Selecting a Country and Agency
The first step in the international adoption process is to select a country for your adoption. Many weigh factors such as language barriers and individual country bureaucratic red tape to determine which country's adoption process will work best for them. Others evaluate different factors such as the child's ethnicity, health, age and sex. Once the question of the country has been settled, parents will need to decide which agency to shepherd them through the process.
Completing the Paperwork
The amount of paperwork involved in an adoption process is huge, and international adoption is no exception. Parents must first apply to an international adoption agency that specializes in adoptions from the country you selected.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) is one of the most important players in the adoption process. Parents must meet all USCIS guidelines and receive approved before the adoption agency can get started locating a child. To begin this process you must file a I-600A form together with supporting documents like copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses and divorce decrees. The USCIS also requires a completed home study be submitted by the adoption agency.
You must simultaneously create a dossier that contains pertinent details and images of your family, your home and your life in the United States so that the adoption agencies can submit it to the country's government and work can begin to find you a child to adopt. Prior to submitting the dossier, the agency will work with you to have the dossier authenticated and translated into the language of the adoptive country.
The Waiting Game
The waiting stage of the international home study process is for many the most difficult and most frustrating. The home study must be approved, and parents must wait to receive what is known as a I-171H pre-approval form from the USCIS. They must then wait to receive a child referral with information about a particular child and his location. If any additional documentation is required by the agency or the foreign government it will be requested at this time, and then you must continue to wait for the child referral to be accepted. Then you will wait for pre-approval from the adoption agency and your invitation to travel to the adopted country to meet your child and continue the adoption process.
Many countries require parents to spend a specific amount of time in the child's native country prior to finalizing the adoption process and returning home.
Post-Adoption
Once the parents and child have returned home to the United States, post-placement evaluations together with more paperwork are completed.
