[seanbeck]

Hi all. I'm just wondering how long it's taken most people to get their homestudy reports from their agency once everything in complete? My agency seems to be putting everything else before us, and it's really frustrating. All we need is our homestudy and our police records from them (which they've had for over 2 weeks) and yet, they are sitting on it. I know it's written because I basically had to write it myself. And they told us over a week ago that they had it all ready to go. Yet, I called today and they are just now "getting around to it." Has anyone else had this problem? How can I demand action on their part without making them so mad they hang on to it longer? Thanks for any advice.

[jetgirl]

That is very frustrating! I am sorry I don't have any good advice for you, as your homestudy is in their hands now. Perhaps your only leverage would be to say that you would not refer others to use their services, but somehow I doubt that will get you very far.

Good luck! I hope they come around soon!

[NeshRoo]

Yes, we also had this problem. Our agency was great, but S-L-O-W. We finished the HS in January, and STILL haven't received our copy yet! I had to write to them 3 times to remind them to send it...Last I heard it was "in the mail". I'll belive it when I see it!!

Sorry you are going through the same hassel. You'd think they'd understand we are in a hurry!!!

[wannabamom]

I'm so sorry to hear that you too are going through the same problem as I've been having with mine!!!!! and I'm frustrated beyond words, because I gave in my Docs 2 weeks after they gave me the requirements, and they took 3.5 months to complete the Home STudy!!!!!! and that too, with Errors and are refusing to correct them!!!!!
Please know that I sympathize with anyone who has to go thru' this!!!!!

[kimmie11]

I feel for you, we waited longer than we expected for our homestudy but we did eventually get and as frustrating as it is right now you will get past this aggravation. Politely remind them, offer to it pick-up, pay for express mail, whatever it takes but try to stay calm. You are so close don't give them a reason to delay it further. Good Luck

Kim

[tripleamom]

Just a few thoughts. My agency took exactly two weeks to get the homestudy to me. (I actually picked it up and delivered to USCIS myself and I offered to do steps that were their job but I didn't care) I was told after my last homestudy visit that I'd have it by the weekend because we were "easy". I guess not much past to look into, who knows. I was so impatient. It took exactly two weeks but I hounded them beyond anything you could imagine. But I did it nicely. I emailed my social worker thanking her etc. and telling her how helpful she was blah, blah. I also emailed the homestudy agency and would make up things to email her about. I would always end with positive comments and how wonderful they were. (Even if they weren't) You get the picture. Not sure if it will help, but it may. I'm afraid getting nasty with them might make it worse unfortunately. But I can only imagine how you must feel. I was getting aggravated with 2 weeks. Good luck, hope you get it soon. Kim P.S. I paid them more than the normal homestudy for the area I live in and I ended up doing a lot of the work. Oh well.

[happynifer]

it took 2 months to get our finalized homestudy from our agency. then they told us they would not release the original police reports so i had to go back to each state and order them again (and MA decided to have a computer failure and take more than a month to get those to us). so we finished our homestudy in Nov and weren't DTC until 4/3 between those 2 delays....
sigh....

[Chinagirl2007]

ours took 2 1/2 months to complete and we were pissed. they have you in a stranglehold unfortunately. if i could figure out a way to make sure that doesn't happen again if we go for #2 i would do it in a hearbeat, but honestly, they can tell you anything over the phone about timelines and then do what they want. its the luck of the draw. i am amazed at how quickly others seem to have theirs done.


you have my sympathies anyway, it sounds like you are doing all you can do...

[twoinblue]

Ours took months and months after our interviews. They rejected it because they wanted referrals from friends that we still socialized with knew my husband when he was married to his ex. What?! We'd been married 10 years at the time. We didn't have any of the same friends.

After months of gentle reminders and being told it was being worked on, we finally started calling them every day. We were like the kids in the back seat saying, "Are we there yet?" The nagging did seem to help so that is my strategy. It works pretty well with government agencies and husbands as well. I have become the biggest nag since I started the adoption process.

[seanbeck]

Thanks everyone! It's makes me feel better to know it's not just my agency (although I hate that anyone else has or had to go thru the same thing!). Of course, knowing that, I'm extra worried about if we go for #2. It seems we'll have the same problem with most agencies. We were just updating ours from domestic to IA, so I thought it would be pretty fast. We moved last summer, so are 3 hours from our h.s. agency now. Otherwise I would have hand delivered and picked up everything. I'm sure that would have helped. I, too, did most of the work just to get them moving on it, and everytime I talk to the sw, she mentions how fast THEY are doing this! It's all I can do to keep my mouth shut! I call them several times a week, and email them too, just to remind them (without saying it) that we are still waiting. When I called yesterday, their excuse was that the licensing board was coming and they had a lot of work to do for that! How hard is it to print, notarize and send? (they have a notary in the office). I guess I'm most frustrated because I've called so many times and asked if they could at least send the forms I need to send off for certification, auth, etc, and they say, "yes, it'll go in the mail tomorrow." Then 2 weeks later, they still haven't sent it. If they'd been upfront with me to start with, I wouldn't be so peeved right now. But I know I can't trust them to do anything when they say they will, and this process relies too much on timelines and expirations to not be able to rely on our hs agency.
Okay- I got that off my chest. Thanks!

[jnr]

Sometimes these Agencies forget they work for US! They are being paid a lot of money to provide a service. Once you have your completed HS in-hand, tell them where they failed and that you will never reccomend them or use them again, also that you are notifying your adoption agency of their poor service. Keep a detailed record of all contacts and requests, then tell them exactly who and what the problems are! The one thing they understand is "Lack of Business". A lot of these HS agencies depend on referrals from the adoption agencies.

We interviewed several before selecting one and found some to be rude and careless. We forced ours to provide us a average timeline and let us speak with the SW before we signed the contract.

Again, the best way to push back is to let potentional parents know about the problems with a particular HS agencies. Local meetings are a good place to start!

We wish you the best

JnR

[KarenInCa]

We were also frustrated with our homestudy report taking so long. However, our adoption agency also did the homestudy and I'm positive that our case was because the agency wanted to stall so that they could come up with other families that were ready at the same time.

[jetgirl]

Everyone, I just wanted to mention that I had a wonderful experience with my homestudy agency in NJ (great, very efficient SW), so if anyone here is from NJ and wants that info, please PM me.

[bethnil]

I truely understand how upset you must feel. Our homestudy agency put everything before us as well. We had to overnight documents to them (under the impression that they would have the HS to us within days) and it still took another 3 weeks. They sent a copy of our HS to our adoption agency and it was destroyed in transit. They charged us $45 for another copy to be sent to them! What the heck! We didn't send it-they did! After we signed our contract for PP they raised their prices $75 per visit for PP. Ususally when you sign a contract, the price you pay is the one that is stated in the contract. Right? Not there. At first, BCIS said that they couldn't locate the copy that was sent to them. She was going to charge us for a replacement for them too! Luckily, they did find it 3 1/2 weeks after it was supposibly sent. We had to hound for our police reports as well. I honestly think my SW would forget promises and assurances she would make to us. When we would remind her of them she would get very irritated and defensive.

We are in the process of changing agencies for PP. I really feel strongly that your agency is your advocate. I would have felt much better if they had paid the extra 50 cents for delivery confirmation when they sent our documents and I felt like we were being nickel and dimed at the end. Also, I felt when our HS was MIA at BCIS, they should have called for me. Our new agency called for us-even before we signed our PP contract. If you are looking for a homestudy agency in IL-send me a PM. I am now with a really good one!

Beth

[mom23boys]

My HS SW was great. It did take 2.5 months to do it from start to finish- but that was because we had to wait for the fingerprint clearance before we could do the last visits. Once we had the last visit she had the study to us - finalized and notarized in under a week. She did say that nit was easy as she would be using many quotes striaight from our bio's- as we were very detailed and descrptive in our writing. She did not lie- I recognized a lot of my writing in the report- but it was perfect. So if you are in the NY or NJ area- she is from NYC and travels a bit. PM me and let me know if you want her number. We were very pleased. She was a doll and quite inexpensive for the area as well- which was a nice bonus!