What is it?
Intercountry adoption is adoption through an adoption agency from a country other than your own, using the services of an agency as opposed to doing it yourself or with the help of a private lawyer.

 How much does it cost?
Intercountry adoption costs vary dramatically from country to country, and whether or not you include travel expenses, the home study, etc in the overall cost. Most range from $15,000 to $40,000 to process one adoption, without travel costs, but this can change and does.

 What are the requirements to adopt?
These vary from country to country. See our individual country list for this information.

 What types of children are available for adoption?
 Infants to teenagers, sibling groups and special needs children are available through intercountry adoption, but who may adopt whom, varies from country to country.

 What is the process for adopting a child?
As in domestic adoptions, a home study must be completed. The requirements for a home study vary depending on your state and which country you are adopting from. There are long, detailed, and involved interviews with a social worker,  home visits, physicals with your family doctor, witness and character statements, a police report and fingerprinting from your local police station, as well as financial and work records.

While you are working on your home study, you will also need to be collecting documents for the country’s dossier. A dossier is the collection of paperwork you will need for the country you are adopting from. For example, you often need newly issued birth certificates, marriage certificates, and divorce decrees.

You will also have to be fingerprinted by your state’s immigration office so that you can obtain a “petition to adopt an orphan.” Often you will need more sworn affidavits, witness statements, financial statements, character references, job references, and physicals, depending on the country you are adopting from.

Some countries demand all the documents to be notarized in the state the document was derived from, certified in that state government’s office, and authenticated in the embassy of the country you are adopting from. This is all before the documents are even sent to be translated in the country you are adopting from. Once again, this varies vastly from country to country.

After your dossier reaches the country of destination, it will be processed there. Some countries will give you the referral of a child before you travel. Others will give you the referral after you have arrived in the country. If you are given a referral before you travel, you will receive updates on the child.

For some countries you will have to make more than one trip before you bring your child home, while others will require just one. The length of time you must remain in the country also will vary, depending on the country you decide to adopt from.

 How long does it take to adopt a child?
This is a very difficult question to answer and depends on the country that you are adopting from. Generally infant adoption and particularly infant girl adoption, takes longer while  a sibling group or a special needs child adoption can be expedited, of course depending on the country.  In the past, some countries such as Guatemala, facilitated adoptions as quickly as three to four months, while others, such as China, have taken up to two years, and this is all after your paperwork has been prepared and submitted.

Time frames sometimes change on a month to month basis, often depending on how long you had to wait for the referral and how smoothly your paperwork goes through the process.

Do the hopeful adoptive parents meet the expecting mother or birth mother?                 That varies from country to country and in some instances from case to case. If the child has been abandoned there is obviously no opportunity to meet her, unless you do an intensive search with the help of professionals. If the child has been relinquished, some agencies and some birth mothers will allow the adoptive parents to meet the birth mother, but it is rare.

How is this form of adoption different from other forms?                                                     Most adoption processes are a huge leap of faith, but particularly intercountry adoption. Politics, intercountry relations and economics all play a part in the smooth processing of intercountry adoptions.

You are going to be working with two countries simultaneously and that means preparing paperwork and being involved with two bureaucracies.  You may find it difficult to comprehend and accept the practices, systems and pace of other countries, often third world countries.

For some adopting parents, the pickup trip is exhausting and a cultural shock, especially if you have not flown a lot or been exposed to cultures other than your own. Good agencies provide proficient in-country coordinators, but ultimately they can’t hold your hand 24 hours of the day.