How long is the adoption process? If you’re a prospective parent, it can seem like an eternity. But there are ways to accelerate the adoption process.
A National Foster Care Adoption Attitudes Survey indicated that 81.5 million Americans have considered adoption.
If just 0.2% (1 in 500) of these adults adopted within foster care domestically, every waiting child in the United States would have a permanent family.
Part of the reason that this hasn’t happened is likely due to the enormous amount of paperwork, hefty financial commitment, and gamut of hoops prospective parents must jump through in order to just get the chance to adopt.
This burdensome and lengthy process exists within the international adoption process as well, and can be exacerbated by disparate regulations and the fickle nature of government policymakers on adoption issues.
Waiting for Adoption
From home studies to background checks, would-be fathers and mothers, are inundated with a myriad of qualifications and stipulations that can sometimes extend the adoption process to three, four, even more than five years!
One such common requirement for prospective adoptive American parents, whether seeking domestic or abroad, is a biometric-based Identity History Summary Check processed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This includes acquiring the fingerprints of the adoption-seeking parent(s) to be mailed, along with the necessary forms, to the FBI for processing.
Individuals can expect to wait up to 12-14 weeks to receive their Identity History Summary reports. For a prospective adoptive parent navigating the trials of adoption requirements, this can seem like an eternity.
How to Accelerate the Adoption Process
Fortunately, a few years ago the FBI expanded its processing capabilities for these Identity History Summary Checks to include authorized channelers for U.S. Department of Justice Order 556-73 submissions, also known as Departmental Order.
These industry-based vetting solutions, like IDVetting™, dramatically decrease the processing times for these Identity History Summary Checks from many weeks to just days.
Individuals still need to acquire their fingerprints – but with an online payment, form and signature, they can submit their application directly to the authorized-channeler, and expect an apostille-ready response back within days instead of months.
Further, as many adoptions go through qualified attorneys, IDVetting fully facilitates the use of a qualified proxy, such as a licensed attorney, to act on behalf of the proposed adoptive parents.
No single solution exists to solve all the tedious work and waiting that is ubiquitous with adoptions, but efficient digital services like IDVetting can remove some of the time and anxiety surrounding the adoption process. Preparing parents can then focus on the important things… like the arrival of their new son or daughter.
“Adoption is not the call to have the perfect, rosy family. It is the call to give love, mercy, and patience.” -Hope for Orphans
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