Description of Services
(Items of Special Note for China Waiting Child Families)
Families adopting special needs or waiting children should note the following services. They may have an impact on the overall cost of your adoption. Please see the full Description of Services for complete details of each item summarized here. Note – all fees shown with cash/check discount applied.
Step 1, Step 2, and Pre-Placement Home Study Report services have our usual fees.
The CCAA has chosen to reduce the usual application fee for families requesting a Named Waiting Child from $820 to $540. In some cases some orphanages have also reduced the requested $3,000 orphanage donation. This is considered on a case by case basis and will not be determined until shortly before a family travels to China.
Step 3: Assembly of dossier and submission to foreign country.
Our fee for Step 3 Dossier Assembly and Submission to Foreign Country is $1,200 for China (The $820 Advance Processing and Referral fee required by the China Center of Adoption Affairs must also be submitted. This is reduced to $540 for those requesting a Named Waiting Child.)
The following service is optional
Step 4 Physical Examination of Assigned Child in China
Once a child has been selected for or by a family, some parents like additional assurance that the child matches the profile that they have developed. For those families, we offer an independent exam by licensed physicians (at Western medical clinics whenever possible) on your trip to China when you meet your child.
Our fee for a Step 4 Physical Examination of Child is: $200 plus expenses for China. Physician examination is a routine part of services in Ukraine, for families who choose to pay for the physical exam expenses.
The service below is REQUIRED for families requesting a Named Waiting Child. It is to be paid before the Letter of Intent is submitted to China. This is usually when the entire dossier is submitted, but may be later if a family chooses to adopt a Named Waiting Child after their dossier has been received by the CCAA.
Step 4 Request for a Specific Child
Some families who travel to their child's country, or who have friends or relatives there, may learn of a specific child they wish to adopt. Americans Adopting Orphans is happy to assist these families in attempting to adopt specific children. In general the adoption officials of destination countries prefer to control the matching of adopted child to family, and may refuse to honor a request for a specific child. One notable exception to this is the China Named Waiting Child Program, which has been structured to allow and encourage families to select and request a specific child. Note - refunds are not available if the family is assigned or chooses to adopt a different child. Our fee for a Step 4 Request for a Specific Child is $300.
When traveling to China, it is our normal practice to send families in "Baby Buddy" groups. These groups usually consist of 4 – 8 families. Our normal fee structure was developed with this in mind. Occasionally families are forced by circumstances or choose to travel without other families. As is common in the travel industry Americans Adopting Orphans charges additional fees to provide partial compensation for these additional expenses. These are called single family supplements. They are more likely to apply to families adopting waiting children. The CCAA will often match a family with a Waiting Child without regard to other families from the same adoption agency who may be traveling at around the same time. It is unlikely that two different families will choose Named Waiting Children from the same locality at the same time. Below is our list of fees that may be impacted by families traveling outside of a larger group.
Step 5 Adoption Assistance Within China (requires Trip Preparation also)(2 family minimum) $600 Step 5 Adoption Assistance Within China Single Family Supplement $300 Step 5 Guide Service Fee (per day/per family—up to 2 people, 2 family minimum) $60 Step 5 Guide Service Fee Supplement (per day/extra person) $30 Step 5 Out of Guangdong Province Travel for Adoption Assistance (2 family minimum) $125
This means that a single family traveling outside of Guangdong province, with two people traveling would pay the $600 Adoption Assistance fee, the $300 Single family supplement, a Guide Service Fee $120 per day, and $250 for Out Of Guangdong assistance.
The CCAA requires that all families submit two post placement reports (one at six months, one at twelve months). Americans Adopting Orphans requires that a social worker also visit the family about a month after they have returned home. The fees for these services are paid in advance of travel, usually when Step 5 services are ordered.
Americans Adopting Orphans has added a new service to our list of Step 6 Post Placement Services. The CCAA requires additional reporting on adopted children with Special Needs. As a part of our philosophy that each family pays for services received we have determined that our fee for providing the additional reports to the CCAA will be $500. This new service is mandatory for all families adopting either a Profiled or Named Waiting Child, and will be paid before travel to China to complete the adoption. This new service is included below, with a list of our other Step 6 Home Study Services.
Step 6 Post Adoption Visit without Report (at 30 to 60 days) $200 Step 6 Post Adoption Home Study Reports without Home Visit (6 mos & 12 mos) $150 Step 6 Post Adoption Home Study Report with Home Visit $300 Step 6 Post Adoption Additional Reports for Waiting Children $500
Overall families adopting a child through our Waiting Child Program will probably see a small increase in overall adoption expenses. This may be offset by a reduced orphanage donation.
Thank you for considering the adoption of a Waiting Child. They
really need your love!