The Haitian government established the requirements for adoptive families.  Haiti will allow single women between the age of 30 and 50 to adopt, although in some circumstances single women who are at least 35 years old may be accepted.  Married couples are accepted but must be between the ages of 30 and 50 and must have been married for at least 5 years.  There is no limit to the number of children already in the home.  However, Haiti will give precedence to couples with no biological children.

The children are of African descent and are a beautiful race.  There are a few children with mixed heritage, but most children have dark skin, black hair and beautiful brown eyes.  Most available children are under the age of 3 years, but there are also older children and sibling groups available.  The children reside in orphanages and often times are well cared for.  Many orphanages have a caretaker to child ratio of 6 children to each caretaker.

The best lab in Haiti carefully screens each child before they are accepted into the orphanage.  The children are tested for HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis B, Sickle Cell, and are screened for Tuberculosis.  Any child who does not pass this screening is not accepted into the orphanage.

Much of the timeline will depend on you as the adopting family.  You must gather the documents required by the Haitian government for an adoption, you must obtain a completed home study and you must submit paperwork to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service in order to go forward with the adoption process.  All of this takes time.  Once you as the adopting parents have the documents needed to begin the process in Haiti, these documents are submitted to the Haitian government and the adoption process begins.  It can take as long as 24 months to complete the adoption once the paperwork is submitted to Haiti.  Please check with our office for the current timeline for the process.

A family will apply to Wasatch and indicate the gender and age of child they wish to adopt, Wasatch will approve their application if they have space available in their program due to the child placing quota placed on each agency by the Haitian government. Once approved by our agency the family will prepare a home study and a dossier, once the dossier is completed, the agency rep will write a cover letter to the dossier requesting the age and gender of child the family wishes to adopt, our agency will also request that the child come from one of our partner orphanages. The dossier will be submitted to IBESR, once the dossier/family is approved by IBESR a child will be matched to the family. Information on the child will be sent to the family, photos, social history and medical exams. The family will have 14 days to submit a letter to IBESR letting them know that they either accept the referral or not. The family will then make arrangements through the agency to travel to Haiti for two weeks to meet and bond with their child.

Yes! Two trips to Haiti are required as part of the adoption process.  Upon receiving a referral, you will be invited by IBESR to travel to Haiti to meet your child.  You will spend two weeks in Haiti bonding with your child.  A social worker from IBESR will supervise your visit.  After the adoption has been finalized, at least on parent has to travel to Haiti for a consulate appointment and to bring the child to the US.  The second trip will last for a week.

Schedule of Fees, Expenses, Financial Obligations and Refund Policy | Wasatch International Adoption (wiaa.org)

Get Sample Contracts | Wasatch International Adoption (wiaa.org)

*These fees are required by the agency, Wasatch International Adoptions
**These fees are required by the foreign country.
***These fees may vary from dossier to dossier depending on the number of documents (for example a single person’s dossier will be smaller than a married couple’s dossier). Expenses also may vary depending on where and how long you stay in Haiti.  Country Fees are never to be considered a stable or set fee as it is not determined nor in the control of WIA.  WIA makes every effort to stay current as to fees but third party and country fees may change without notice or reason.

*These fees are required by the agency, Wasatch International Adoptions.
**These fees are required by the foreign country.
***These fees may vary from dossier to dossier depending on the number of documents (for example a single person’s dossier will be smaller than a married couple’s dossier). Expenses also may vary depending on when you travel, where you travel in country, and where you stay.  Country Fees are never to be considered a stable or set fee as it is not determined nor in the control of WIA.  WIA makes every effort to stay current as to fees but third party and country fees may change without notice or reason.

**Note: Upon request, WIA will disclose the following: Service policy Contracts, the number of adoption placements per year for the prior 3 calendar years, the number of placements that remain intact, the number of families who apply to adopt each year, and the number of waiting children eligible for adoption. To obtain this information please call our office.