The Process

I realized that not everyone we know was with us on our first (few) adoptions so the process seems confusing. If you know about how international adoption works then feel free to skip this post!

The adoption process can be confusing from the outside. Every agency and country have different referral guidelines, cost, timelines, rules and travel times. After a long journey through domestic and international adoption we landed in China. Our early blog posts can fill you in a little more on our journey and selecting China.

So how does this all work?

Well. We applied (again) to our adoption agency. We were accepted in September 2016 and the paper chase was on after that. We collected documents for two purposes – our homestudy and our dossier. A homestudy is completed by a social worker through interviews, home visits and reviewing piles of documents. The documents include employment letters, criminal checks, FBI clearance, physicals for all of us, bloodwork, pet vaccine records, financial review, reference letters, birth certificates, marriage license, taxes….you get the picture. After that is completed they determine if they feel we are ready to add a member to our family. They provide our agency a homestudy detailing all of the information they have gathered and their recommendation. The dossier is what we send to China asking to be considered to adopt a child. The dossier includes our home study, financial statements, birth certificates, marriage license, employment verification, medical statements, adoption petition, immigration approval and a few other items. The entire dossier must go through a certification process. Each document must be certified by a notary, county clerk, KY Secretary of State, US State Department and the Chinese Embassy before it can be submitted to China. Mixed in there was our immigration approval that we receive from USCIS which is the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. That includes an application, our home study and more fingerprints. It took us about five months to complete those steps.

How do you get a referral?

China is responsible for generating the files of children available for adoption. The file includes information about the child – developmental history, age, weight, special needs and other information. Following the completion of a file China has a few options of how to match families and children. I will skip to how we will most likely be matched. Our agency has partnerships with many orphanages and those files are assigned to our agency. Our agency will then work through their process to join families and children. We are now waiting for the call!

Is this adoption through the special needs program?

Our first adoption from China was completed through the special needs adoption program and this one will be as well. At this time we don’t know what medical need our child will have but have discussed many needs with our social worker and agency. The range of needs is wide including very mild to much more significant.

Why is adoption so costly?

Many people ask this question because it can be hard to understand the fees associated with adoption. Adoption from China ranges from $27,000 to $45,000+ depending on your agency, time of year you travel, cost in your home state for services, etc. We anticipate being on the lower end of that range. A specific break down of costs can be found on our agencies website if you are interested in adoption. The fees go to many different places including the placing agency, home study agency, USCIS, certification process, police checks, medical fees, China travel expenses, orphanage fee (nearly $6,000), visas, passports (for your adopted child), courier fees, shipping and more. The steps for adoption are complex, involve many people and have expenses associated with each step.

How long until you travel after you accept a referral?

Once we get a referral we will submit a letter of intent to adopt to the Chinese government. There are many steps after that including approval to adopt, additional USCIS approval, travel approval from China, setting up US embassy appointments and about 10 other steps. Long story short I would say following accepting our referral we will travel in 3-4 months. For Ayla and Isaac the travel time was 6 months but I suspect it will be faster this time.

Let me know if you have any other questions about the process!