Complete the application and submit to your adoption agency

Home Study: People who want to adopt a child must first be approved by a social worker who is approved to conduct adoption home studies in your state. The social worker should have experience in writing an international home study as the requirements for international home studies may be different than a domestic home study, and may or may not be affiliated with your adoption agency. Please consult with your adoption agency for references for qualified social workers. The social worker will gather documents from you, interview you, come into your home once or twice, and counsel you concerning adoption. An approved home study is required which indicates that you can provide a stable home environment for the child.

Select your country: Gather and authenticate/apostille documents required for your Dossier, Home Study & Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS / INS)

I-600A, BCIS form, "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition". For most people, this is the initial BCIS application submitted to their regional office/sub-office. The I-600A can speed up the adoption process in the US by allowing the BCIS to begin the part of the immigration approval regarding your ability to provide a proper home environment and your suitability as a parent. You do not need to have a completed Home Study or have identified a child or country in order to submit the I600A - the Home Study can be sent separately when completed, as well as information regarding which country's embassy to cable the approval to once the I600A is complete. Go to http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/i-600a.htm.

Report to BCIS for fingerprinting : they'll tell you when and where by letter.

Get your Passport Updated if necessary or a new one issued: Passports are the identification documents/booklets, issued by the US State Department, which you will need to have with you in order to travel to a foreign country. Your passport must be current if you plan to travel to your child's country. Passport applications can be obtained and processed through specific post offices, federal buildings, and BCIS facilities.

I-171H Letter: This is your official approval that allows your child to enter the U.S. A form letter from the BCIS stating that they have processed and approved your Application to Advance Process Orphan Approval (I-600A form) and that they have cabled the US Embassy abroad as indicated on your I-600A. Their decision to approve is based primarily on FBI fingerprint clearances and home studies.

Embassy letter: When the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service completes their investigation of you based on your I-600A application, you will receive a form I-171H stating that you are approved to adopt internationally and that they have cabled the embassy you specified on the I-600A. In response to those BCIS actions, a letter will arrive from the Embassy responsible for processing your child's exit visa. This letter should arrive within 2 months of receiving your I-171H.

Referral: Your adoption agency will send you information about a specific child so you can decide if the child is right for your family. This is a referral. A referral usually consists of the name and birth date of the child, a photo, and some medical information. The quantity/quality of information varies from just a few vital statistics to a full battery of laboratory test results. Sometimes a video of the child is provided in addition to the photo and medical information. Your adoption agency strongly suggests that you seek an international adoption physician to review the medical information and answer as many of your questions as possible. The prospective parents have a specific amount of time after a referral is made to decide whether to accept or decline the referral.

I-600, BCIS form, "Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative": This form is required for all international adoptions. It is utilized by the US Embassy/BCIS when you are in country/going through the exit process/interview after your completed court hearing. The form is very similar to the advanced processing form (I-600A) form most people initially submit; with the exception that it is blue in color and states you have now identified your child. This form is used by the BCIS to determine whether the child the prospective parent(s) wants to adopt, meets the BCIS definition of an "orphan." If an I-600A was not previously filed, the prospective parent(s) will also be required to submit the documentation that would normally have been submitted with the I-600A. .

I-864: BCIS form, Affidavit of Support: a statement verifying that you have sufficient financial means to provide for a child.

Power of Attorney as required: Your written, notarized permission for someone other than yourself to represent you. A Power of Attorney is sometimes used to allow someone in your child's country to represent you at your child's adoption hearing/court date.

Court Hearing / Court Date (possible travel): Your agency must is required by the foreign courts to generally require prospective adoptive parents to submit evidence of the child's orphan status/availability for adoption or guardianship, the child's identity, the acceptability of the prospective adoptive parents, and the clearance to adopt from the government of the prospective adoptive parents. A court hearing is a hearing within your child's country in which your documents and case requesting adoption of a specific child are reviewed and approved. Countries have various requirements regarding requirements for one or both parents to attend the hearing, acceptability of Power of Attorney representation, and waiting periods in which the outcome of the hearing may be contested or before documents will be signed.

Begin Exit Process: The process/paperwork required for a child who has been adopted and now needs travel and immigration documents from the source country and the US Embassy before leaving the country (passport) and entering the US (immigrant visa).

• Your child will be issued a passport before exiting the foreign country, allowing him or her to begin the exit process at the US Embassy and subsequently leave the country/enter the United States. Your child's passport will be issued by his/her native country.

• "I-604 Orphan Investigation. As a part of the immigrant visa application/exit process the child will be examined by a US-approved foreign physician to The purpose is: (1) to verify the orphan status of the child and (2) to ensure that the child does have medical condition the adoptive parents don't know about.

• In order to enter the US, your child will require an immigrant visa. This may be a piece of paper or a stamp in the child's passport by the Embassy. Prior to issuing an immigrant visa for your child, a Department of State Consular Officer must conduct the I-604 Orphan Investigation
  
  
  

• IR-3: the child was adopted overseas and (1) the adoptive parent (if single parent) or both parents (if married couple) saw/observed the child prior to the adoption and (2) the foreign adoption grants both adoptive parents and child the same rights, responsibilities, & privileges as would an adoption in the US. Children issued IR-3 immigrant visas do not require re-adoption in the US under federal laws.

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  IR-4: the child is coming to the United States for adoption. An IR-4 is issued to a child when (1) the foreign country's laws only permit the adoptive parents to obtain guardianship of the child rather than to fully adopt the child in that country and/or (2) the prospective adoptive parent(s) did not see/observe the child prior to the foreign adoption. Children issued IR-4 immigrant visas must be adopted or readopted after they enter the US.
  
  
  

Re-adoption is recommended: Although the foreign birth certificate of your child is legal and binding within the US, and although it is not generally required (unless both parents did not travel to see the child or unless a full and final adoption was not completed in country), re-adoption will result in a birth certificate (or delayed registration of birth) from the child's state of residence. Re-adoption will take place in the jurisdiction of the county court in which you live and may prevent problems getting copies of birth certificates later. A legal name change can also be filed at that time if desired. Contact county probate court to start, fill out required paperwork. They will schedule a hearing. After the re-adoption hearing, you may have to request yourself that the state issued birth certificate be sent to you.

Green Card Arrives (also called Permanent Resident Card or Form I-551): Your child will enter the US on one of two types of immigrant visas. An immigrant visa gives permission to enter the US and apply for permanent residence. The proof of permanent residence (the right to live and work in the US permanently) is called a Green Card. This should process for your child, without your intervention, upon entry into the US through airport immigration. The Green Card should arrive within 2 month's of your child's arrival in the US. BCIS form G-731 may be used if you need to check the status of your child's Green Card. You may need your child's the Green Card for various other legal purposes such as readopting, obtaining a social security card, obtaining certificate of US citizenship

Apply for a Social Security number for your child. SS-5.

20. N-643, Application for Certificate of Citizenship in Behalf of an Adopted Child or obtain US Passport for your child if you want documentation regarding your child's US citizenship

Report to BCIS for Citizenship Interview. They'll send you a letter telling you when and where to report (BCIS sub-office), and what documents you need to bring. You'll need your child's Green Card. They'll destroy it upon granting citizenship to your child. The certificate can be presented the same day as your child's interview.

Post Placement Reports: Periodic reports due to your adoption agency and perhaps to your state's home study agency (depending upon agency/state/country). These reports help monitor your child's development, health, adjustment etc after the completion of an international adoption to ensure that things are going well. The number of visits (if any) and length of post-placement supervision/reporting varies from state to state & country to country.