In the world of international adoption, there's no shortage of acronyms, agencies, forms and fees. And the fees would appear to be ever increasing. Here's one more example. I mentioned last week that we received our passports in unexpectedly short order, though we had not asked for them to be expedited. We did, however, have to pay the recently increased fee for passports.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) plays a part in international adoption by performing a federal background check on prospective adoptive parents, processing visa requests and processing petitions for the advanced processing of an orphan and classification of an orphan as an immediate relative (I-600/I-600A). There's a substantial fee associated with some petitions and services, and they're about to go up, effective 11/23/10.
Among the services commonly needed by prospective adoptive parents from the USCIS are:
Biometrics (fingerprinting) - fee rising from $80 to $85
I-600/I-600A - fee rising from $670 to $720
N-600 (IR-4 visas) - fee rising from $460 to $600
Check the USCIS website for information about their fee changes here.
Please check with your agency, adoption attorney and the USCIS to make sure you clearly understand the requirements for your adoption and that you're paying the correct amount. Filing for these documents before the deadline may not be of any help to you, as some documents expire or will not be accepted if not validated within a maximum number of months from the approval of the adoption, and you must observe the proper order for your adoption process.
FINE PRINT: I'm not an adoption attorney. The information on this site is not intended as legal advice but as general information. Please consult your adoption professional regarding the requirements for your particular adoption.
I hope this is helpful to folks navigating the international adoption process. Thanks for coming back.
~Katie
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