Why are overseas adoptions so expensive?

Question

I'm not looking to adopt, but I'm curious. Some of these children are coming from such poverty, and there are probably tons of couples that would adopt some of the children but $20,000 and up seems like a lot. I understand that there are shots and passport and govt paperwork that will cost money. Do they charge so much just to make an extra buck of the wealthier Americans who want to adopt? I'm not trying to be accusatory, but I'd love to know how they can justify this cost.

Answer 1

One thing to understand about intercountry adoption costs is that there is a huge variation in the program costs.  Not all programs cost $20K.  We didn't spend anything near that and most of our expenses were travel costs!  

As to what the money goes for: search expenses (required in many country programs to verify that it is a legitimate relinquishment and that no other living family members are able/willing to take in the child(ren), long distance phone calls, faxes, photocopies and overnight courier expenses (for countries that don't have postal services, everything must be hand-couriered from the US), medical examinations, visas, passports, translation services, court fees, lawyer fees, documentation authentication fees, vaccinations for children coming to the US, compensation for the time of the staff involved, stateside and in-country.  .  

None of this is free.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but this gives you an idea of where the money goes.  An adoption agency should be able to provide you (on demand) a breakdown of the fees and how they are spent.

ETA: Excellent point about taxpayers paying for foster care, Angela!

Answer 2

Most of the countries where children are adopted internationally from do not have social welfare programs like in the US. Most of the social welfare programs and decent orphanages are privately funded by adoption fees and donations. It costs a lot of money to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical care, medicine, diapers, toys, schooling, etc for the children in the orphanages. We also found that part of the adoption fees wen to cover the care and  medical expenses of the special needs and older children who may have little change of being adopted.

   There are also the costs to run both the agencies in the US and the other country, including social workers and other employees salaries (you can't expect them to work for free), utility costs, and rent for the agency buildings, advertising costs, and then peperwork and processing dossiers, background checks, and other documents. Another large portion of the fees are travel expences, especially if both parents ahve to make more then one trip, I know travel expences alone for Russia can cost up to $15,000!

One other thing to consider is that we often think of adopting from the US system as being free, and while the adoptive parents do not pay for the expences of fostercare, social workers, group homes, etc, US taxpayers do. In other countries all of these costs are passed on to the adoptive parents.

If you added up all of the money it took to run the fostercare system in the US, and divided it by the number of children who actually get adopted out of fostercare, I imagine it would be more then $20,000 per child.

Answer 3

There are a number of hoops that you have to jump through, and the laws are so complex that there is no way that you can do it on your own.  Which means: lawyers, notaries, agencies, doctors, travel agents, couriers, ad nauseum.  Other people have said it: the travel costs are really, really expensive.  Two round trip tickets (and maybe a third one back) and two weeks travel and lodging in a foreign country.  Then, there are the homestudy fees, which are separate from the adoption costs (and are required for ALL adoptions, not just international ones) which can cost $3K to $5K.  Shots, physicals and phych exams for the parents, plus whatever medical care the baby needs.  Then there is the 'donation' to the orphanage, which is really called a 'rearing fee' to thank the orphanage for raising the child up to that point.

I think ours cost right at $30,000.

But you know what?  It was worth every penny.  And most jobs pay an adoption reimbursement (the military gives $2K plus 21 days free leave), and you get a tax credit of almost $11,000 after the adoption is final.  And the money is paid out over two to three years, so it doesn't seem so bad.

This isn't directed at you, but just a general statement.  It's amazing to me that people will complain about spending $30K to adopt a child, but will buy $30K cars without even blinking or thinking too hard about it.

Someone above mentioned wanting an 'ethnic' child as a status symbol!  r****d... your BMW or Yukon is much more of a status symbol than my beautiful, loving daughter.

Answer 4

Main reason is you need an agency in the US to set up the adoption and they charge big fees. Second biggest expense is air fair.  Many coutries you have to go twice. Flight to China alone is any where from 1,500 to 2,00 each and that is for coach and many times both parents have to go

Answer 5

Well, to be honest, I'm not completely sure about this either. I've wondered the same thing myself. The conclusion I came to is that there are a lot of couples that want specifically to adopt children from China and other places where the children look "ethnic." Some of these people (consciously or subconsciously many see the child as more of a trend or a statement, rather than desire to adopt and love another. There are some people who have the option of adopting locally to help kids in their own community but would rather have a foreign child who "advertises" to the world how progressive and kind they are as people. Perhaps the exceedingly expensive cost of international adoptions is meant to discourage and weed-out people whose hearts aren't really in it. If you are not truly devoted to being a parent and adopting a child, you probably won't pay such a steep price.

In a way it's god, but on the other hand it's kind a slightly corrupt feeling to it in that the government is trying to make large amount of money off of a good and necessary deed.

Answer 6

Considering I live and work in one of the poorest countries in the world and have unbiased knowledge of it, I think its correct to be honest. 90% of the money goes into the attorney's and agency's pockets to make the adoption happen(paying people to look the other way as well as covering their tracks). A tiny portion goes for finders fee for getting a baby to put up for sale and an even smaller percentage goes to the people working at these "orphanages".  Ap's don't want to look at this because they live in make believe land.

Even with adoptions that are on the up and up, it wouldn't even come close to 20,000.00 in fees. Its a 3rd world country. Those that work for the agency's or are attorney's live like kings because of duped Ap's.

Answer 7

i Dont knw y but really fl about all this....

poverty in india needs lots of attention

i m workin towards eradiation of povrty

I am voluntarily working with the United Nations on its Millennium Development Goals.

if thr any ways u can contribute thn plz let me  knw

thanks.

Answer 8

The cost is high because yes a lot of agencies and businesses ARE in it to make a lot of money from it.  And the demand is huge.  There are expenses they have, but frankly their bottom line is what truly drives the price.  Wages paid to staff, salaries paid to directors ... everyone who has a hand in the business of obtaining a baby for you.  And, yes, this includes often paying "scouts" to go out and bribe or coerce mothers into surrendering their babies.  And in some nations where English is not spoken, they do not understand the North American idea of adoption being permanent severing of all family contact and ties.

What nation are you thinking of adopting from?   I'm certain other "answerers" here can give you information on whether there is a black market or "grey market" for babies in that place.

Answer 9

I think it's because there are so many "middle men" in the form of different agencies that are required to bridge the gap between your country (where ever that may be) and the babies country (where ever that may be).  

It's sad really.  My wife and I adopted from overseas however we were living in the country we adopted from at the time.  We were living there for three years and after a year in country we decided to adopt.  Six weeks, to the day, after we made contact with a lawyer we had our daughter in the house under a fully legal PGO.  She was 8 months old at the time and had been in an orphanage since she was a day old.  For everything it cost us a grand total of $800 US, $1100 once we included the cost of our immigration visa.  That included all the court fees, passport from the country we lived in, medical screening and, as I noted, the visa.  If we had done the same adoption, of the same child, from home it would have cost us approx $30,000 and taken 1-2 years to get it all done.