[ajcastle]

The agency we are using for our adoption is NOT located in our state, but the can place Korean children in most states in the US (including mine). I don't get how they can do that while everyone says you must have an agency in your state. Our HOMESTUDY agency is in our state but the PLACING agency is not. I have heard of several families (personally) that have gone through this agency (and even a couple others) and have had healthy infants placed in their home even though everyone says you HAVE to use an agency in your state. Is this not entirely true? Just asking because it is confusing. I have asked a MILLION times "you can place healthy children in *my state*" reply, *yes*, my reply *I just have to complete my homestudy with an agency located in my state that can do international HS*" Reply *yes*. So what's the deal??

Amanda

[allenkaren]

Our agency works the same way and places healthy children in many states. Although we live in the same state as our agency, we are considered 'out of state' because we are 2.5 hours from their office. We used a local agency for the hs, but use the main agency for the adoption. It is working wonderfully for us!
Karen

[ajcastle]

Great! I was starting to wonder, LOL! Our HS agency is 3.5 hours away but they are the only agency in my state licensed to do International adoptions so they kind of have to service the whole state. We just may have an extended wait time for getting all our visits in. Could you PM me your agency...I think we may be using the same one....if so I would like some feedback if you don't mind

Amanda

[sslgdl]

We used an in-state agency to do our hs and they referred us to an out-of-state agency for the actual adoption. Both of these agencies have been working together for a number of years and have a great working relationship. The one we are using is only allowed to adopt out healthy children in their state and one other state that they have an office in. They can adopt out children to other states that have some sort of medical condition with the minor being premature or low birth weight. When our referral comes to the agency they will send it to the one who did the hs and they will be the ones to contact us. We are about an hour from them and will have to go there to fill out all of the paperwork.

[cthy757]

Both of our children were healthy babies adopted from Korea. We used an out-of-state agency with a local agency doing our homestudy and post-placement visits. Both agencies complimented each other, and our processes were virtually seamless. Our children are now 3 years old and 11 months old. We are about to finalize our second son's adoption next month. PM me if you have any specific questions.

[mmcool]

It just has to do with who has agreements with whom. We actually started the whole process with our local SW who just does homestudies and post-placements. Her office is affiliated with a variety of placement agencies in- and out-of-state, and she guided us to the Korea program and the out-of-state placement agency that we ended up going with.

Overall, it's been a good experience because our SW is really wonderful and a great advocate for the families!

Melissa

[hscvt95]

I agree with Melissa (as we are using the same agency and have the same SW). It's not unusual to have an out of state agency be the primary placement agency and then a local one be the homestudy and post placement agency. It has worked out great for us with no problems.

[ajcastle]

Thanks everyone! That really helps clear some things up for me

Amanda