Does anyone not get approved

I know it has happened, but I also wouldn't be terribly worried about it. The big thing is to be honest and upfront about everything with your social worker. The cases I have heard of where people were not approved or had problems getting approved were where something in their past was not documented in their homestudy but came up after their fingerprints were run. For example, say an arrest as a teenager and they assumed the record was sealed and it wasn't worth mentioning in their homestudy. Or a situation in which they were arrested but the charges were dropped and they assumed that their record was cleared. That sort of thing. Just be totally honest and upfront about everything with your social worker and you will be fine. :)

I believe you can get denied if you don't disclose information. If you do get denied you are out of the money.

Most homestudy agencies won't take you on as a candidate if they believe that you are not approvable at all or at present. They don't want to waste their time and your money by doing a homestudy, if it's unlikely to result in the creation of a new home for a child in need. There is usually an intake session before a homestudy is begun. You will be asked questions such as, "Are you currently receiving public assistance?", "Have you had a diagnosis of cancer in the last five years?", "Where are you currently employed, and for how long have you been there?" and "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" On the basis of your answers, you could be told that you cannot have a homestudy, because you cannot possibly be approved to adopt. People convicted of murder, people who have schizophrenia, people whose parental rights were terminated because of abuse, and so on are likely to be sent on their way. They are simply not going to be considered good candidates for parenthood. You could also be told that you are not approvable AT THIS TIME, but that you could reapply to have a homestudy in a year or so. As an example, if you have just received your degree and started your first job, and would be the sole breadwinner, you will probably be told to reapply in a couple of years, since you cannot demonstrate financial and job stability at this point in your life. The same is true if you have just gotten married or gotten divorced, since most agencies want to see people who have a stable life situation. If you are currently receiving public assistance because you have lost your job, you will be told that people on public assistance cannot adopt, but that you can reapply once you are on your feet again, with steady work and the ability to support yourself and a child. In short, by the time a homestudy begins, you can probably be pretty confident that you are approvable. A denial would occur only if: a) It was found that you lied during intake -- for example, saying that you had no criminal record, when you were convicted of domestic violence, or saying that you were not an alcohol abuser when you had spent several stints in rehab. b) It was found during the interviews that you and your spouse were "not on the same page" about adoption, or that you had some opinions about adoption that could be harmful to a child -- for example, that adopted children would never be as good as biological children and shouldn't be treated like biological children. c) It was found that you had some unsafe home situations that didn't surface during the intake interview. As an example, perhaps you didn't mention that you keep 20 venomous snakes as house pets, or that you are so worried about intruders that you keep loaded firearms in easy reach, or that your biological son (age 13) has molested several children. Even during a homestudy, there is "wiggle room" in terms of certain kinds of potential denials. As an example, if your home is deemed unsafe because you don't have a fence around your swimming pool, you won't be denied. You will be told to get a fence put in and then to have the social worker come and inspect it. You don't have to do it if you don't want to spend the money, but you will then be denied, because this is a matter of state law. Social workers WANT to approve people; there are simply so many kids in need of homes, that social workers are beating the bushes for families who can parent them. They also don't want to be sued by families who are upset by a turndown. If anything, I think you will find that social workers can sometimes be a bit too lenient. You will wonder, at times, during the process, "How could SHE have gotten approved -- she's as crazy as a coot!" Or "How could HE have gotten approved? That guy can't keep his pants zipped." In general, the big red flags that will be raised in a social worker's mind are obvious ones: -- a history of felonies and violent crimes; a history of child abuse or neglect; substance abuse diagnosis and treatment in the past ten years or so, life-threatening physical illnesses or illnesses that are likely to be totally disabling (since kids have already lost at least one parent prematurely, and don't need to lose another); serious mental illnesses (NOT mild depression or anxiety); financial instability such as frequent job losses, excessive debt, recent bankruptcy; unsafe housing situation. You can always call your state agency that regulates adoption and get a copy of the adoption regulations for your state. You can and should also interview several agencies about their criteria for adoption; there may be things in your background that will be unacceptable to some agencies but acceptable to others, such as having survived breast cancer for five years. If you have questionable things in your background, by all means, discuss them honestly. Chances are that, with certain documentation, you can be approved. As an example, plenty of people have been approved, despite minor infractions of the law (drunk and disorderly in college), long ago mental health or substance abuse issues (suicide attempt over a failed teenage romance), very modest income (but with good money management), failed business venture if now steadily working, etc. Do remember that no one expects adoptive parents to be perfect parents. Safe, "good enough" parents are welcome. You don't have to be rich. You don't have to own your home; renting an apartment is fine. And the furnishings can be hand-me-downs. You don't have to have a Ph.D. or drive a fancy car. You don't have to have a certain religion or any religion at all, as long as you can give a child a good ethical grounding. You don't have to be of a certain race, or the same race as a child. If you love kids, have good character, and have enough financial ability to provide a safe home for a child, that's really all that matters. Sharon

I do know one person who's paperwork wasn't approved at first because her husband had an old arrest that showed up in the background check (we're talking getting caught with a can of spray paint as a teenager back in the early 1970's). However they were able to get some kind of documentation from the court records showing that it was minor charge & he didn't go to trial or serve jail time or anything and once they submitted that everything was fine & they got their approval. I think the only reasons CIS would completely refuse to approve someone would be for stuff like child abuse or felony convictions on their records (or on the records of someone in their household) -- in which case they wouldn't be approved by most adoption agencies or foreign countries anyway. Anything short of that you should have at least a fighting chance of explaining to CIS' satisfaction. Usually your agency won't approve you for adoption if they think there's a real "issue" that could cause you to be denied by CIS or the sending country (or if your home seems dangerous or you insist on, say, doing shots of whiskey during the home visit or something)