Using an Agency

Licensed adoption agencies in the United States can help you facilitate an adoption by providing guidance, direction, and contact people overseas. If you are adopting from certain countries, such as China, Kazakhstan, Korea, or Russia, the foreign country may require that only adoption agencies that are licensed (in your state or in another state) can administer the adoptions. They do not accept adoption facilitators. Also, these countries will not accept home studies by independent social workers.

Direct placement agencies are licensed both here in the United States and officially recognized in the foreign country. They maintain a direct relationship with the authorities to place international children directly with American families. These officially recognized agencies often are available to work with other licensed agencies in the United States. For example, there are about 100 licensed adoption agencies in the United States that have a direct agreement with China. If you work through an agency that does not have a direct agreement with China, your agency will process your adoption through one of the officially recognized agencies.

Therefore, if you select an agency that is not directly licensed in China, that agency must be working through an agency that is directly licensed in China. Usu­ally the agency that is licensed in China will “split” its agency fee with the other agency that is not licensed in China. The second agency will be recruiting families and then will handle the clients’ paperwork.

An agency’s role in an adoption is to manage the paperwork, including the for­eign application, assign a child to you, and communicate with those in the child’s country. Many aspects of an adoption are out of an agency’s control. For example, at different times in the last ten years, families waited for an assignment of a child from China from four months to more than twelve months. Regardless of what agency the families were working with, the wait was essentially the same for an assignment of a healthy baby from China.

Some agencies are only as good as their in-country contacts. If the in-country coordinator can conduct adoptions smoothly, then the agency has a “good” program.

Usually the success of a program is a hybrid between the agency and the in­-country source. An agency that moves your paperwork through quickly, maintains good in-country resources, and is sympathetic to your needs is generally a good agency.

On the other hand, if you cannot reach your agency staff, the in-country coor­dinator is marginal in his ability to complete the work, and the staff does not take your concerns seriously, then you will not be happy with the program.

Regardless of how good the agency staff is and how efficient and knowledge­able the in-country coordinator may be, international adoptions can face bureau­cratic delays.