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Getting Started

Q If I decide to adopt internationally, how do I get started?

A There are three easy steps that you should start at the same time.

1. Send us your Application for Adoption & Adoption Services Agreement. Your application will be reviewed by our Application Review Team. Please be sure to answer each question and provide additional information as indicated. The review process should be complete within 48 hours unless we need to obtain additional information from you.
   
   Once your application is approved, we will send you an email with a username and password that gives you access to My FTIA - an amazing online database that provides FTIA adopting parents immediate access to a Dossier Guide. The Dossier Guide provides detail and sample forms of all documents you will need to prepare for your adoption.
   
   You will be assigned a coordinator to guide you through the adoption process. Your coordinator will call you to welcome you to the program and set a time for an orientation call. The orientation call will be an opportunity for you to learn about the resources available through MyFTIA and answer any questions you may have.
2. Selecting your home study agency. The Hague Convention (Hague) requires that FTIA has a signed Agreement with your agency that completes your Home Study; we apply this standard to all adoptions, even if the country is not a Hague country. Before selecting a Home Study Agency and/or paying money to any Home Study Agency, we recommend consulting with us so we can either verify: 1) the agency you have preliminarily selected does have an Agreement with FTIA; 2) if the agency you have preliminarily selected does not have an Agreement in place, we can contact the agency to see if they are willing to sign the required Agreement; or 3) if the Home Study Agency will not sign the required Agreement, we can identify another agency for your Home Study with the necessary Agreement in place. Some countries have specific requirements for home study agencies. Please do not start the home study process until we confirm with you that the home study agency is qualified to prepare a home study for the country from which you are adopting.
3. Begin the CIS procedure. Visit the CIS website to obtain the
   I-800A form (if adopting from Brazil, China, Bulgaria, India, or Panama) or the I-600A form (if adopting from Ethiopia, Nepal, Russia, or Vietnam). You can probably collect all the documents necessary to submit with the I-600A or I-800A, with the exception of your home study, within a couple of weeks. All I-800A's are submitted to the National Benefits Center (NBD) while the I-600A's are submitted to a central location, then directed to district offices across the US. Some CIS district offices allow adopting parents to submit the I-600A form and all required documents, except for the home study, along with a cover letter explaining that the home study will be submitted in the near future. Other CIS district offices require adopting parents to wait to submit the I-600A form and required documents until they can include the home study. The home study and all supporting documents must be submitted with the I-800A form to the NBC. Please note: the CIS will accept checks for fees; however checks and money orders must be made out to “US Department of Homeland Security.” No abbreviations can be made.

As you work on your home study, you will see that you are required to gather certain documents for your home study which may appear similar to what is necessary for the dossier you submit to the foreign country. We are often asked, "Can I use the same documents for the home study and the foreign dossier?" The short answer is, "no," because most of the documents for the foreign countries must be the originals and some are very specific forms that must be completed. Since you may not be able to use documents prepared for your home study in your dossier, we do recommend when you are collecting birth certificates, marriage licenses, and other documents that you obtain more than one original. You may need two originals during the procedure, and if you don't need two originals, it's always good to have an extra original of these documents available. If you are trying to adopt two or more children, you will usually need a dossier for each child-it depends on the country.

We hope that with the above directions you can get a quick start to your international adoption. As always, please feel free to e-mail or call us with your questions. We look forward to working with you.