names (or the parent’s name) and the date when it was issued.
The Civil Registry Office issues digital birth certificates with a digital stamp through the e–Albania government portal. However, the e–birth certificates still are not acceptable for embassies, thus, the prospective parents should apply for a non–digital (paper) copy with a wet stamp to apply for newborn’s travel documents.
Albanian birth certificates are available in 6 different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish, making it easier for parents to apply for the document and receive it in their language. Moreover, such multilingual option streamlines the document verification process, facilitating international procedures, such as parental rights establishment (involving adoption), consular registration, passport issuance, and other legal processes necessary to be completed before traveling with a newborn to a home country.
When using prospective mother’s oocytes is impossible, single women and couples are suggested to have a treatment using the eggs from the donor.
During egg donation, the donor produces multiple eggs, which are collected and fertilized with the partner’s sperm. One (or two) embryos are transferred to achieve conception, and the rest can be vitrified for use in the future.
The law governs any IVF round involving egg donation. Generally, the law regulates the rights of the donors to donate their oocytes and the rights of couples to receive donations for medically assisted pregnancy. The envisaged legal framework approves IVF pregnancy rights for married heterosexual couples and single women but not for homosexual couples.
Albanian applicants wishing to donate their oocytes to those who cannot produce or use theirs are young and healthy women aged between 18 and 30 years old.
Before becoming egg donors, they are pre–screened for STDs, viral infections, genetic disorders, and chronic conditions that may interfere with the donation process. Additionally, each applicant has psychological screening to ensure that she is ready to donation. Those applicants who completed pre–screening procedures, and have no genetic, fertility, or medical issues making the donation impossible or undesirable, are added to the donor’s database.
Women may donate their oocytes only anonymously, meaning that their identity won’t be released to the couple or a woman who uses donated oocytes to make an embryo.
Single women and couples may use vitrified oocytes provided by the donor or initiate a fresh donation process. In both scenarios, the donor’s identity won’t be disclosed. The only difference will be the timing: the fresh donation cycle is more prolonged and may take one to three months.
Creating the embryo using the donor’s sperm is also an option in Albania, especially for men who are experiencing severe male factor infertility conditions. Couples who cannot produce viable sperm and seek donation may choose between the frozen and fresh cycle.
Like egg donation, the sperm donation process is anonymous. The identity of sperm donors is kept confidential, and single women or couples using donated sperm are not provided with any identifying information about the donor. To ensure the safety of recipients, all donors are pre–screened for genetic abnormalities, viral infections, STDs, and chronic conditions.
Many countries banned pre–conception selection of the desired gender for any reasons beyond medical one. Albania is not an exclusion — elective gender selection, which is choosing the sex of a baby based on personal preference, is not allowed; thus, intending couples fueled by the desire to have prenatal sex determination before transferring an embryo should look for the options abroad.
However, prospective parents who need sex selection of babies for medical reasons, such as when a genetic disorder is linked to a specific gender (thrombophilia, muscular dystrophy, or other), may apply.
Almost all countries where surrogacy is allowed have a strategy, from initial interviews with professionals to implementation. This country is not an exception — the surrogacy process in Albania starts with a series of consultations and negotiations on the desired terms, conditions, and trials with attorneys, fertility specialists, surrogacy case managers, and others involved. As soon as the couple decides to proceed, the surrogacy process begins with a series of steps, including medical assessments, surrogate mother selection, and legal arrangements.
Before initiating any surrogacy treatment process, an intending couple has an initial consult with an IVF clinic or surrogacy agency during which they may blueprint their journey’s strategy, including desired (single attempt) and undesirable scenarios (multiple attempts), potential costs involved, and negotiate on everything necessary for achieving a positive experience.
Once the intending couple or single prospective parent decides to proceed, they must complete a health screening before starting the process. Health screening routinely includes some procedures and tests to exclude genetic abnormalities, viral and infectious diseases, STDs, and other conditions that may interfere with IVF treatment.
After medical assessment, the prospective parents, with the assistance of a surrogacy professional, will select one or more potential surrogate mothers and get matched with them. In case of a perfect match, the surrogate mother will undergo a screening process at the fertility clinic to prove her ability to conceive with an IVF treatment, carry a healthy baby, and give birth.
Like in any other country where surrogacy is possible, once the intending couple or parent and their surrogate mother complete health assessments, they start consulting with legal professionals and working on a surrogacy contract. Routinely, each party includes the most essential information:
After open negotiations, both parties finalize the contract and can start the surrogacy process.
Once the legal arrangements are completed, the medical process begins. In most cases, the embryos are created through IVF treatment (in vitro fertilization) utilizing the intending couple’s biological material (mother’s oocytes and father’s sperm).
For cases requiring egg donation — the donor’s eggs and intended father’s sperm are used and vs.: if the prospective father cannot produce viable sperm, the donor’s sperm will fertilize the intended mother’s oocytes.
It is vital to note that using frozen embryos is also possible, and there is no need for initiating an IVF treatment.
Sooner, these embryos are transferred into the surrogate’s uterus for achieving a pregnancy.
Pre−birth, also known as antenatal care, is provided according to relevant clinical guidance, which includes consultations, ultrasound scans, screening for infectious diseases, screening for fetal abnormalities, additional screenings, and tests suggested by the surrogate mother’s obstetrician.
Usually, an intending couple or single prospective parent and their surrogate mother prepare a surrogacy birth plan as part of the surrogacy agreement. This outlines the many issues commonly found in birth plans, such as:
The birth plan should include all requests and different scenarios, ensuring that other policies and procedures do not limit the wishes of the surrogate mother and the intended couple.
When the long−awaited moment comes and the baby is born, the surrogate mother transfers her parental rights to prospective parents, following Albania surrogacy laws. The birth certificate is issued in the intended parents’ names, recognizing them as the child’s legal parents. Reputed surrogacy agency or if parents worked with fertility clinic and lawyer, then, lawyer, will help to prepare the documents for surrogacy adoption process. Finally, the surrogate baby will be adopted and the couple will be able to apply for the travel documents.
Some couples decide to stay longer in Albania and ask the surrogate mother to breastfeed their infant. The others stay for several weeks to receive the baby’s travel documents and return to their home countries once it is possible. But in any post−birth scenario, all parties have the support of specialists, doctors, nurses, counselors, and lawyers.
Each successful surrogacy experience is unique. It involves a unique strategy and may be fueled by the professionals using the unique treatment protocol crafted to adapt to not–a–typo scenarios (instead of canceling the cycle if the first transfer of an embryo resulted in a miscarriage, a new transfer using one or two embryos is scheduled). That is why the budget will be different each time a new journey is desired (whether it is a second or third baby), using the new surrogate or the one who already carried the previous baby.
Albania offers affordable surrogacy. In 2024, the estimated cost for a non–complicated, first–attempt surrogacy in Albania ranges between €50,000 and €100,000, depending on the program chosen, including IVF treatment, pregnancy care, natural delivery, and the surrogate’s compensation.
Less expensive surrogacy programs’ pricing starts at €50,000 and is capped at €69,000. More expensive and inclusive packages cost between €70,000 and €100,000.
The basic cost for intending couples who have their surrogates wishing to help them altruistically starts at approximately €39,000. In exclusive cases of altruistic arrangements, when the IVF or frozen embryo transfer results in a viable pregnancy from the first attempt, the cost may be under €30,000 EUR.
Regardless of whether you work with an IVF clinic directly or start with a surrogacy agency, the initial price tag and the total price tag will vary.
Generally, the initial cost includes the surrogate matching services, counseling, legal services, medical services, and the surrogate’s compensation. The total price tag finalizes all basic, non–basic, and variable expenses. The most expensive variable costs involve additional legal services beyond the surrogacy contract (consultations, applications, court representation, legal adoption process, and so on), medical fees (consultations, additional screenings and procedures, management of emergencies, lost wages, etc.), and surrogate compensation (for example, multiple pregnancy, C–section, multiple birth, breast milk pumping, newborn care, and others).
Ultimately, surrogacy cost in Albania can vary greatly based on multiple factors, including the specific case and an initial budget of each prospective parent.
The total cost of the surrogacy program in Albania is influenced by many factors. Some intending couples may need multicycle IVF or DuoStim IVF, some — egg donation, and some — surgical sperm retrieval. Beyond these cases, some couples may need multiple transfer attempts, some — preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) and vitrification of the embryos while waiting for PGT results, and some — shipping of their vitrified embryos from abroad to an Albanian IVF clinic.
This list of factors is not extensive, as in some situations, the prospective parents may need to rematch with a new surrogate mother, which leads to covering the legal, screening, medical, and IVF fees again. The others may have to manage additional expenses associated with ectopic or high–risk or multiple pregnancy, potentially leading to a new trial or extensive clinical care or Caesarian birth followed by staying in the NICU and paying neonatal care fees.
One more scenario to consider is welcoming a surprise third baby boy or girl by surrogacy, which may raise the expenses twice, especially if the triplet was born prematurely and the babies needed invasive procedures or surgical intervention. In other cases, when there is no need for invasive surgeries or advanced medical procedures, but staying in the newborn intensive care unit is a must for all babies while they are preemies, the pricing is lower.
When budgeting a surrogacy, it is desirable to add a minimum of 10% to the basic potential budget, but preferable to add ~30% to cover “just in case” expenses or, if an experience is seamless, these 10%–30% will be spent for newborn essentials and care.
So, if your core costs, including agency fees, IVF treatment, pregnancy care, delivery, and surrogate compensation, are around €50,000, add at least €5,000 (10%) to cover variable costs (additional legal services, medical fees, and surrogate compensation for specific circumstances). If your financial status allows, add 20% more (€10,000) to pay for influencing factors (additional IVF cycle or embryo transfer, egg donation, PGT, and more).
Some prospective parents may add approximately 10% to have some money to cover fees associated with undesirable situations, unexpected situations, or newborn needs.
Albania is an emerging European surrogacy hub, open to anyone wishing to father and mother a baby.
Few fertility clinics and some global reputable surrogacy agencies in Albania like Miracle Baby Surrogacy, Gaia Fertility, and Gestlife offer basic and premium gestational programs adjustable to the unique case of each prospective parent. As noted above, the costs of such programs vary greatly, enabling intended parents to choose the bundle they love (with services they need) from the clinic or agency they can trust. Additionally, before finalizing a clinic or agency to work with, each prospective parent can compare the options by scheduling several virtual consultations and then decide which best aligns with their needs, preferences, and budget.
Most international couples and single individuals choose Albania as their surrogacy destination because of its inclusive policies that allow everyone to apply for the journey, unlike many other countries.
Single prospective mothers may use a surrogate to welcome their children due to fears that pregnancy would put their career “on hold” for one year or because they are terrified of becoming pregnant, fearing accusations of “outsourcing” their pregnancy without having medical complications and with no need to explain that using a surrogate is a necessary step.
Single prospective fathers seeking to have their baby may use a surrogate and egg donor to make their dreams come true.
Intending couples, if heterosexual, may use the gestational carrier and once they welcomed their newborn, adopt him or her as a new addition to their family. Same–gender couples may initiate an arrangement, but only one partner in the couple may adopt the child and only as an individual (gay surrogacy is possible).
Although no specific guidelines or legal framework are envisaged and implemented to regulate the surrogacy process, and the opposition has rejected the new law, Albania’s current laws prioritize transparency and ethics in surrogacy and following the adoption process. This ensures the rights and interests of all parties involved in the surrogacy, providing a foundation of legality and security throughout the journey.
Some first–time moms and fathers who welcomed a baby via surrogate in the United States or other destinations and who consider a new bundle of joy but at a more affordable cost — may give a try to surrogacy experience in Albania.
Prospective parents with a limited budget for surrogacy looking for affordable options may find Albania to be a nice country to start their journey in. Compared to many Western countries where the minimum cost of a single–try (one attempt of IVF and embryo transfer) starts at €70,000, the overall cost of surrogacy in Albania is generally lower, starting at €30,000 and capping at €100,000, with an average of €50,000. And if the intended parents have a woman (a close friend or a relative) wishing to help them altruistically, the cost will be even less.
Conclusive Words
Sometimes, welcoming a child is harder than imagined or expected. For some prospective mothers, it is not possible without surrogacy — because of medical reasons or psychological trauma that factored into their decision to use a surrogate. Single fathers and same–sex male couples also face unique challenges in starting a family and may need a surrogate to carry and give birth to their child.
However, regardless of challenges and surrogacy struggles, all intended parents are united by the dream of coming back home with a newborn and starting a new chapter of their lives. Albania makes these dreams come true. Although the new regulations governing surrogacy have not been implemented yet, this country recognizes surrogacy, and experts try to make the surrogacy process as smooth and successful as possible.
Welcome to Parenthood
Are you inspired to make the first step towards having your baby today? Thinking about starting a surrogacy journey but feeling unsure where to begin? Haven’t found the right clinic or agency yet? Or maybe you need expert advice from surrogacy or fertility professionals?
We can help you. Get your free quote. Explore the programs, compare the costs, and make one bundle — yours.
