[Paskal]

Hello all -- Would any of you be comfortable sharing average costs for a Polish adoption (not including flights and hotels)? We're trying to get a handle on what translation and lawyer fees run (for independent and agency-based adoptions). Many thanks and we hope to soon be on the provider-side of information flow in the near future!!

[jessipea]

We are thinking about 28,000. That includes travel, social worker, dossier costs, EVERYTHING. When we did an in depth cost analysis...we thought that almost every agency worked out about the same because some included things in their cost and some leave those things out. We are adopting 2-3 so we are excited about the tax credit!

We are using a small agency, so our costs will be more than an independent adoption.

I hope that helps...it is expensive for us...but there are people here that will give you different numbers because they adopted differently than us.

Of course we haven't finished so...that is a guesstimate!

J

[Paskal]

Originally Posted by jessipea

We are thinking about 28,000. That includes travel, social worker, dossier costs, EVERYTHING. When we did an in depth cost analysis...we thought that almost every agency worked out about the same because some included things in their cost and some leave those things out. We are adopting 2-3 so we are excited about the tax credit!

We are using a small agency, so our costs will be more than an independent adoption.

I hope that helps...it is expensive for us...but there are people here that will give you different numbers because they adopted differently than us.

Of course we haven't finished so...that is a guesstimate!

J

Thanks Jessi -- Hope you get good news soon!

[Jasiu]

We are estimating it will be about $20-22,000 for our semi-independent adoption for everything (travel and meals included). Some of the larger expenses in our case:

Home study: $2,200
INS fees: approx. $700
Translation of dossier, court interpreter etc.: approx. $800
Lawyer in Poland: $6,000
Plane tickets (2 trips for two): $4,000

We expect our 3rd (pickup) trip to cost about $3,000. The U.S. visas are about $300 per child. You also need to add hotels, meals, taxis, mailing costs, house sitting, gifts, donations to adoption center/orphanage. We were hoping to close it at $15,000 but it really all adds up and it is better to overestimate. The good news is, of course, the tax credit, about $11,000 per child, so we expect to recover the cost completely.

[crunkjules]

are these prices still current?

[Jasiu]

Yes, it is.

Originally Posted by crunkjules

are these prices still current?

[LisArno]

We paid around $25,000 without airfare/hotel/meals. Our facilitator/lawyer fees were a large portion of that amount. Also included in that total are INS fees, physicals, homestudy and update (including "favorable recommendation to adopt"), orphanage/foster home donation.

I've been working today on adding up the costs for other expenses and airfare/hotel/meals (everything has been in a pile since we returned in Oct) and I expect that our total cost will be around $32,000-34,000.

[Jasiu]

Our acquaintances in MN also paid almost exactly $33,000 working with the same facilitator as LisArno. They adopted two years ago, two siblings (5 and 6 at the time), so this seems to be a very good estimate!

[PolishMom]

EEK! For our Nov. 2005 adoption, we spent around $18k with our agency, including homestudy, agency fees, orphanage donation, INS fees, visa/passport. Our homestudy (includes all post-adoption support and paperwork) was very expensive, in my opinion, at $4k. This is the "going rate" in our area (with a different agency than our placement agency). The only items not included in the figure above were flight and living costs while in Poland.

We were extremely blessed at the time of the adoption, as I wasworking for an airline and received free flight benefits. If I had to guess how much our total adoption would have costs if we had to purchase tickets.........it would have been around $21-22k.

Originally Posted by Jasiu

Our acquaintances in MN also paid almost exactly $33,000 working with the same facilitator as LisArno. They adopted two years ago, two siblings (5 and 6 at the time), so this seems to be a very good estimate!

[Mike67]

The cost for us to adopt our 2 children in 2006 (1-1/2 year old girl and 3 year old boy) was $32,000. That included all the agency fees, adoption fees, and all the travel expenses while we stayed in Poland for 7-1/2 weeks. We did not opt for the 2 trip plan. We waited long enough for kids that there was no way my wife or I would leave the kids behind for a few weeks once we got them. It will cost another $2000 for the 3 post placement reports, of which we only have one more to go. So the total for us will be $34,000. I have a record of our expenses on an excel spreadsheet, that I have kept for tax purposes. If anyone is in the process of adopting or thinking of it and would like to see our breakdown of expenses, I would be willing to share it.

Mike

[crunkjules]

Mike,

I would love to see the breakdown if you're willing to share. I will PM you my email

Julie

[Mplsmom]

would you mind sharing the spreadsheet with me too?

[Mike67]

Cindy,
Send me a PM with your email address and I will send you a spreadsheet of our costs. I just emailed it this morning to some others that were interested as well.

Mike

[crunkjules]

Mike,

Thank you for sharing!

Julie