financial requirements for home study

lincoln79

completely naive here...what are the financial requirements to get a positive home study? we are not wealthy and don't even know if adoption is a possibility for us.

 

orange1414

For our agency, we had to fill out an indepth financial questionaire and demonstrate an "acceptable" debt-to-income ratio. I would start doing your research--different routes to adoption have different financial requirements. Good luck!

CaptainSerious

Most agencies just want to see that your income minus expenses leave enough over to comfortably take care of and provide for a child.  In general, there's not a specified amount of savings required, although some international programs (and possibly some domestic agencies) do have their own requirements like this.

Dr.Loretta

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Adoption can be expensive, but there are a lot of options out there. You can do foster/adopt, which is very low cost, but not for everyone. You can do domestic adoption through an agency (typically the most $), a law firm (less $ but more legwork from you) or a facilitator (if they're legal in your state).

The way you write it, it makes it sound like you pay a certain amount for a "passing grade" on the homestudy. There are fees involved, but the point of the HS is to ensure that you would be suitable parents for a child. Most places will want to see your financials, but you don't have to be rich to adopt. You have to be able to afford the fees, and to show you could afford to raise a child. Which your average middle class couple can.

I would look around at agencies/facilitators/lawyers and get an idea of their fee schedules and if any of them would work for you/with you. Some charge on a sliding scale. Some religious-based agencies have lower fees. Etc.

GL