[sak9645]

I agree with Hopeful Jen.

Korea is the ONLY country that requires prospective parents, for NSN adoptions, to work with a licensed U.S. agency that has a contract with the Korean government to place children with families in their state. Most states have only one or two agencies that have Korea contracts. A few states have none, and families in those states cannot adopt from Korea unless they are willing to adopt a child with special needs. For special needs adoptions, the rules are slightly more liberal; however, you do still have some restrictions on which agencies you can use.

Each agency with a Korea contract is affiliated with one of four social welfare organizations in Korea. Two of the four are large, while the other two are small. It is these social welfare organizations that provide care for all of the orphans eligible for international adoption. In most cases, they place the children in foster care, arrange any therapies that they require, and so on.

Because of these arrangements, a prospective parent needs to meet not only the requirements of the Korean government, but also the requirements of the Korean social welfare organization affiliated with a particular U.S. adoption agency that serves his/her state. While the rules of the four organizations are fairly similar, there are some differences. As an example, some have weight restrictions for prospective parents, while others do not.

Korea has a reputation for being fairly strict in its requirements for adoptive families. And as the number of adoptable babies in Korea declines, both because of the increasing prosperity of the country and because of the increasing willingness of people within the country to adopt parentless children who are not related to them, the country may well become more strict. As we have seen with other countries, once there are more families seeking to adopt than there are adoptable children, adoption authorities tend to feel that they can "pick and choose" the healthiest families.

However, there have been cases where an experienced American agency has been able to advocate for a couple with a medical issue that is no big deal in this country, though it may be perceived as worrisome overseas. For this reason, it is very important to talk honestly with the agencies authorized to place Korean children with families in your state, to see if there is a chance that your specific situation can be approved.

Sharon