subject: Guidance From An International Adoption Agency For Foreign Adoption [print this page] After a family begins with the home study method for an international adoption, they are often unsettled by the huge and complex amount of paperwork needed from them. I often advise families that although the requirements seems daunting, it is humanly possible and can be done fairly speedily, if a family can get their paperwork together quickly. The approximate time to get a home study done is between 6 weeks and 2 months. Basically there are 2 components to the home study. The first phase is completing the paperwork, to submit items such as: fingerprint clearances, physicals, collecting financial information, birth certificates, marriage certificates, and reference letters. A new addition to these requirements is 10 hours of parent education preparation courses, which may be studied online or in person. It is important that clients contact Adoption Options or their home study agency when they receive their home study list and packet so that the items can be reviewed. The second part of the home study process is the discussion with the social worker. Every family wanting to go for an international adoption is assigned a social worker who will come to your home to do a home tour and to meet with and interview the clients and all other members of the household. This is also a time for the social worker to communicate issues related to international adoption and internationally adopted children.
After the paperwork is done and the process is completed and the clients have met with their social worker, the home study document is prepared. The report is usually 5-6 pages and submitted by the social worker. The information is extracted from the interviews and the documentation provided by the family. This document is signed by both the social worker and the executive director and notarized.
After the home study is finished, it is submitted to immigration. Those families who are adopting from countries who have not signed the Hague Convention submit their application and the related fees to the local USCIS office prior to the home study. After the study is done they will submit it including the necessary fingerprints and after the USCIS confirms the details the approval will be sent to the family as well as the National Visa center and the country from where the child is being adopted
Families adopting from Hague Convention countries must wait to submit their Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country (I-800A) along with application and fingerprint fees and attachments until their home study has been complete. Now the home study including the aforementioned documents should be sent to the centralized USCIS lock box. The home study will then be transferred to the National Benefits Center where an adjudicating officer will review the home study. Once approved by USCIS, the adjudicating officer will issue an approval called I-797C. It is at this time that a family can receive a referral of a child from a Hague Convention country.
