Nightlight Christian Adoptions
Hong Kong
Adoption Program
Dossier Composition and the Matching Process
For more information on Nightlight’s International Adoption Programs,
contact us by phone or online:
859.263.9964
Nightlight Christian Adoptions provides nationwide adoption services.
Nightlight has offices in:
Anaheim Hills, California
Loveland, Colorado
Lexington, Kentucky
Greenville, South Carolina
© 2012
Mission Statement
To share God’s love through adoption, birthparents’ services and orphan care.
As a Christ-centered adoption agency, believing that every child deserves a loving family, Nightlight Christian Adoptions exists to:
- Promote permanency for children by facilitating international and domestic adoptions and adoption related social services
- Minister to birthparents by providing free, non-directive counseling
- Minister to orphaned and street children by providing humanitarian aid and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ through its outreach projects
- Prepare families to successfully parent adopted children
Contents
Introduction
Quick Overview of Requirements
The homestudy
Nightlight’s responsibilities
Responsibilities of the Adoptive Parents
Overview of the Homestudy Report
Citizenship and Immigration Approval
Filling out the I-800A form
Mailing the I-800A Form to the “Lockbox”
Obtain fingerprintingat the CIS office for your state
Complete Your homestudy, described above
Approval NOTICE (I-800A approval)
Follow-up to Approval Notice
Preparing The Dossier & Sending it to Nightlight Christian Adoption
Submit to Nightlight the “No Healthy Child Letter”
Ensuring that Dossier Documents are Genuine
Certification
Notarization
Preparing Your Hong Kong Dossier
Valid driver’s license
Passport
Vital Records
Certificates of Profession / Unemployment / Retirement
Monthly Financial Statement (form provided)
Diplomas for the highest education qualification
Tax Returns
General Physical Examination for Adoption Applicant (form provided)
Medical Statement (form Provided)
References
Child Preference Form (form provided)
Police Clearances
Guardianship Statement
Family Photos
Po Leung Kuk Intercountry Adoption Application Form
Statement of Acceptance of Adoption
Assumption of Responsibility Pending Adoption Completion
The Matching Process
Presentation of a Child
Deciding whether to accept a referral
Provisional Approval
Contact with your child
Checking Your Paperwork
Special Needs Parent Education
Travel
Insurance for Your Adopted Child
Ensure that Documents are Up-to-Date
Educating Yourself
Immunizations for Hong Kong Travel
Preparing your friends for the arrival of your child
Travel to Hong Kong
Wrapping Up
DOSSIER AUTHENTICATION CHECKLIST
Introduction
Thank you for selecting Nightlight Christian Adoption’sHong Kong program. You are now on your way to bringing into your home a child who needs a family. The more quickly you can put together your paperwork and send it to us, the faster the overall process should be. This is the one area where you can make a difference in the timeframe of your overall adoption. Of course, there are factors outside everyone’s control, including the time that it takes the U.S. authorities and the authorities in Hong Kong to approve paperwork. Waiting for the various government approvals is difficult for many of our clients.
In this outline, we will also discuss how you can be matched with a child, and what it will be like while you are waiting for your child to join your family.
Quick Overview of Requirements
For every international adoption, the following basic steps must be taken:
Complete yourhomestudy and receive approval
Complete your dossier(a collection of documents that represent you)
Receive Adoption Approval document (I-800A)fromthe United States Citizenship and Immigration Approval/National Benefits Center (USCIS/NBC)
Secure notary certification from County Clerk (check to see if your state requires county certification)
Receive approval fromthe Hong Kong Social Welfare Department
Submit the form I-800 to the NBC in the U.S. along with certain other documents
Receive approval from the NBC and also the National Visa Center in the U.S.
The homestudy
Note: If you are outside of Kentucky, South Carolina, Southern California, or Colorado, please contact us before you select a homestudy agency. We have a state-by-state list of recommended homestudy agencies.Also, your homestudy agency must complete the written interagency agreement supplied byNightlight Christian Adoptions. Please confirm with your homestudy agency that they have this agreement in place; if not, have them contact AHH before beginning your homestudy. Once you are doing a homestudy with a cooperative homestudy adoption agency in another state, your homestudy must meet Hague[1]requirements andNightlight must review the homestudy before it is finalized.
One of the functions of your homestudyis to determine which types of special needs you will be able to care for in your family. Therefore your homestudy must be very specific regarding the type of special needs child you are approved to adopt. The U.S. Consulate that issues your child’s visa in Hong Kong relies on your homestudy for this information. Therefore, your homestudy should have two sections regarding the type of child you are seeking to adopt: (1) Your preferences regarding age, sex, and the special needs of the child, and (2) A list of all the special needs and age range of the child for whom you are approved to adopt. Sometimes a family may be willing to adopt a child with one of a number of different special needs if, for example, this will reduce the amount of time that they will wait for achild to become available.
For example, if you prefer to adopt a boy under two years old with a cleft palate/cleft lip, your homestudy provider will indicate this in the Child Desired section of the homestudy. With your agreement, in the Recommendation section, the homestudy provider will most likely approve you for a boy and a girl, a slightly older child, and one who may have more conditions in addition to a cleft palate/cleft lip, including certain treatable communicable diseases. This Recommendation section may indicate, for instance, that you are approved to adopt a child of either sex up to 36 months old with a cleft lip and/or palate or bi-lateral cleft lip, as well as developmental delays, and communicable diseases, including TB and hepatitis B. Again, this flexibility in your willingness to accept more than one type of child may shorten the length of time that you will wait for a child. However, you make the final decision about what should be placed in the Recommendation section.
Nightlight’s responsibilities
- Nightlightagrees to give the homestudy agency a checklist of requirements for the homestudy and the post-adoption reportsso that these will comply with Hong Kong and USCIS regulations.
- Nightlightagrees to provide the homestudy agency with a cooperative agreement.
- Nightlightagrees to review the draft of the homestudybefore it is submitted to the NBC. This review ensuresthat the homestudy complies with U.S. Immigration and Hong Kong requirements, giving additional peace of mind to the client.
Responsibilities of the Adoptive Parents
- You must ensure that the homestudy is conducted by a licensed, non-profit Hague-accredited adoption agency. (Your home study will not be accepted if it is completed by a non-Hague accredited provider.) Once you have chosen an adoption agency near your home to conduct your homestudy, you must contact Nightlightwith their name and contact information. We will then enter into an agreement with your home study agency and provide them with our requirements for the home study.
- Nightlightmust approve the adoption agency that is conducting your homestudy before the homestudy process begins.
- The Hong Kong Social Welfare Department requires not only the homestudy, but also five reports from you and your homestudy agency after you bring your child home. (These are called post-placement reports).You must agree to these terms if you wish to adopt from Hong Kong.
- If Nightlightis not your homestudy agency, you must pay your homestudy agency for these five post-placement reports before you receive your child. The agency providing the post-placement reports must hold this money in trust for you for this purpose. If Nightlight is your homestudy agency, your costs for post-placement reports are included in the fee schedule that you have already received.
Overview of the Homestudy Report
- Description of the date, place, and time of meetings with caseworker
- A description of your motivation for adoption
- A description of your family background, relationships, interests and hobbies, and education, and work history
- Marital status
- Status of children
- Health status
- Family financial status
- History of abuse, violence, and criminal record
- Living conditions
- Plan for parenting
- Educationplans
- Post-adoption assessmentplans
- Adult children and any other adults living in home
- Guardianship plans
- Statement of previous rejection or unfavorable homestudy
- Duty of candor
- Ongoing duty to disclose
- China’s specific requirements for adoptive parents
- References*See info below regarding References
- Hong Kong requires a minimum of 3 references for your dossier.These reference letters should be originals and should be notarized and sent to Nightlight.It is best that these references are from non-relatives except in the case of an adult child.
- If you have any adult children, one reference must come from one of your adult children.
- Your home study agency will also require references in order to complete your home study. If your home study agency requires original copies, you will need to ask your references to provide you with two original notarized reference letters so that you can provide one copy to your home study provider and one copy to Nightlight for your dossier.
- Assessment and recommendation
Citizenship and Immigration Approval
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS or CIS) is the agency thatgives the United States’ approval for the adoption. Because Hong Kong is a Hague country, the approval comes from a nationaloffice called the National Benefits Center (NBC). Approval from CIS/NBC (Immigration) can be divided into three stages:
Filling out your application for U.S. Immigration approval
Being fingerprinted at your local USCIS office
Completing your homestudy
Filling out the I-800A form
This application is also calledthe “Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country”. The form can be downloaded from the USCIS website site search I-800a). Instructions are included with the form and are fairly straightforward.Send this form to USCIS/NBC after making a copy for your records.
If you have additional adult household members, you must also complete a form I-800Asupplement 1 for each person.
USCIS charges a one-time filing fee of $720, plus $85 for each adult 18 years old or above living in your household. Along with the I-800A form and your check, send photocopies of the following documents (this is included in the instructions for the I-800A):
A birth certificate for each petitioner (husband and wife) as well as for any other adults living in the home (persons 18 years old and above)
Marriage certificate of the petitioners
Divorce decree(s) or death certificate(s)of former/late spouse (if applicable)
Court disposition for any crime (including misdemeanors) that you may have been charged with–even if you were not found guilty or the record has been expunged
For any crimes with which you were charged and/or convicted, a Letter of Remorse signed under Penalty of Perjury must be included listing circumstances surrounding event and any rehabilitation you have received. Please contact Nightlight for more info.
Proof of citizenship for at least one spouse if both were not born in the U.S.
Proof of legal residency if one spouse was not born in the U.S. and the other spouse is a U.S. citizen
Mailing the I-800A Form to the “Lockbox”
The initial I-800A application, along with its fee and supportingdocumentation are sent by you, the adoptive family, to one of the following “lockbox” addresses:
If sent by regular mail:
USCIS
P.O. Box 660087
Dallas, TX 75266
If sent by Express Mail or courier:
USCIS
ATTN: Hague
2501 S. State Hwy. 121 Business, Suite 400
Lewisville, TX 75067
We highly recommend sending important documents via Express Mail, FedEx or UPSso that you can track them.
Obtain fingerprintingat the CIS office for your state
In most cases, the homestudy and I-800A are submitted to the National Benefits Center lockbox at the same time. Once your check has cleared, the application and accompanying documents are scanned, given a tracking number, and automatically sent to the NBCin Missouri.
In some states your homestudy is sent separately tolockbox (and thento the NBC in Missouri), either by your homestudy agency or by the Department of Social Services.
Once your I-800A (and in most instances your homestudy) is submitted to lockbox, you will receive a letter stating that they have received your application and that you must send in your homestudy within 45 days. If you send in your I-800A application too soon, and your homestudy does not get there within 45 days, you may be required to pay the Immigration application fee again.
Once you have submitted the application and above documents, the National Benefits Center will notify you of an appointment to be fingerprinted at your local USCIS office. Both petitioners, along with any other adults living in the home, must be fingerprinted. The purpose of fingerprinting is for USCIS to check your criminal history with the FBI fingerprint registry.
The results of these fingerprint scans go through the FBI and are processed and transmitted almost immediately to the NBC. Neither you nor your agency can see the results of these criminal clearances.
CompleteYour homestudy, described above
The third (and most substantial) component necessary for gaining USCIS/NBC approval is full completion of your homestudy. As just described, the homestudy is sent to lockbox with your I-800A.
ApprovalNOTICE (I-800A approval)
Approximately 45 days after the NBC has received both your homestudy and your criminal clearancesfrom the FBI fingerprint registry, you should receive your Approval Notice, also referred to as an I-800A approval. A copy of this form will become part of your dossier.
The approval expiration date is printed on the Approval Notice. You want to make sure that your I-800A is valid at the time you travel to Hong Kong to adopt your child. The form I-800, Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative, must be submitted on behalf of the specific child, or children, you intend to adopt BEFORE the expiration date of your I-800A approval notice.
The period of approval of your Form I-800A is based on the validity of fingerprint clearance records. USCIS fingerprints are valid for 15 months. Your I-800A approval and fingerprint record clearance for you, your spouse and any adult member(s) of your household must remain valid until the U.S. Department of State provides visa issuance for your adopted child.
IT IS UP TO YOU TO KNOW WHEN YOUR ADOPTION APPROVAL WILL EXPIRE.
You may request one free extension of the approval period of Form I-800A no sooner than ninety (90) days prior to expiration by submitting the Form I-800A, Supplement 3, Request for Action on Approved Form I-800A prior to the expiration of your approval notice.
To request your one time free extension:
- Submit Form I-800A, Supplement 3, Request for Action on Approved Form I-800A. This request for extension should be submitted to the lockboxfacility where you sent your initial I-800A application.
- Fingerprinting. NBC will schedule an appointment for you to be re-fingerprinted at your local USCIS office. This biometrics appointment will be free of charge.
- Updated Homestudy. Your homestudy will need to be updated, even if there are no changes in your circumstances. Your social worker must meet with youto update the homestudy.This will include individual meetings with each spouse and must take place in your home. All criminal and child abuseclearances for the state in which you reside must be obtained again, as well as documents verifying your current medical and financial status, letters of reference, etc.
Once NBC sends this second Approval Notice, it is current for another 15 months from the date of the Fingerprint clearance date. Only one free extension will be granted. In the unlikely event that you have to file another I-800A (not just an extension of the original), you will have to pay the full Immigration fee for re-filing. Most adoptions of special needs children take place well within 30 months.