Independent Adoption

Parent-initiated international adoption.

Some people do not use an agency or facilitators but instead coordinate the adoption themselves, which is called a “par­ent-initiated,” “direct,” or “independent” adoption. The prospective parents have a home study conducted by an agency or a certified home study provider, then take full responsibility for adopting a child.

A parent-initiated adoption can be less expensive than an agency adoption. Nonetheless, if you make mistakes along the way, the financial and emotional costs can be far greater.

Remember, no matter which method you select, you will have certain expenses: processing fees, a home study, translations, a donation to the orphanage in some cases, foreign attorney fees, airfare, and so on. If you are going to invest that much money, you may want to improve the likelihood that the process will go smoothly and spend the few thousand dollars more to have an agency handle the red tape. If you do decide to conduct an adoption independently, make sure you seek guidance from others who have preceded you. Join a support organization and talk to the peo­ple who have completed an adoption from the country where you plan to adopt.

Before you proceed with an independent adoption, you should certainly e-mail the U.S. Embassy of the country where you are thinking of adopting and find out what the requirements are for adopting a child from that country. If you have a particular child in mind, make sure she is legally eligible for adoption.

Here is the process you will probably follow:

• First, you will deal directly with a foreign child placement source. Your responsibilities will include fulfilling your state’s requirements and getting a home study, sending your home study and docu­mentation to the international source, assuming full responsibility for your child, and complying with CIS regulations.
• Next, you will adopt your child in the foreign country. You must then also comply with CIS regulations before you can bring the child to the United States. The in-country facilitator should know what documents are required by both the child^‘s country and the U.S. Embassy/Consulate.