The never ending paperwork

Application and intent, certificates, financial , checks and clearance, Verifications( taxes, psyc and offender, employment, insurance, passports, photos and the BCIS)


I advise that the most patient and precise of the parents be placed in charge of the entire adoption process. I don’t want to be mean, but the correct completion of adoption information is a very detailed and painstaking exercise. If both parents set out to do a portion, you end with two different styles of completion and often two separate sets of understanding. Things to ask each other when determining who the chosen one may be are:

Who is the most organized?
Who is the most patient?
Who has the best “aptitude” for the terms?
Who knows the avenues to get things done?

I happened to do both adoptions of our children. After the first, the second was a snap. What took me three months on the first took one month on the second. I found it helpful to make a notebook. Record keeping is important. It worked best for me to have a chronological record of the adoption from A-Z. Each and every form I signed or document made or that I had notarized, I made a copy for the book. This is helpful, as you are often called to refer to information during the process, during the trips and afterwards. Please be patient, fill all of the forms out neatly, completely and as directed. Something as simple as not signing the form the same as the other can cause confusion. The accuracy of the paperwork is absolutely essential. Certain items may be sent back for a re-do or clarification, so read the agency instructions for each document submitted. Sometimes the simple things take the longest. When in doubt ask. When we needed a new passport for our son to travel to see his new brother, we were told that we should show up with pictures and completed application at our nearest Passport Office. Well it all went fine until we discovered that until age 16 you need both parents present, and the birth certificate original I got from California wasn’t accepted by the US Government. It appears that the most populous state in our country issues a short form and a long form birth certificate. Who would think?

When I say aptitude, I actually mean who can navigate the situation without getting bogged down. There are things to be done, and on our second adoption we wanted to do them fast. Multitasking is part of the process. There are a lot of new terms so listen, and clarify before going about the job. Understanding that you need four rather than three of something is part of the process leading to a rapid completion of paperwork. One who can rapidly recognize where to find the BCIS office for example and what questions and correct line to wait in gets it done. Don’t get hurt feelings if you are not the one that gets to do the paperwork, there is plenty else to do such as medical investigation, seeking out qualified evaluation of your child’s educational, insurance needs, or even as my wife found out being social with other adoptive parents. One such encounter at an adoption picnic allowed us to have a women traveling to our area to meet with our coordinator and perhaps get more information, video and documentation on the child we wished to adopt.

I will be mentioning some of the more important aspects of things you will need to do or supply. This is an overall sample list of what you will need to supply:

Application and Intent

All agencies will ask for an application and usually an application fee that is non-refundable. Along with the application you may be required to sign a fee agreement, supply tax returns for your most recent tax year and provide a few pictures. If you are asked for more than that or less than that, you may have an early warning of concern. Hopefully you have already had your agency pass YOUR test prior to then passing theirs.

This is the beginning of the paperwork.. All needs to be complete and in order prior to having your adoption dossier submitted to your country program for approval, so let’s hop to it. Remember all of this is happening or can happen concurrently. You will be asked to write your autobiography (you and your spouse individually). This in and of itself is a long and sometimes difficult task for some. Basically you are asked to tell us everything about you. Mine was 20 pages long. With the actual application you follow the instructions. While you are well aware of your name, other details may be more elusive. You need to be honest. Such questions as “Have you ever been turned down by an agency?”, “Has any member of your family utilized family counseling service?” or Have you been involved in a situation where a child has been injured due to your negligence?” “Have you ever been convicted of any wrongdoing?” or catchall “any other information that would be of benefit to you or us?” are all important. When you get to clearances from your local police or state bureau of investigation, the most infinitesimal item can come up. On both of our adoptions, we had both caused “Concern” with the authorities in Russia. You will need to think of references, describe your living arrangements and the purchase price market value mortgage and monthly payments you are now making. Much the same if you are renting. You will be asked about education, employment history, and other sources of income, relatives living or deceased as well as physicians, specialists, psychiatrists and or counseling used in the past five years. Be prepared to list assets like cars, and divulge your life insurance. Some questions such as “will insurance cover your child at the time of placement?” are important and may take research, but this is what adoption is. Listing all of your liabilities, savings and investments may be embarrassing but should be accurate.

You then get into the real meat of an application. Intent.

As suggested earlier, you should be able in one line to describe the age range desired in your child and the gender and last but not least the Country program you are interested in. Don’t worry you will also have to complete an extensive questionnaire as well to more closely determine your yes, no’s or maybes with a child. This is specific to age, race, gender, disabilities, diseases or conditions known or unknown genetic, psychological, health or even lifestyle related of the parents. All of the questions are as important as or more important than the ones about you. The questions are driving at your intent. Why do you want to adopt, what do you want to adopt and what are the underlying reasons? These are about a child that will hopefully be matched to your family. If one puts down you only want a boy, between the ages of 0-1 that had known parents with health and lifestyles as pure as the driven snow; you may be in for a wait. In any event search your sole, your level of experience and your spirit. There are families that wish to adopt a child with HIV for example; we were not in this truly giving special class. Don’t worry about your intent being final once you say it, but you will need a letter of intent with all of these forms. You will meet your child, obtain as much information as available or that will be offered and you may counsel with whomever you wish. Prior to your final visit and court day you will be asked to sign and commit your intent to adopt your specific child.

The realities and reasons for your choices will be brought up in your home study, so it is always good to be able to explain why you are seeking the choices you are making. Several visits to your home by an approved home study worker will be conducted. They will see your house, your children if any how you live and what you have. During these meeting you will be asked specific questions about your life, your jobs, your ambitions and your needs. All of the application and intent information will be screened and specifically applied to what happens during your home study. The idea is that the child matched to you will work, and I do mean forever.

You will receive a number of financial and legal responsibility forms as well as the “risks and realities of adoption” form. You are embarking on a responsibility. It has been said that any idiot can have a child, which is true. Any idiot cannot adopt a child however! Once all of this information is in to your agency you may be scheduled for your home study.

Intent Part II

The other portion of intent begins during your first trip. Once you have seen your child, or after you have seen them as much as you can, you are asked to get the process going from the Russian side. This is a formal Intent that is then filed with the Ministry of Education and the Court that declares you wish to adopt a given child. The only reason you are traveling for the first trip is to meet your child and feel comfortable with your choice.

It is sad, but sometimes a child match doesn’t work out. You may have reasons or issues or the child may have (older children). Undisclosed discoveries that are health or emotionally related can be unpleasant, but not unheard of. Your choice of a good agency came in part with references as to the successes of the past. Local coordinators have a responsibility to “screen out” children who are not matching your intentions. Prior to even seeing our first child it was very open that “if you don’t like her, I have others you can visit”. For most parents this is perhaps heart wrenching, but one must be prepared for the “realities of adoption”. It is most important that you maintain your perspective in the decision process. You should not sign documents as to intention to adopt a child until you are ready to commit.

Even before you commit however, you are one the clock again. Technically a clock starts ticking after your first visit with a child. In St Petersburg region that clock is 20 days. In those days, you need to complete the several correct letters of intent and have notary and apostille if applicable. Both of our matches worked out from meeting one. Those who can play devils advocate may ask what happens if your match is not appropriate, then what?

Once you make your wishes know, your agency may try to get ahead of the curve by filing your intent prior to your departure. These letters need to state the new name of the child. I mention this because you never think of these things like you do when you are having your own “bio” child. You may be asked to get these letters notarized while in Russia. and like anything it is rather difficult to get something notarized in Russia. Things we take for granted such as free notary at the bank, don’t exist in Russia. Each time we set out to accomplish this task it cost a bit more and took from several hours to half a day.

It had been customary at this stage for each of our adoptions; we received a fairly complete and detailed translated copy of our child’s medical records. Prior to committing oneself it is important to go over this information one last time with your pediatrician or better yet medical adoption specialist from a hospital. Your agency is usually an excellent source for contact information with these specialists who are experienced with adoptions medical issues and Russian medical terminology.


Certificates

If you never had a paper trail for your life you will after this point. This is an intensive process for those who up to this point were not so organized. Not to worry, your adoption agency and now the internet make life easier. Your agency should have a lot of the how too's of getting certificates spelled out. Here is a brief list of some of your needs

You will need a number of original and perhaps apostilled certificates for you and your spouse (or even previous spouses as may be the case). These include birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates. If you are using a religiously affiliated agency, you may be asked for Church records such as baptism.

All of these records take some money and time. One of the best sources for these official certified documents is www.vitalchek.com. It may cost some more but they are quick and may help in fact get them faster than mailing your birth cities vital records department. Remember if you were born in a state different than you are now living you will probably need the extra step of sending the records back to the Secretary of State of Apostille. This price varies widely, an of course I was born in California and needed $20.00 Apostilles rather that Colorado’s $2.00 fee.

Financial

Hopefully the financial wizard in your family is in charge of this process. It may be an oversimplification, but Assets- Liabilities = Net Worth. You will for sure need one of these as your financial statement. You will also most likely need the past three years of your COMPLETE Federal Tax return. Sometimes this is a lot of paper. Certain things such as bankruptcy can cause problems.

In the U.S. no one can understand a tax return, try explaining it to a Russian. If your tax return is even moderately complex, plan on some sort of explanation about how you make money to come from you or an accountant. It is interesting, but Russia focused a great deal on what we did and how we made money, in court. Make sure that your income on any other forms or statements corresponds to your letter of intent as well as your employer letters.

In fairly short order you will be asked for more money from your agency, you will need to keep up on the billings at specific stages of the process to insure that the next step will be taken by the agency. It helps during this process to have some of your savings or cash readily accessible. Your checkbook is very active not only with the agency, but the fees for documents, clearances etc.

Checks and Clearances

I would imagine that just about everybody will be checking into your background.

You will each need a health check. If you are up to date on physicals, this is usually a quick step using a supplied form. If you have let this lapse of awhile you doctor will want a physical to answer (Russia) if you have tuberculosis, infectious disease, disorder of the internal organs, history of substance abuse, mental disorders resulting in inability to care for yourself, neurological disorders, any disabling disorder or trauma, or ANY THING ELSE that would impair your ability to be an adoptive parent. You see what I mean about anyone can have a child? Your physician will also need to determine your life expectancy! For Russia you may need to do this form twice as it may have expired its three month life span by the time you get back for your second trip.

You will need police clearances from your local department. It needs to be official letterhead, stating that you do not have a criminal arrest record, or if you have, what it is regarding. You need a criminal clearance, and it must be notarized. You wouldn’t believe the uproar my wife’s traffic stop of expired registration stirred for our first adoption. We needed to do a letter explaining the incident (like I really remembered a ticket three years earlier) and the disposition of the “case”. Don’t think you are out of the woods with a clean record locally either, most Agencies now ask for fingerprinting (can usually also be done at your police department) and the prints are sent to state or federal agencies for background checks. Basically if you were stopped 20 years ago for a traffic violation in North Dakota your information is now at your agencies fingertips. Your fingerprints will also be taken at the Federal level by the BCIS (formerly the INS).

Most agencies also require psychological evaluation for both you and your wife, by a licensed psychologist. Sometimes a standardized test of your emotional health will be applied. Again any idiot can have a child, but not so to adopt!

You will need to supply other checks as to your ability to offer a home to an orphan such as proof of heath insurance (this is an excellent time to verify that your provider will supply coverage the moment the child is yours officially). You will also need a number of copies of your passports, guardianship letters (singles only) and a copy of your Warranty Deed for your home if applicable.

Last but not least (and usually one of the first things you do due to the Federal government time frames) is visiting your friendly BCIS (Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services) office. This Federal office used to be known as the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), but after September 11th and the new Office of Homeland Security it now has a new logo and name. They are on hand to serve you at many locations around the country. All international adoptive parents must file through their regional office for the child’s visa to enter the United States. At the time of the adoptive parent’s placement or adoption in the other country, the child is still a citizen of that country, and thus cannot enter the United States without a visa issued by the US Embassy in the country they are coming from. In general this appears to be an easy way for the government to get $460.00. Do be educated as to the exact fees required, as this federal office only takes payment in cash or cashier check. You will need to make your application and pay a fee, and then you are invited at a later date to go back for fingerprinting. The approval that follows some six to eight weeks later becomes part of your dossier. From day we filed the application at the BCIS office it took eight weeks to get the approval paperwork. Make sure you complete the form correctly.