2 issues I've found so far in your piece;
VN law states that you must be "20 years older than the child you wish to adopt," not 25.
And I'm seeing a consistantly different number when it comes to country fees...it's more like $15500 than the stated $7000-$12000, not including agency fees.

Hope that helps!

~Nicole
 

Nicole - thanks! I changed the age thing.

As for the country fees, do you have any references/urls for me? My agency fee is 11, 500 and I checked a few of the other "popular" agency sites and the sites that had costs broken down all charged lower than $12,500 for the country fee. I'll up it if I can see a few websites or something.....
 

Ok, I just pulled up the spreadsheet and this is what I have for program fees for various countries (based on what is listed on their websites or what they have stated directly):

CHSFS: program fee: $10,500
Orphans Overseas: 7000
Mandala: 11,400
FTIA: 9000
Adoptions from the heart: $11, 500
ADOPPT Inc: 10,875
Adoption Center of Washing: 12,900
Holt, 10,325
CHI: $11,467-$11,667
ICIA: $7500
 

Oh one more - Asian Children Services is $14,000
and I was wrong, Adoppt Inc is 9000.

Whew! Anyway, does anyone else find it very odd how extremely different they all are? Hrm....
 

Okay, I was a copy-editor in my past life, so forgive me if I go overboard. ;-}
1. I don't think agencies used to be licensed to work in VN... so it's not "re-licensed" it's just "licensed."
2. Quotes on referral to travel vary quite a bit by agency (province?) ... my agency is saying 4-6 months. SIGH.
3.You might consider re-wording that part about placing due to "abuse"... I don't think one could generalize that anywhere... people place kids due to poverty or death or laws or whatever... I think "abuse" just leaves a wrong impression.
4. My agency said that all vital records need to have certified stamps that are less than 6 months old. So I would say nearly everyone will have to pay for new copies.
5. Holt has a "dossier" fee and a "program" fee... no "agency" fee per se. I believe the variance in fees is due to differences in program sizes, number of orphanages supported, number of other related programs (like foster care) etc etc!! :-)
6. Referrals from VN can come *either* from the agency directly *or* from the VN ministry. Holt gives all their referals directly, not just SN/waiting kids. There are probably others that do too... so people should ask each agency which route their referals take. It seems to affect times quoted for referal to travel. (the positive to us is that we know the level of care/etc that Holt's kids receive prior to referal)

I think that's it! Great article... and thanks for showing me yet another website I can surf! :-)
 

Christina - I thought you were going to lay into me about all my grammatical errors :-P

Thanks, those are all great observations. I went and altered a lot of it to reflect your comments.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!! I am totally freaking out about this vital record thing!! Our vital records don't have ANY date on them!?!?! We just ordered the standard certified (raised seal) vitals. Then we were told to attach a cheat to them and have that notarized and then state certified. So do you mean the state-certified sheet needs to be wtihin 6 months old? Or do we have entirely the wrong vital records?!
 

Oh wait... don't panic,I'm muddling steps in my head. First you get the certified copy of your birth/marriage certificates, and then you send them to that state's secretary of state for their seal... and that's the thing that can't be dated over 6 months. Does that make more sense? Sorry for freaking you out... :-}
 

Hahah, yes, that makes total sense and I did freak out, made some calls, and figured out that you CAN order your vitals already state-authenticated (I think I alot of people do it that way) so if you do it that way you might have to reorder them later, if they expire, right? Thankfully my SoS is right up the road and only costs $1/document so it'll be fast and cheap to do it.

Man, our medicals are already two months old, I hope we can get this all together before everything starts expiring!
 

Children's Hope International - $ 15,657 - $15,857
They state that this cost does not include: "INS application fee, local home study, fees for certification and translation/authentication in Vietnamese Embassy, or post-placement reports."
So, I would take that as meaning country fee but I could be wrong.
And ours is $15,500 as well.

Anyway, our agency is projecting a total cost (including travel) at $25,750-30,850. Is that way more than the rest of you guys?
 

Oh, also, Asian Children Services emailed me with a fee sheet and listed their country fee at $14,000.
 

Yep, they are further down on the list, above. They are pretty pricy!