The Home Study Process for International Adoption

When a family starts with the home study process for an international adoption, they are often intimidated by the list of paperwork that they need to complete. I often tell families that though the list looks intimidating, it is completely do-able and can be done quite quickly, if a family is able to get their paperwork together quickly. The average time to get a home study done is between 6 weeks and 2 months. I often tell families that there are two parts to the home study. One part is doing the paperwork, which includes things 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 can be done through on-line courses or in person. It is important that clients contact Adoption Options, Inc. 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 meeting with the social worker. Each family 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 help educate the family on international adoption and internationally adopted children.

Once the home study paperwork for international adoption has been submitted and the clients have met with their social worker, the home study document is prepared. This is usually a report of five to eight pages and is written by the assigned social worker. The social worker incorporates information gathered from the interviews and home tour, as well as from the paperwork that has been submitted. The home study is signed by both the social worker and the executive director and notarized.

Once the home study is finalized, it is ready to go to immigration. Families adopting from non-Hague Convention countries can submit their Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition (I-600A) along with application and fingerprint fees and attachments to their local USCIS office before their home study is done. Once their home study is done, they will submit the home study to their local USCIS office to be linked with their I-600A and fingerprints. Once approved by USCIS, the local USCIS office will then issue the family an approval called I-171H. This approval information will also be sent to the National Visa Center as well as the country from which the family is adopting.

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. At that time, the home study along with 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.