Description of Services / Qualifications / Fee Schedule

Description of Services

As an adoptive parent and a highly organized professional, my commitment to each client is to give their dossier the care and timely attention I gave my own (Twenty-two years later, our social worker still comments on the swiftness and completeness with which I compiled our dossiers). I promise to complete each task as quickly as the numerous bureaucracies allow, and to see that incoming documents leave my desk within 24 hours.

My services include:

• obtaining documents such as birth and marriage certificates;
• obtaining county notarizations, state certifications and apostille;
• obtaining authentication from country embassies and consulates;
• consulting with, "coaching", and supporting prospective adoptive parents throughout the home study process, United States Citizenship Immigration Services (USCIS) requirements and the dossier preparation;
• contacting the FBI and adoption/home study agencies when necessary;
• reviewing all your documents for consistency and completeness;
• preparing photographs; and
• duplication of the notarized, certificated, authenticated dossier.

I do everything a "third party" can do to complete the dossier, as well as provide advice on the homestudy and USCIS requirements. I "coach" you through the preparation of each document, and on those tasks only the client can complete. I accept notarized documents one at a time, or all documents when they are ready for county notarization (if applicable), state certification/apostille, and/or country authentication.

I use overnight delivery services or the delivery service of your choice and personally transport documents when possible. My job is complete only when the entire dossier is ready for agency review and translation.

Qualifications

As an epidemiological research consultant to the California Department of Health Services, I have worked with Health Departments throughout the United States. This experience lends itself to the task of obtaining necessary documents from vital records departments and navigating the notarization and certification procedures nationwide. I am experienced working with confidential and time sensitive materials. I am a former health educator and current credentialed teacher.

I have compiled dossiers for US Citizens living in Japan, China, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, The Marshall Islands, Azerbaijan and Kenya. While most of my dossier preparation is for adoptions from China, I have also completed dossiers for adoptions from Vietnam, Guatemala, Republic of Georgia, Russia, Cambodia, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.

However, my most compelling qualification is that of an adoptive parent. Not only am I intimately familiar with the technical aspects of international adoption dossier preparation, but I can also empathize with the vulnerabilities, hopes, fears and joys that are a part of the journey toward "forever family." Together, my professional skills and personal experience combine to make me a good choice for expediting the dossier process.

Fee Schedule

Completion of entire dossier that requires contact with 1 or 2 states:

$400.00* ** for 2-parent families
$350.00* ** for single parent families

*each additional state: $ 50.00

**Does not include government or embassy/consulate fees, delivery/courier service fees, traveling notary service fees, and/or duplication/collation costs.

Portions of dossier (i.e. obtaining a birth or marriage certificate, completing state certification, country authentication, etc.) can be completed by arrangement.

Please note:

Prospective adoptive parents living overseas while compiling the dossier will be charged an additional $100 due to the complications arising from using US Embassies and Consulates with USCIS offices and the extra time needed to communicate via email.

Prospective adoptive parents who change countries of adoption and/or agencies during the dossier compilation process will be charged an additional $100.