To: The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Donald Trump
Protect Intercountry Adoption Affordability
Last week, the U.S. Department of State notified adoption service providers of mandatory fee changes associated with obtaining and maintaining accreditation. These fees, which will go to an exclusive new accrediting entity, drastically increase accreditation fees for adoption service providers and will further increase the cost of intercountry adoption for families.
Why is this important?
A “per adoption” monitoring and oversight fee of $500 was announced last week by the DOS. This per child fee must occur at the time of a family’s acceptance into an adoption program. If the family is ultimately matched with a sibling group, additional fees of $500 per additional child will be applied. According to the Department of State and IAAME, these fees are nonrefundable, even if a family withdraws or if their process does not end with a finalized adoption. While accountability for everyone is extremely important the DOS pushing to increase fees for monitoring by IAAME, a group who has not even published their policies and procedures and has no contractual relationship with agencies is unconscionable.