Adopting in Massachusetts
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Families who want to adopt in Massachusetts can go through the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS) or a licensed child-placing agency.
DSS has a program that helps waiting children find adoptive home placements. The Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Inc. (MARE) is designed to help families, who want to adopt, get approved as adoptive parents. They also help the family find a child who is a good match. The placement will start out as a foster placement that later turns into an adoptive placement. This is called “Foster Care Adoptionâ€.
Some potential adoptive families choose to use a licensed child-placing agency. An agency works with birth families that choose adoption for their child. They provide counseling services, in addition to services needed to facilitate an adoption until the adoption can be finalized by the courts.
A child-placing agency can provide domestic adoption services within the United States or international adoption services outside the United States.
Families who choose International Adoption will need to get an international home study done, in addition to the other paperwork required by the state of Massachusetts and the country they are adopting from.
The family will need to submit the I-600 application form “Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition†as soon as they decide that they are going to adopt internationally. The form is required to get approval from the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) to classify the child to be adopted as an orphan. The I-600 form, “Petition to Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative†will also be required towards the end of the adoption.
Families, who choose to adopt a child internationally, will usually need to complete all the required paperwork before they can be assigned a child and get approved for a travel date to visit the child.
