Why is it so expensive to adopt from developing countries?

Question

Why is it so expensive to adopt from developing countries?

Answer 1

Here are some things that add to the expense of international adoption:

fees to your agency in the U.S. for fascilitation

travel expenses - plane tickets, hotel, food, etc. for several weeks

documet fees - passports, fingerprinting and background check fees, visas, etc.

fees to the foreign fascility that has taken care of your child and other children

Answer 2

Most of those costs are because our government makes it so hard and the adoption agencies who handle international adoption know how to squeeze every dime out of you! There's the court costs, the background checks, the FBI check,the home study, the family profile, the verification of documents all kinds of BS they don't do for local adoptions normally. It's highly stressful. My brother and his wife have done it 4 times with Guatemala through two different agencies and the first one dragged out their adoption of two children til one of the kids actually died and the other one was 3 when they got her home. The second agency had thier kids home all before they were 9 months old...most of them were under 6 months which is just awesome! So choose carefully. Ask to talk to others who've used the agency you are considering. Ask what the average time from start to finish is and what's the longest anyone has had to wait from start to end. It's all important.

Answer 3

All the answers that have been given so far seem right on target.  There is simply a bunch of red tape involved with international adoption.  When I adopted, I was shocked at how much of the expense was due to my own country nickle and diming me.  A large part of my costs were travel-related--FBI prints, passports, immunizations, airline expenses, hotel stays.  

All of those costs add up, especially added with the standard costs of preparing paperwork and paying the agency and legal fees.

It was a bit frustrating and pretty expensive, but I'm so glad I did it.

Answer 4

It's just flat expensive to adopt internationally.  You can adopt from the foster system for virtually nothing.  There are some countries that are more reasonable (Haiti used to be one, I don't know if they still are).

It's expensive partially because now all countries have to be Hague compliant which takes a lot more work and red tape.  That's costly, unfortunately.

It's also costly because the orphanages or foster families overseas have to receive money in order to keep doing what they're doing...and that is caring for our children until we can get over there to get them.  That's not cheap.  In a lot of countries part of the fees is to cover an orphanage donation to help defray their costs.

There's also translation fees, some of the fees are to pay for items that will complete your dossier that will go over to the other country, there are also generally in-country personnel that need to be paid for their services.

SG