[mple]

Hello everyone,
We are wanting to do a Guatemala adoption but haven't picked the agency yet -it is going to take more time to do the research! We thought that maybe we could start on the homestudy, to get something going and save some time. Is that possible to do? Will the referral agency accept the homestudy of some other agency? Should we not COMPLETE the home study until the agency is selected? Also, is it more or less expensive to do it this way??
We live in CA.

thanks!
debbie

[ll_bay]

There's no one answer to your question. Some international placing agencies expect you to come to them with homestudy in process or completed. Others don't want you to do the homestudy with anyone except their social workers or social workers specifically approved by them. So probably you'd want to go to the Guatemala forums, get input on agencies (ask for PMs, of course), narrow down your choice of agencies and ask them. A good agency will be straight and honest with you on this.

[Sienna3]

I don't think it is the best way to go about doing a homestudy.

Not only does the homestudy have to be done according to the country, but the placing agency usually has some specifics, too. Our placing agency actually gave an outline to our homestudy agency on how they wanted things covered and our placing agency reviewed the homestudy before it was finalized and asked for a few minor changes to the way a few things were worded. Our agencies worked well together and had clear understanding of how they would work together *before* we started. I suggest that it would be less frustrating and likely to be quicker if you choose the agency first.

[teranga]

I think starting your homestudy is not a problem as long as the agency you will beusing is NOT in your state. For us, our agency is in another state, so they couldn't do our homestudy for us anyway. Given that homestudies can take a long time in some areas, it might be worth starting it. Let the homestudy agency know you're doing an int'l adoption from Guatemala and use an agency who has done homestudies for Guatemala before. I do agree that you probably wouldn't want to the final report to be written up until you 've chosen an agency, but that would give you 1-3 months of working on your homestudy to decide the agency. Then the agency can tell you any specifics they want. The homstudy agency won't even start writing up the rejport til the very end, so it wouldn't hold anything up or add expenses.

I signed w/an adoption agency and started the homestudy at the same time, but if I had it to do over, I'd start the homestudy earlier. It can take weeks before the homestudy agency can even meet with you! I'd start filling out the paperwork, write the autobiographical essays you'll have to do, and set up the meetings!

[Sean&Shan]

We are adopting from China and specifically picked an agency that had offices in our state. Our agency will only allow you to do the homestudy through them. So for us, starting the homestudy prior to picking the agency would have been no use. However, there are several things you can get started. For example, you will need multiple, certified copies of your marriage and birth certificates, a medical exam from your doctors (Our agency had a special form but it took several weeks to get into the doctor), Fingerprinting for a background check, both state and federal, and your MVA records. These are things you should be able to get started, however, I would wait to schedule home visits, etc. until you have picked an agency. Good Luck!

[teranga]

If you are going to start ordering things, I'd suggest calling an agency (whether or not you're going to use that one) and asking what you will need for a Guatemalan adoption. Of course they will know. What you need to start ordering varies a lot by country from which you're adopting. The last post talks about multiple certified copies of birth certificates, MVA record, etc. being needed for China. For Ethiopia (where we're adopting) we did not have to provide MVA records and only needed one notarized copy of our birth cert., so find out what Guatemala requires before spending the time/money ordering them! By the way, I have heard that China requires the most for adoption, and personally I think every country should require these things. Ethiopia doesn't check your driving license but what a great thing for China to check--makes so much sense!!
:-)

[Dana1]

We started our homestudy one month before selecting an agency. The homestudy did have to have the specifics from the agency but the social worker met with us, and then did the individual visits as well as home visit prior to picking an agency. She held the final report til we chose our agency so she include their requests in the report. the only thing it held up was our I-600A approval. We weren't sure of our country adn didn't want to commit til we were sure but wanted to start the process.