Starting the Adoption Process

Once you’ve decided which country and agency you’ll use, it’s time to actually begin the adoption process.

The Homestudy

The homestudy is a crucial process that ensures the state that you’re competent to adopt a child. Your homestudy may also include issues specific to your adoption, but usually the adoption worker follows state mandates. Supervised by a licensed social worker, nearly all homestudies in every state include the following:

Criminal background check: You need to have your fingerprints run through the state (and perhaps the local) police system.
Fire inspection: You need to have appropriate smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and a mapped escape route of your house in case of a fire.
Health history: Your doctor will give you a physical and sign a statement that you’re in good enough health to parent a child. If you’ve sought mental health support in the past few years, your social worker may also want a statement from your therapist.
Home inspection: The social worker will want to see that your home is safe and clean and will also want to inspect the room in which the child will be sleeping.
Income statement: You’ll need to supply tax records, paycheck stubs, and a budget.
Personal history: This should include the history of your partnership or marriage, your education and employment, and interviews with other children in the home. You’ll likely fill out a form or respond to a list of questions, and then the social worker will conduct a more in-depth interview with you based on your answers.
Personal references: Friends, family, and/or your spiritual advisor will be asked to submit their thoughts about your ability to parent a child through adoption.

Training as Part of the Homestudy

Some agencies require special training of their hopeful adoptive parents as part of the homestudy. This training can include:

First aid/CPR certification
Information about transracial/transcultural adoption, including any appropriate classes
Training about issues common to internationally adopted children

Your agency may also give you assigned reading, which is a terrific opportunity to begin your practical and emotional education to ready yourself to parent your child.

The Adoption Paper Chase

International adoptions require a dossier—the bundle of official paperwork that’s submitted to your child’s country of origin. Many waiting adoptive parents call this the paper chase. Some of the paperwork needs to be notarized, and some of it needs to be submitted in duplicate or even triplicate. Be sure to keep copies of everything as you go. Required documents vary by country but may include:

Birth certificate
Child abuse and neglect clearance
Commitment to post-placement visits and/or reports
Criminal background check
Divorce or death certificate (if applicable)
Employment letters
Financial statement
Homestudy (note that some of the paperwork in this list may already be included in your homestudy)
Marriage certificate (if applicable)
Medical report (your child’s country of origin may want a more specific medical report than that required by your agency’s homestudy)
Passports
Petition to adopt (if the child whom you plan to adopt has already been identified, you may need to specify this)
Pictures of your family and/or home
Power of attorney (allows agency or agency representatives to file paperwork in country before you arrive)
Proof of home ownership (if applicable)
Reference letters from friends or family
Statement about your commitment to adopt
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approval of orphan petition

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer

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Other Issues in International Adoption

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The Adoption Wait

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