[NC_adoption_dad]

My wife and I are adopting and would like to know the total duration time of the home study. I know it is a series of three interviews but how long did that process take, start to finish?

Thanks!

[kimber413]

Our homestudy will have taken about 7 weeks when we get our write up next week. It took about a month for the interviews to be completed, then 3 weeks for the write up. Most places I hear of take about 8-12 weeks from signing on with them until the paperwork is completed. Part of that depends on how quickly you turn around the paperwork you'll need (marriage certificates, physicals, DMV checks, etc.).

Hope this helps. If you haven't filed your I-600A, do it now.

[Kasey]

Ours was 7 weeks as well from contract signing to report.
Best wishes and hope it all goes smoothly!
kasey

[slm_tbm]

Our entire process from the first interview to picking up the papers was less than 3 weeks. The agency we used feels strongly about getting everything done ASAP so that potential parents don't have to wait on them.

Shana

[JessnChuck]

Our homestudy itself lasted 6 hours and the final report was done in about 4 weeks.

[laurat1966]

our home study took about 3 weeks.

[Military Momma]

Our's was three visits, one a week and then 2 weeks for corrections/final approval. We had our homestudy report in 5 weeks.

Hope this helps!
lisa

[Kasey]

I think what you should keep in mind is that it isn't necessarily the agency it is also how long it takes youto get your documents together, My phone consults then home visit were complete within 3 weeks, but it also took 3 weeks for our police and child abuse checks to come back from the state and it took 2 weeks for my husbands birth cert to come. So the paperwork was our issue, but once it was handed to the agency we had a report for review within 5 days.
So hopefully everything goes smoothly for you!
Kasey

[NC_adoption_dad]

so even though we have not decided on an agency, should we start getting our documents together? as well as the I600A?

[kimber413]

The I-600A is something you can fill out before you sign with anyone (I believe). The adoption agency you choose will give you a detailed list, but there are some documents you'll need regardless of the agency you choose, such as certified copies of your marriage certificate and valid passports. Sometimes it takes a while to get these things together, especially if you have to order a certified copy of your birth certificate in order to get the passport, etc. Those are things you can start working with now. Feel free to pm me if you'd like to chat about it, or get agency recommendations.

[Xanny]

Definitely start getting your passport, birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc. in order now. In our state (NJ) they don't do anything with the I600A until they get the homestudy, so I'm not sure it did us any good to submit it early. We got a letter saying that they received our application and they wouldn't do anything with it until they got our homestudy report. On the other hand, it certainly didn't do any harm to submit it early, and it's something you can get done, so you might as well do it.

I'm not sure if other states are different.

Some agencies have lists of what you'll need for the dossier on their websites. If you can't find it, PM me, and I'll send you our agency's web address, which has that information.

Xanny

[kryslm]

We've finished our home study this week. It took 7 weeks. However, a lot may depend on how quickly you can get the required documents together.

Best of luck!

Mike

[leeinmemphis]

Our home study was two visits at home and took her about 2 weeks to be completed. We were quick because we had a referral so they "speeded it up" a little bit for us..... she just submitted it to the state of TN yesterday so we'll see from here!

Alli

[NC_adoption_dad]

Thanks for the replies! If you have information about Home Studies in North Caroina, please post!

[slm_tbm]

While your interviewing HS agencies I would ask what they do for you. My agency just had us sign and they got all the paperwork needed for their part. This way we spend the 3 weeks they were working on it concentrating on getting the other parts of our dossier done. That was really nice. We even just wrote one check to them for everything and they paid for all the reports and verifying how many copies we needed. They even had our 3 copies of the HS county apstilled for us!! (We have to have 2 apostilles on each page, a county and a state)

Good luck!

Shana