Chances for Children Blog | contact us

Adoption Process

Once you have decided to adopt you will be anxious to get started with the paperwork part of the process, as that is the one aspect of the process you will have control over.

  1. Family Profile Form: To verify that you meet the requirements for adoption in Haiti, Chances for Children asks that each adoptive family complete and submit  Family Profile application. There is no application fee, but receipt of this form allows C4C to keep track of interested families and follow up on your progress.
  2. Selecting an Adoption Agency: International adoption is a lengthy process during which you will be eager for information and feeling like you often don’t receive any. Because of the length of the process, it is important to select an adoption agency with which you feel comfortable as they will be the people you talk to the most during the wait for your adoption to be completed. Please review our list of Approved Agencies and decide which one you would like to work with. They will help you begin gathering the necessary paperwork for the adoption. 
  3. Preparing the Dossier: Your agency partner will review the entire dossier assembly process. The dossier is the collection of all the required paperwork to compile your adoption file to send to Haiti for review. This process can be confusing and lengthy and it is helpful to have your agency explain the various steps and requirements.
  4. Home Study Report:Unless the approved agency partner you select is licensed in your state of residence, they may not be able to complete your home study.  Many families will have to use a local agency for that aspect of the dossier assembly. It is recommended that families call and interview local agencies that are familiar with international adoption requirements in your state. If they have experience with Haiti that will be a plus, but not required. The home study is possibly the most important part of the adoption process that consists of several discussions about international adoption between a trained adoption professional and an adoptive family. The Home study Agency will visit you and your family at your home, conduct thorough interviews, review the required paperwork (birth certificates, marriage license, divorce decrees, etc) and then prepare a detailed home study report.
  5. For U.S. Families--USCIS Approval: When adopting internationally, it is important to understand that the adoptive family is asking two different governments – in this case, the U.S. and Haiti. The Home Study report is used in Haiti, but it is also reviewed by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to assure that you are eligible to adopt a child from a foreign country and have the child immigrate to the United States. To begin this process, you will file an I-600A application. Your agency representative and/or home study agency should be able to walk you through the process of filing this adoption.
  6. The Referral: A dossier can take anywhere from 8 weeks to several months to compile. This varies greatly on the state of residence of the family as well as how much time a family can dedicate to gathering paperwork. However, once the dossier is completed, it will be sent to C4C for review and then to our legal staff in Haiti for their review. Once your file is approved by our staff in Haiti and the U.S., you will then be provided with photos, medical information, social history and narratives about the child(ren) in our care who we believe would be the best match for your family. Once your dossier has been received by our experienced legal team, they oversee every step of the process as it weaves through civil courts, higher courts, IBESR, USCIS and Haitian government. You will be expected to travel to Haiti during your adoption process to file your I600 paperwork and for a family court hearing -- this will also be an excellent time to begin to get to know your child. In most cases this will mean two separate trips.
  7. The Pick-Up Trip:  And the final, most rewarding step will be the day when you get the phone call that your child's visa is ready and you are ready to travel to Haiti to bring them home!