Adoption from another country...?

Question

how can you start? how much does it cost? what are the difficulties

Answer 1

lots americans go to china to adop, mainly from Guang Dong proven(most grils cos chinese tends to want boys themselves) it takes about 1 year for everything. check out http://china.adoption.com/

Answer 2

There are so many different international programs, each with their own requirements, costs, time frames and difficulties, that it is difficult to put everything down in an answer forum like this.

For people that are considering international adoption and are in the "fact finding" stage, I always recommend the book, "How To Adopt Internationally".  Make sure you get the most recent edition for the most current information.  The book describes the international adoption process step by step, including the Immigration procedures and how to fill out the federal immigration forms.

We chose to adopt from Liberia, West Africa (not to be confused with Liberia, Costa Rica).  We started the process by doing as much research as possible on ALL avenues of adoption, before deciding on international adoption.  Then more research on different country programs before selecting Liberia.  Finally, still more research on agencies before choosing ours.  

There are a few hallmark difficulties with international adoption.  First, the paperwork is quite involved, extremely detailed and very.... government-ish.  

Second, International adoption is all about hurry up and wait.  Delays happen, especially in third world countries, that are unpredictable, often unavoidable, and completely out of the hands of you, your agency and the US government.  I know some adoptive parents don't get this and try to push things along like an "ugly American" which only serves to irritate a foreign government and possibly jeopardize future adoptions.  Nobody likes a pushy American.

Finally, MAKE SURE you are dealing with an ethical, licensed agency.  There are many "adoption faciliators" that are not licensed in the country they operate in or in the US.  There is huge potiential for abuse by unethical agencies/faciliators.  It's really up to the adoptive parents to do their homework and make sure that the agency they hire and trust to complete an ethical adoption follows through.  

I could go into another book about cutural concerns/issues, health issues with international adoption, adjustment issues and so on.  But your question was more about the process itself, so that's what I answered here.  

If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask.