Meeting your sponsored child in person will be one of your child's favorite memories for life — and quite possibly yours, too! Compassion believes so strongly in the positive effect of you meeting your sponsored child that we will coordinate the visit logistics and provide a trained facilitator to accompany you. Many of our country offices support more than 20,000 sponsored children who live anywhere from a few hours' to a few days' travel from their offices. As a result, it takes some time to arrange your visit successfully.

The information below will walk you through the process of setting up a visit with your sponsored child. 

Please note that due to local customs, as well as scheduled vacations for sponsored children and project/office staff, many of Compassion's field countries are limited in their ability to facilitate child visits during the Christmas holiday season. When we receive your individual visit request, Compassion will respond with information specific to your child's country. Thank you for your understanding.

Visit Planning Guidelines      

• Compassion requests six weeks' notice prior to the date of visit in order to arrange your visit. The visit process often takes many weeks to coordinate between the U.S. and country offices, the church child development center, your child attends, your child's family and you.
• Compassion requires a completed Visit Request Form (see Child Visit Checklist) before contacting the country office to plan your visit.

  • If you need more information, please e-mail visits@us.ci.org or call (800) 336-7542 for assistance. 

  • Sponsored children and their families often see a visit from their sponsor as the highlight of the year. It would be terribly disappointing to contact your child's family if your plans are not yet certain. 

• Compassion requires sponsors to reimburse expenses incurred by the sponsored family or country office in facilitating your visit. These expenses may include transportation, food and possibly overnight lodging, if you decide to have the child and chaperone(s) meet you away from their home area.

Learn more about a typical child visit.                        

I'm ready to submit my visit request.