fee question

I've never heard of having to pay the entire adoption cost up front. I would run the other way as fast as my legs could carry me. We pay as we go, for specific services, as they happen, as I think it should be. An agency should provide you with a complete fee schedule before you sign a single thing. Robin

It's not the entire adoption fee that I am asked to pay at the time I hand in my contract. It's the entire agency fee ($4000). Tammy brings up some good points. I should find out specifically what that $4000 is for. It is just such a big, non-refundable chunk of change. I guess that is why I am dragging my feet...That and the fact that the amount of time it will take to adopt in Panama is so unpredictable. How long has it been now, for all of you, since turning in your dossier? Thanks for your help!

That still seems like a big chunk to pay when you hand in JUST your application. What does everyone else think? I could see that fee being broken down into increments (say $1,500 for homestudy, $500 to look over your dossier, $500-1,000 for "communication" with you, your attorney, and the orphanage, etc.). Anyway, as for your other question re: dossier: 1/2003--sent dossier (in English) to first attorney 6/2003--translated dossier submitted to DNA 7/2003--attorney found two possible siblings for us (not legally free), but still no referral from DNA (as of 4/2004...10 months so far). Rebecca

We paid $200 when we turned in our application and $2,000 when we handed in our contract.

Thanks, everyone. Your experience and insight has been very helpful to me. Rebecca, did anyone ever explain to you why it took so many months for you dossier to be translated and handed in to the DNA? Is 5 months the norm, or were there other circumstances that delayed you?

I paid the same as Julie. $200 with application, 2000 with contract, and then $3000 for parent education and dossier prep (due 30 days after contract). The last chunk we have to pay to the agency is $6800 and that's when we accept our referral. $5k of that goes to the orphange, I believe. $4k sounds kinda high, unless that includes the homestudy or INS fees or parent education or some other substantial "thing". Different agencies lump different things together, but you're right. You really should ask what that $4k is actually for. Sure, some of that many is to pay agency overhead and salaries...but I'd definitely ask. You have to compare the overall fees your agency charges and what services you actually get. Robin

In answer to Annanaboo ("Rebecca, did anyone ever explain to you why it took so many months for you dossier to be translated and handed in to the DNA? Is 5 months the norm, or were there other circumstances that delayed you?") Our situation IS unique. Our first attorney is a corporate attorney rather than a family/adoption attorney, so he had to teach himself the process. Plus, he had to find a translator to translate our entire dossier before sumbitting it to the DNA....Plus, he had all kinds of illnesses, etc. Basically, as nice as he was, we knew we had to find another attorney. It is my understanding that the typical wait is 2-4 weeks to get everything translated. Probably faster for agencies since they already have an official translator (from Panama) "on staff." As frustrating as that long wait was, it's nothing compared to how long we've been waiting for an official referral from the DNA! (I'm wondering if they are just waiting to see what happens with the two we've already identified. If these two end up not having their parental rights terminated, will we go back into the waiting list of adoptive parents?! Ugh, it's very frustrating. That's why we're keeping our fingers crossed!) :rolleyes:

Thanks for explaining that. I'm sorry it has been such a long process for you. It's scary to sign on for an adoption in Panama, but there are some good things about this country, so I guess we all hang in there and hope for the process to improve while we wait!

Thanks for the encouragement, annanaboo. I'm sure when all is said and done and we're finally home with our kids, I'll be singing a different tune, but for now I'm pretty skeptical about Panama. If I were a family trying to choose a country right now, I'd definitely steer clear of this country. There are many other countries/programs that are much more predictable (Korea, China, India, etc.). For those of us already in-process in Panama, we just have to stick it out and support each other. But for families still researching their options, they should take to heart the comments posted on this board over the past year and not brush them aside hoping their experience will be different. For example, we haven't heard from Lauri (lsworan) or TanyaB lately, so I wonder what is happening with their referrals. (Anything?) We haven't heard of anyone else getting a referral for a while now, either. That makes me very nervous! (Lauri and Tanya, I hope you two have good news soon!) Please, folks, if you hear anything new about your cases, please consider sharing it here (the parts that will still protect your anonymity, of course!). We were all told that it would be "slow" over the Christmas and New Year holidays, but it doesn't seem to have picked up any. If anyone has any positive news, we could really use the pick-me-up right now! ;) Rebecca

I have posted an update on our situation on another thread. We have our court date set for June 9th. The other thread has our the whole scenerio.

Probably not what you expected, Lauri, but I'm glad to hear that you've got a final court date. (Whew!) :) Right during rainy season, too! Yippee!!! :p Rebecca

Rebecca and everyone else, I just got back from out of town, and read the recent posts on this thread. I just wanted to give you guys a little bit of encouragement. I know of two families with our agency who were offered referrals in the last month, one of which has been accepted. So, I firmly believe that our adoptions will happen, just not as quickly as we would like. So hang in there! Joan

Thanks for the update Joan. Do you know how long the families had been waiting for referrals and how old the children were at time of referral? Any idea on how long they have to wait to travel? Julie

Rebecca, Yes, we are excited to finally have a date. It has taken much longer than we wanted, but we are staying positive. We hope that we will go sometime in June (after the court date) and bring him home. I don't know how long it takes the court to complete all the documents after the court date. For the termination hearing, it took at least 10 days before the documents were ready. We will keep you posted as we go through the process. I am actually excited to be there during rainy season. We live in Phoenix, so we don't get that kind of rain ever. I won't be excited to drive in it. I still remember the experiences of trying to get around during the rain.

Julie, I know one case has been waiting since November, I don't know about the other one. The approximate ages were 2 1/2 and 4. Our agency is still estimating about five months from referral to travel. Joan