What is a Dossier?

For those of you who have never adopted and are not clear on the terminology, I thought I'd give you our input. When we registered with our agency, we were given a long list of documents to begin collecting. These documents became our "dossier", which was mailed out to China in May. These are the papers that give China lots of information about us. Depending on the country one chooses, the documents collected may differ depending on their policies.

Those close to us have heard us gripe and complain about this long process. As simple as it may seem... the process was expensive and tiring. The waiting was the worst part; the cost was the second worst (maybe I have that in reverse!) People ask us often what the cost of adoption involves and why it's so expensive. Outside of agency fees ($5275), translation fees ($800) and country fee (only $1500 for China), most of our expenses have been spread out over many, many areas. Even little checks here and there add up quickly. Here are the documents we collected... each of course involved their own fees and waiting times:

1. A homestudy report (4 interviews, VA police reports, doctor's exams and more involved with this... $1300+)
2. Personal statement, 2 pages long
3. Employment letter of Mother (by me since I'm not employed)
4. Employment letter of Father (his was from his employer recognizing that he was employed full-time)
5. Certificate of Financial Status (listing several expenses and incomes)
6. Physical Exam of Mother (bloodwork, basic physical issues, HIV test... $20 for doctor's visit + lab fees)
7. Physical Exam of Father (same as above... $20 for doctor's visit + lab fees)
8. Police Report of Mother (local from county... can't remember cost, maybe in the $10-$20 range)
9. Police Report of Father (same fee as above)
10. Birth Certificate of Mother (newly issued one... $10 or so)
11. Birth Certificate of Father (newly issued... $40)
12. Marriage License (newly issued one... $10 or so)
13. CIS Approval Letter (which entailed a long wait and fingerprinting... $700+)

Once our 13 documents were received, they all needed to be notarized. (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Julia, for saving us money there!!!) Then we went through an authentication process. This process involved sending all documents to the respective state (where they originated) to get sealed by the state's Department of State ($8-10 each document!) These seals represented the fact that the notaries were registered and legitimate. Then, once all of the documents were returned, we needed to send them to the US Department of State to get sealed once again (got Condi Rice's signature... or stamp of signature?... each document had a fee of $7 I think). Then we sent all of the sealed documents to the respective Chinese Consulate/Chinese Embassy for the state ($20 per document). See how the expenses add up quickly?

In addition to the dossier documents, we needed to send a copy of our passport. We didn't have them yet, so we expedited the process. The current wait of a passport is 4-6 months, but for us the expedition process only took 10 days.
Some of the documents were quick, but the CIS approval process took us forever. We applied immediately, but because we went through China, they would not give us a fingerprinting date until our homestudy was complete. Our homestudy was complete the week of Christmas; our fingerprinting date was given to us at the end of January; the approval came at the end of March/beginning of April. So, despite how easy it sounds, it takes a long time.

What other fees are we looking at? Once we get a referral, we'll be paying for our travel costs (approximately $8000 for 2 of us for 14 days in China, though a lengthened stay could cost more), orphanage donation ($3000) and various other fees for documents, visa, etc.(approximately $2000). We also need a post-adoption study through our homestudy foundation, but we've already paid that ($600). I'm sure I've missed other costs (like Fed Ex and courier services)... but that's a general look at how the adoption fees are broken down.