I thought I would pass on this info for anyone interested. I hate to see someone go through extra paperwork when it is not necessary. I wrote our SW who is in the Chicago area, if you would like the name of their agency please email me privately and I will forward it to you. They are highly recommended by many adoptive parents. The do however only do homestudies for international adoptions. The following is the email I sent to her regarding the topic of Illinois foster parent licensin:
"_ _ _ _ Can you clear something up for me? We do not, and were not required to be licensed foster parents in Illinois right? I thought that was only necessary if one parent were to travel or something like that. I know we have DCFS approval but it is not a foster parent license. Just wanted to get a straight answer. I have someone telling me that in order to adopt domestically or internationally in Illinois you must be a licensed foster parent and I didn't think that was so.
Don't worry, this person was misinformed. Yes, for
domestic adoption you must be licensed. For
international, you only need to be licensed if both parents do
not see their child prior to finalization of the
adoption or the foreign country does not finalize the
adoption (such as India, in many cases, they only give
guardianship). I hope that clears things up
"
We are picking our daughter up in two weeks, we live in Illinois and we
do not have a foster care license.
Vicki