HAGUE Convention

The Convention adoption process requires 6 steps in the U.S.:

• Choose a U.S. accredited or approved adoption service provider.
• Apply to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to be declared suitable and eligible to adopt a child from a Convention country.
• Be matched with a child by authorities in the child’s country of origin.
• Apply to USCIS for the child to be found eligible for immigration to the U.S. and receive U.S. provisional approval to proceed with the adoption.
• Adopt or gain legal custody of the child in the child’s country of origin.
• Obtain a U.S. immigrant visa for the child and bring the child home.

Regarding the first step in the process, adoption service providers (ASPs) must be accredited or approved by the Department of State’s designated accrediting entity to ensure that the ASPs meet operate using sound, professional, and ethical adoption practices. In general, accredited ASPs are responsible for providing U.S. prospective adoptive parents with 6 adoption services:

• identifying a child for adoption and arranging an adoption;
• securing the necessary consent to termination of parental rights and to adoption;
• performing a background study on a child or a home study on prospective adoptive parent(s), and reporting on such a study;
• making non-judicial determinations of the best interests of a child and the appropriateness of an adoptive placement for the child;
• monitoring a case after a child has been placed with prospective adoptive parents until final adoption; and
• assuming custody of a child and providing or facilitating the provision of childcare or any other social service pending an alternative placement (if necessary).

Once a country determines that a prospective parent is eligible to adopt under its laws and the child is a suitable and eligible match, the central adoption authority will provide an official report on the child that will include information about the child’s psychological, social, and medical history, as well as the child’s name, date of birth (via birth certificate), and the reasons for making the adoption placement.

After the Convention adoption is complete, the parents must take final measures allowing their child to immigrate to the U.S. Specifically, they must apply for a new birth certificate for the child, a passport from the child’s home country, and a U.S. immigrant visa.