Adoptive Parents
The Incoming Adoption
If you are living in the United States (USA) and adopting from another country, our experienced staff at Forever Families Through Adoption (FFTA) can assist you with your adoption plan. FFTA is a fully Hague accredited agency permitted to supervise incoming adoptions of a baby/child born outside the USA.
Once you decide international adoption is the route you wish to take to build your family as a prospective adoptive parent you must first be found eligible to adopt under USA law. The Federal agency that makes this determination is the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). You also have to meet requirements set by your home state. A child may not be brought into the USA for purposes of adoption until USCIS determines that you are eligible to adopt from another country. The approval process includes, but is not limited to: obtaining a home study report, and criminal and child abuse background checks. FFTA can assist you with your home study report in New York State and help you with referrals to out of state home study providers.
Some of the certain requirements that must be met to adopt a foreign-born child into the USA include:
- That at least one prospective adoptive parent is a USA Citizen.
- If you are married, you must both adopt the child.
Each country has its own requirements for prospective adoptive parents. Country information is frequently updated, so is it important to check the Department of State’s website regularly at: http://www.travel.state.gov/. We also encourage you to look at www.uscis.gov to learn more about incoming adoption requirements.
What's New at FFTA?
Forever Families Through Adoption, Inc. Voluntarily Relinquishes Hague Accreditation
After much consideration, our Board of Directors along with the support of the FFTA staff has made the decision to voluntarily relinquish our Hague Accreditation. Due to the closing of several countries' programs to adopt from the United States, plus a global pandemic, it is no longer feasible to continue our Hague Status, which we proudly maintained since 2008. We have felt honored to be able to work with CEAS, IAAME, the Department of State and so many Domestic and International Adoption Service Providers, such as ANW, EFKO, CONANI, TDH and prospective adoptive parents throughout the years. What an amazing experience to help build families here and across the ocean! FFTA is looking forward to expanding our Domestic and Foster to Forever programs.
We wish all of our international friends well as we enter an exciting 2024!!FFTA receives HRC-ACAF Innovator Seal of Recognition
Forever Families Through Adoption is proud to be one of the 172 child welfare organizations joining the the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's All Children - All Families (ACAF) program in 2023, as highlighted in a new report. Together, these organizations work to improve the services provided to the LGBTQ+ community, including children in foster care and prospective foster and adoptive parents who are LGBTQ+.
FFTA is so proud to have again received the highest "Innovative Inclusion" tier of recognition. We are honored to work with LGBTQ+ families and are committed to treating all persons with respect, dignity, and compassion. To learn more about the All Children-All Families program, please visit the HRC website. Read our full press release here.Meet and Greet
May 7th, 2024
Adoption: Everything You Need to Know - Zoom Meeting!
May 9th & 10th, 2024
35th Annual New York State Foster Care & Adoption Conference