[CarmJoeMom]

I am pretty sure I FINALLY chose my home study agency. I spoke with the social worker again today and asked her how long it all should take and she said if we move quickly on our end that 6 to 8 weeks. The other agencies I talked to all said 3 months.

[jules17]

That is very realistic...we chose a "speedy" agency...we did our part in just over a week and had our HS completed in just over 3 weeks. We were waiting on it for our INS appt., so we were going like crazy!

Good luck to you!

[KY_Roni]

My homestudy was done in 5 weeks. But that was mainly my doing. I didn't wait around for them to tell me something needed to be done. We were given a checklist at the beginning and I didn't wait until those items were asked for, I jumped right in and got a lot of our paperwork done before we even met our SW.

[judymend]

Hi Jackie,

It absolutely is feasible, ours was done in 5 weeks. Good Luck dear.

Judy

[devildogwife]

My SW said that she can get ours done pretty quickly if I get things done as much as possible on my end, before we start. Ours shouldn't take too long hopefully.

[TerriBB]

I think it can be done. You need to get the list of things that the social worker needs for a Guatemalan adoption. Ours was very well educated on the items needed.

To further speed up the process - work on the items needed by your agency too. (Ask if there are quirky things for your documents up front.) Some items get requested from the same place - it's good to be organized.

Find out if you can get your fingerprints for your 171H before the homestudy in your state.

Locate a notary that has a stamp that doesn't expire for at least a year - and is available. You will need this person!

Good Luck!

[DeeVee]

Our homestudy was done in about 6 weeks. We began gathering documents and filling out all the autobiographical questions right away. It took our SW about 2 weeks to have it ready after our final interview.

If you are able to get everything together quickly, it should not take 3 months; but, a lot will depend on how quickly or slowly your SW works and how many other cases he or she is working on at the time.

[GuatMommy2Be]

We had our homestudy report 3 wks after the visit. She was quick and efficient. Just make sure all of your documents are together ahead of time.

[lcarroll]

Ours took one month.

[joublin]

I called our SW mid-week and made an appointment for her visit on the following Saturday. I feverishly filled out paperwork and gave everything to her on Saturday. She had the report typed up within a few days after her visit, but we still had to wait for the background checks. If it weren't for those, my homestudy would have been done in one week- LOL!

Tricia

[Pipercub]

Start to finish - only 13 days for us. I <3 my social worker! (Our agency told us average of 3 months too - because they said most people take a while to compile the documentation they need to have ready. We got ours together beforehand.)

[saranbr]

Yes, that's realistic. The part that took the longest for us the first time was getting the MD appointments which included lab draws which had to be done a week ahead. When they send you the paperwork just be sure to get it right back-- part of it is the info for them to do the background check which can take a few weeks depending how slow your state is. Also, the reference letters can be a hang up. Be sure to select people you think will turn it around for you and then be sure to convey the urgency. One hates to be pushy when asking for a favor, but this held us up two weeks this time. One of the families we'd asked actually asked one time (when they already should have turned the letter in) how things were moving and I explained that they could NOT move until the SW had that ref letter!

[gibbs7263]

Ours was complete with approval and sent to INS at 4 weeks!

[Clayton0122]

We loved our agency and had our dossier completed referral and POA in Guatemala and scheduled for DNA in 8 weeks. Our dossier (which the agency completed most of it) was done within a couple of weeks.

The only KO we got was for no PA. So I think it is very likely.

[Guatmom2006]

It could be, depends on your state requirements. We had to go to a class for 6 weeks, and had to have 3 in home visits so ours took longer than that.