[lalow]

HI, this is my first time here. my dh and I are looking into adopting from Ethiopia. we just sent in our homestudy application to a local agency. they do not themselves do international adoption so we have to look at agencies for that. i imagine we have some time while we work on the homestudy to descide. we have two bio boys. my oldest turned five a couple days ago and my youngest is 3 1/2. we are looking at adopting 1 or 2 children younger than my youngest. we are also looking at programs with either short travel times or escorts available. i would love any advise on agencies or things to look out for etc. i have noticed that some of the agencies have big differences in fees. some require you to send money each month while you wait after the referral for foster care, etc. some have waiting lists. i would love to have two more kids but is it best to go ahead now or adopt them seperately. thanks. lalow@hotmail.com

[leastcmplicated]

You can save yourself some $$ if you adopt them either together or within a year of eachother. You can specify on the I600A that you are adopting 2 children (even if you ultimatly choose only one). When they approve you, it is for 2 children. The I600A is good for a year so if you adopt 1, then decide in 4 months you want to adopt another, your I600A is still good for that other adoption so you dont have to submit another form and another $545 + $70 (biometrics fee for EACH adult over 18). There are some agencies who have waitlists (I am currently on one and will be off at the end of the month). I will PM you with the name of my agency. I know there are others who arent on waitlists so hopefully they will PM you with their names and costs. Good luck and good to see you here

[snvanvl]

Just to clarify something if the children are unrelated you do have to pay a second I600-A fee ($545.00) at the US embassy in Ethiopia when you receive the child's visa. This applies if even if the children are picked up together because they are unrelated.

Christy

[leastcmplicated]

really? I thought you just had to pay the I600 not the A?

[snvanvl]

We adopted two children (unrelated) filed our 1600-A form and only paid for one child becuase we did not know if they would be related or not at the time we filed. When we got to the US embassy in Addis we paid for the second child because they were not related.

I am not sure what you mean by the I600 fee. All I know is we had to pay a second fee for the second child and at that time over a year ago it was like $525.00 or something like that. And then we also paid $300 and something for each child for their visas.

Am I totally confusing now??

Christy

[leastcmplicated]

lol, on the I600A, for "how many children are you adopting" did you put 1 or 2?

[teranga]

If memory serves me (and it has been a while...), I think the 1600-A is the form you use if you are filing before you have identified a specific child (or children). You use the I600 if you already know exactly which child or children you will be adopting. If you pay the fee for the I600-A, you will need to fill out the I600 once you know who the child is, but you will not have to pay another fee. You pay for either the I600 or the I600-A, but not both.

For anyone new, who might ask why bother to do the I600-A rather than just wait til you know who the child is...it's because getting the I600-A approved can take months, so if you go ahead and file, and get approved while doing other things (like sitting on a wait list for example...) you'll be ahead of the game. Converting to the I600 takes no time at all as long as the I600-A has been approved.

Now hopefully that is all right--I'm going by memory here.

Teranga

[snvanvl]

Yes, that is right now that you have said this. The only thing I was trying to clarify even if you have 2 children approved on your I600-A if the children are unrelated (picking them up at the same time or a different times) you will still have to pay seperate fees for those children even if they are approved on the same form. And we paid that second fee at the US embassy in Addis when we paid for our children's visas.

Now back to the original question most agencies will lower your fees if you adopt 2 children at the same time. For us to adopt two unrelated children our total agency fees were $14500 that made our second child's agency fees only $3500.00 more than it would have been for one child. Also we saved by only having to travel once. Our travel expenses were alot due to the time of year we traveled. We estimate we saved around $15,000 by adopting both of our children at the same time rather than doing two seperate adoptions.

The only problem we are dealing with now is the urge to go back and get one more. LOL

Christy

[ebinarlington]

If you don't mind also sharing information with me, we are in the same boat and evaluating agency options for adopting in Ethiopia. We would welcome advice, counsel, recommendations, any thoughts you have to share! I welcome private PMs or emails too.