agency? cost? adoption in panama

There are 3 agencies doing a lot of Panama adoptions. Commonwealth, World Partners and Faith International (there web site does not show Panama). THere are other little ones too. All three have gotten referrals - not sure about adoptions yet. I'm with Faith International in Tacoma and they have 1 completed and several very close. The cost is hard to judge from agency to agency because they don't all include the same things (i.e. homestudy, BCIS paper work, state approvals, child visa etc.) Total adoption - including travel - I think it is fair too say it will be between $14,000 - $18. Commonwealth says $12,000 on there site. World Partners is about the same - I think. Please remember homestudy cost vary greatly from state to state - also so do state requirments. THat is not in the commonwealth figure. Lowest I have ever heard is $600 on up to $2000 for homestudy. BCIS - is $560. So the little things not included really start to add up. I guess independent would be cheaper but I'm not that brave - to do it alone. Goodluck Tammy

thank you very much for the info.

Usually, my vote goes for finding your own adoption attorney, and doing it that way (for Panama).... I know several people who have gone that way.... no complaints... no problems... nothing that wasn't experienced by those using an agency... so I think it's basically the same either way... however..... :) There is an agency that I have had some "light" contact with... they met with a young friend of mine in Panama, as they are looking into expanding their adoption services into Panama. While they visited there (just recently), they set up their connections, etc....... Here is their email address: mandalaadopt@earthlink.net I believe Mandala Adoptions has a website as well.... I'd check into them!!! You never know! :) VERY very VERY nice people there... ~kim p. :)

The approx. fee for an adoption from Panama, Mexico, Guatemala (Central America), is approx. 15K-18K US, plus the costs of US immigration and some basic misc. fees. This generally includes (should) the assistance of a US attorney as well as a legal and social services professional in the country of residence of the prospective adoptee. Sometimes, in rare cases, the cost may be slightly higher depending on the birth mother's specific medical needs ( if adopting directly from the birth mother). Stablilty factor for adoptions from his region is in the high 90%'s, as judged from our adoption processing experience. IT IS ESSENTIAL to have a direct legal services provider in the country of the adoptee or the conflict factor rises substantially. Remember we Americans are not the most welcome in latin american countries due to widely held beliefs about the cruelty of US immigration practices. Good luck.

Not sure what that means?? Can you clarify, Samuel? Thanks... :) While living in Panama..... the problems we (adoptive families in Panama) would hear about were w/those people adopting in Costa Rica and Bogota (sp?), Colombia..... Rumors were rampant about Americans adopting children in order to harvest their organs for transplants.......... it was CRAZY. In Costa Rica, one legitimately adopting family was STONED by locals as they picked up their child from the orphanage........ they had to leave without the child.......... However, no such rumors existed in Panama...... and the country is largely divided on their feelings toward America/Americans in general. I'd say around 30% (or less) have anti-American sentiments. INS treated US like we were infringing on their time, making their lives difficult, and CLEARLY they would do anything to talk us out of adopting. I have NO IDEA WHY they think this way....... other than to boil it down to the fact that many of the employees (if not all) at the Consulate were Panamanians (with dual citizenship), and had a problem with seeing Panamanian children being taken abroad and not adopted by fellow Panamanians. JUST MY humble opinion..... I think that if we (Americans) had overflowing orphanages, and foreigners were coming into our country to adopt unwanted American children... well... we might have a problem with that as well. So, it's certainly understandable. Anyway... I would not shy away from trying to adopt in Panama. The Panamanians are working feverishly to get their country up on it's feet by attracting tourism and foreign investments...... there are definitely areas to avoid in Panama (small groups of Noriega- supporters are sprinkled in the older parts of town)... but for the most part, it is very modern, beautiful environmentally, and NOT anti-American as what you would find in the Middle East. If you are Catholic, you'll find that THAT will help as far as your acceptance w/social workers, orphanage staff, etc. Going w/a private attorney, which is NO more or NO less difficult than using an agency will cut the costs by half, at LEAST. But you need to use an attorney who has lots of experience w/adoptions. There is NO need for any U.S. attorney that I'm aware of......... but a friend who speaks fluent Spanish or a translator in your area will prove invaluable! Our adoption took an unusually long time for good reason.... but in general, my friends who adopted there w/success took anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. Just depends. :)

As a point of clarification, the US immigration policy switch from a proposed process by which almost 2 million illegal Latin Americans that might have benefited from the proposed "regularization" or "amnesty", to one of strict enforcement and deportation has created some hurt feelings among the Latin American peoples. As a US lawyer with corresponding Mexican degrees and with offices in Mexico and the US, as well as handling business in most of Central and South America, I am reminded of this closed attitude of the US government. There is really not the sensitivity to the 9/11 dilemma as we might understand it. As far as adoptions go I agree whole heartedly that using an attorney directly, one who can communicate with you is essential and that being catholic does help. I also would like to clarify that I am not advocating the hiring of a US lawyer, rather that we as a legal services firm that provides adoptions in the Americas do have the same on staff and offer their services as part of our services package. This way all bases are covered and all issues are clarified as they develop to avoid the delays sometimes encountered when you need to find a professional to handle an otherwise ordinary adoption. Good luck to all prospective adoptive parents and my comment was in no way meant to be negative, just a logistical consideration. Finally, there was a belief a few years back about organ harvesting, which does seem to have diminished except for some small towns where some birth mothers are to be found.

Our experience with INS/American Consulate in Panama was equally good as it was bad....... What the Panamanians don't seem to realize is that the the U.S. Consulate there is fairly indescriminate with their sometimes chilly, sour attitudes - we were treated like anyone else who walked through the door. .. and like any Panamanian citizen, we, too, had to wait in line in the wee hours of the morning to try to get one of the ten available appointments available per day. And INS stateside was no different...... Upon returning to the U.S., I had a question about our daughter's citizenship, as new legislation was in the process of being enacted that would allow automatic citizenship for internaionally adopted children.... when I called the 800 number.... they were short with me.... RUDE..... and after several transfers, one man I spoke with actually said he "didn't know" and then hung up on me. It's unfortunate that foreign citizens experience such difficulties trying to get a VISA to enter the U.S.....so much for "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door..." eh? Unfortunately, our open door policy made 9-11 a reality.... Anyway.... enough politics..... :) Thanks for the post, "samuel"...... it was extremely interesting.... my sister in law is from Mexico City and travels for her company from the U.S. to there and on to Central and South America as well... I get an earful from her on the same issues. Are you involved in adoptions on a professional level, or here out of curiosity? Happy Holidays........ :)

In post to Kim's question regarding my involvement in this forum, I would like to state that I entered into this forum for the reasons that I have handled numerous Mexican adoptions for U.S citizens and many came to us after encounters with what I prefer to call "facilitators". Most of these facilitators act or are constituted as charitable agencies and charge fees in excess of what we as lawyers charge! This struck me as odd inasmuch as charitable agencies should be as their moniker states "charitable". Still the most glaring issue was one of erroneous presumption by these agencies in their selection of professionals to handle the adoptions. We were frequently called in to troubleshoot and to attempt to finalize these botched adoptions. The real theme here is that when dealing with a foreign government that does not have a specific mode/agency for facilitating foreign adoptions, the matter really is a "lawyers" issue. Meaning that the essence is in the details and not the heart wrenching desire or humanitarian needs for such adoptions. I have noticed a certain "but we are helping the poor children" attitude among some of the participants in this forum and that is certainly admirable, but in short an adoption is a matter of meeting legal requisites for adoption, terminating parental rights or establishing consents, establishing the legal rights for the adopting parents and then gaining the derived legal rights for the adopted child. In short I was interested to see why the bulk of adoptions are handled by facilitators who then hire or out source the work to lawyers? This scenario, in my mind, just adds to the costs and lessens the responsibility of the providers due to the many hands involved. A scenario similar to the adage about too many cooksӔ. I hope this answer the question posed and I would like to continue to be an asset to the members of this board and I remain at your disposal on a pro bonoӔ (free) basis to answer any further questions, subject only to my work load. Finally, YesӔ we do handle adoptions, and we specialize in Mexican adoptions since we have offices and employees throughout Mexico. This is not a solicitation, but merely the answer to Kims question. Again thank you for your kind comment and I hope to remain a participant to this forum and I am glad to answer questions for the other members on a free or pro bono basis. Good luck to all and may the entire world find some tranquility this holiday season.

I am just getting started, and am curious about working with a private attorney for a Panamanian adoption. I used a South American attorney in 1998 for a Bolivian adoption, and he didn't seem to care about the children at all. His attitude was somewhat offensive by our standards, and he seemed to be in it for the money only. Is Panama different? Does anyone have any experiences worth sharing? THANKS!!:confused:

Samuel, Cold you explain something for me. I am new to this and need all the help I can get! In one of your posts, you said, "Stablilty factor for adoptions from this region is in the high 90%'s". Which region were you referring to, just Panama or all of Latin America? What , exactly, is the stability factor? Thank you very much. We all appreciate your insight...very informative.

Firstly, thank you for your kind words. And please do not take my comments to mean that there is developing an Iron CurtainӔ effect between Latin America and the US. What I mean by "stability factor" is the political environment created by the cultural differences between the adoptive parents country and that of the adoptee. A matter in point would be the new Brazilian requirement that all entering US citizens be fingerprinted and photographed just like the new "visit America" requirement recently implemented at all the entry point to the US. For all the decorum and pomp which may be presented with this new entry requirement to enter the US, it does cause a ripple throughout many Latin American countries because many European countries are exempt. This means by inference that the Latin American countries are doing a poor job at screening prospective travelers to the US or that the countries citizens themselves pose some type of danger to the US population. Either of these assumptions is somewhat insulting and thus a ripple is created. Will this affect an adoption proceeding? Well it should not, but by being sensitive to these events we as a professional services firm are more attuned to the climate and the fine tuning of the process of adoption so that we present the adoption as being one of a needy child (as caused by any one of numerous social causes), and of a loving family or person who would like to adopt that child(ren) and then we formulate our pleadings and process to strict adherence of legal and governmental substance and procedure so that the matter must be adjudicated on itҒs merits and not on the characterization frequently thought to be the case, that being one of a wealthy US citizen seeking to advantage themselves of the lack of capacity of the adoptee's (the childs native country) country's inability to provide for them. A presumptive type of charity from the US to that childҒs country. We present this scenario effectively by the use of local counsel, local social workers and local support personnel who all know the culture intimately and who are more sensitive to the nuances then many outside adoption services (many whom hire professionals as independent contractors). Additionally, all my staff is hand selected to work within the team. In essence what you get is a well tuned and articulate representative intervening in what is typically an emotionally charged and sometimes tireless process. Please do not stop considering adopting from Latin America, but please do understand that the universe is one big balloon. Push into one side and the other protrudes. If our political leaders understood this then perhaps the political undercurrents would disappear or be less of a factor. Again thank you for your comment and I hope this helps. As always feel free to write me directly at director@naftaexecutives.com. Wising everyone in the forum a prosperous New Year. Samuel

Kim wrote: "Usually, my vote goes for finding your own adoption attorney, and doing it that way (for Panama).... I know several people who have gone that way.... no complaints... no problems... nothing that wasn't experienced by those using an agency... so I think it's basically the same either way... however..... :) There is an agency that I have had some "light" contact with... they met with a young friend of mine in Panama, as they are looking into expanding their adoption services into Panama. While they visited there (just recently), they set up their connections, etc......." Dear Kim, I just joined this group and was browsing the threads - saw your post and had to reply! The director of Mandala (who is a friend of mine) was originally going to go with me to Panama, but at the last minute, could not. I did make the trip, in November, and had the opportunity to meet and get to know your friend there, as well as several missionary families, who I think you also know. We do have a program there, and I will be traveling to Panama regularly - next trip is in February, and I will be seeing your friend again. I really enjoyed Panama - very different from Guatemala where we have been working for years, but wonderful in its own way. I would love to chat sometime;

Caroline... So it was YOU :) that met with Gladys? She wrote a novel length letter to me describing this "wonderful" person she met.... so that would be YOU..... :) I would love to correspond with you - please feel free to contact me (Kim) at: kcpjj03@yahoo.com. I know we are advised not to give out our email addresses, but this is not my "private" email, just one I use only for internet purposes... after you contact me, I'll give you my "other" email address. Had a friend here at this forum not told me you had posted a message to me, I might not have noticed, as I have switched to another adoption support message board (for Panamanian adoptions also). I'm so happy to have heard from you... and can't wait to hear all about your trip - and Gladys (whom I worry about). Looking forward to hearing from you.... ~Kim :)