What is the Waiting Period to Adopt?

There are three waiting periods you may be concerned about.  The first is the time you have to wait from when you start the process until you take actual custody of the child you hope to adopt.  The second waiting period is the time in a domestic adoption that the birth mother or birth father has to change their mind and ask for the return of the baby.  The third is the waiting period until you can adopt the child that is already in your custody. The last two waiting periods depend on the adoption laws of each state and the standard practices of local courts."  The information below discusses the first type of wait, the time you will have to wait before you take physical custody of a child.

Your total waiting period to adopt a child depends upon many factors including whether you proceed with a domestic or international adoption. 

The total waiting period in a domestic child adoption depends on several factors including the age, health, cultural heritage, race, and nationality of the child.  It also depends on your child adoption budget, whether you find the child yourself, work with a private agency or attorney, or adopt through a state sponsored child adoption program.

Typically, the placement of a child from a state's foster care program or the placement of a special needs or other "hard-to-place" child can be done within a matter of a few months.  The adoption of a healthy newborn will take longer.

The wait with a private child adoption agency placement can depend on whether the agency uses a fixed waiting list or a pooling program.  An agency using a fixed waiting list may be able to give you a good idea of the wait while a pooling program, which allows the birth parents to select a family from a pool of families, can only give you an estimate based on averages.   In general, waiting periods for a fixed list and a pooling program can vary from about 4-6 months up to several years.

Our Agency's (Adoption Services) domestic child adoption program uses a fixed waiting list and not a pooling program.  As soon as registration materials are received you are placed on our fixed waiting list.  By using the fixed waiting on a "first-come, first served" basis, we are able to provide you with a realistic placement waiting time.

Our current waiting time for the placement of a healthy US-born Caucasian infant is approximately 6 to 30 months.  For a healthy US-born Black or bi-racial (Caucasian/African-American) infant the wait is approximately 2 to 6 months.

Please note three important factors in our domestic child adoption program. 

First we specializes in placing healthy newborns, infants, and children. We do not place special needs children and we do not typically place children whose birth mothers were "using" hard drugs.

Second we use direct placement and not foster care. With a newborn you will come to the hospital to take custody of the newborn child.

Third we conduct both open and closed adoptions. You can meet the birth parents or decide not to meet them. If you do meet the birth parents, you can choose to share only first names and other non- Identifying information or you can choose to share other personal information. You can select both the type of adoption you want as well as specifying the type of child you wish to adopt.

In an international child adoption there is usually no agency waiting period, but the waiting time depends on the process used in the country you are adopting from. Waits usually average from about 6 to 24 months. 

In our (Adoption Services) international programs as soon as we receive all the necessary materials, we begin guiding you through the placement and child adoption process.  However, it will take the you time to register and complete the Home Study process.  Then the documents are submitted to the foreign country and each country has its own requirements as far as waiting periods and length of stay required.

The waiting time, from the time of your Registration through the placement and adoption, for a Russian or other Eastern European child is approximately 6-12 months.  It is approximately 12 to 30 months for a Chinese child, and approximately 4-8 months for a Guatemalan child.  For other countries it varies depending on the country.

Please note that in the China, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Guatemalan programs, all adopting families will need to travel to the foreign country. The stay in China is typically about 10-14 days. In Eastern Europe families may be required to make 2 trips. The first trip is 3-5 days in length and the second trip is about 10-15 days long. Travel time with Guatemala is approximately 3-4 business days.

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Why You Need an Adoption Consultant

There are many risks when you go to adopt a child including losing a child after you have already taken them home (referred to as a disruption), loosing all of the money you have invested in the adoption if the birth mother changes her mind, or finding that there are previously unknown or undisclosed fees that may appear. Dr Berger has helped thousands of  adopting families with domestic adoptions and international adoptions and he is available to assist you no matter what type of adoption you chose to pursue and regardless of whether you work with an adoption agency, facilitator or adoption attorney.  He can help you save your  time, effort and money in helping you to decide what routes to take and the best way to achieve your goal of adopting a child. He can help reduce your risks and potential pain and can help you avoid many of the problems and pitfalls found in the adoption process. You can read and download his free adoption manual or, for more information on how he can help you, please visit his Adoption Consultant link or contact him by phone (1-800-943-0400) or email.