I thought that people would be interested in hearing a run-down of the whole process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. I know that when we were beginning our first adoption from Ethiopia, I had a lot of questions about the process and what was involved at each step.

Homestudy Agency

Most people start by choosing a homestudy agency. A homestudy is a document written by a social worker and usually consists of 3-4 interviews with the adoptive family. Before those interviews can be scheduled, he family will be asked to provide a long list of documents: birth certificates, marriage licenses and divorce decrees, proof of employment,proof of health insurance, tax forms, medical forms, references, and a financial statement. Your homestudy agency will supply you with all the specifics. Most of the time the homestudy takes at least a month or two to complete.

International Agency

While your homestudy is being written, you can work on choosing your international agency if you haven’t already. If you happen to live an agency that does Ethiopian adoptions, you may be able to have just one agency to do both the homestudy and the international portion of your adoption. But many people end up working with two agencies.

Immigration Pre-approval

Once your homestudy is complete, you can submit your I-600A to your nearest USCIS office. This government agency needs to issue you a i-171H (an immigration pre-approval) saying that your family has been approved to bring a child or children into the U.S. This pre-approval can take 1-3 months to process and will be cabled to the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia if you plan to go pick up your child. If you plan to have your child escorted to the U.S., the office will retain the approval awaiting your submission of the I-600.

Dossier

After you apply to your international agency and send some preliminary information to them, they will send you information about completing the dossier. The dossier is the packet of documents that will represent your family to the Ethiopian government. After the dossier and homestudy are complete and returned to your agency, some of the documents in the dossier will be sent to Washington D.C. to be authenticated, first by the Department of State, and then by the Ethiopian Embassy. Once the documents return from Washington DC and everything is in order, your dossier will be sent to Ethiopia.

Part Two: Getting Your Child Home