To adopt a baby in the US, you choose an adoption path (private domestic, foster care, or international), complete a home study with a licensed social worker, get matched with a child, wait through the birth parents’ consent period and a court-supervised placement period, and then finalize the adoption before a judge. The whole process commonly takes one to several years and can cost anywhere from nothing to $60,000 depending on the path.
Pick Your Adoption Path First
Everything else — cost, timeline, paperwork, who chooses whom — flows from this decision.
Domestic infant adoption means adopting a newborn or very young child in the United States, either through a licensed private agency or independently with an attorney. Birth parents typically review profile books and letters from waiting families and select the adoptive parents themselves. It is the most common path for families who specifically want an infant, and it carries the longest waits and highest costs.
Foster care adoption places children from the state child welfare system with permanent families. Reunification with birth families is the system’s first goal, so a child only becomes available for adoption after reunification efforts have failed and a court has terminated parental rights. Many foster children are school-aged, but infants and toddlers do enter the system. Most foster care adoptions are free, and eligible children often qualify for ongoing monthly subsidies and Medicaid after finalization.1AdoptUSKids. What Does It Cost?
International adoption brings a child from another country into the United States and requires navigating both US immigration law and the birth country’s laws, most often under the Hague Adoption Convention.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Hague Process Costs commonly run $30,000 to $60,000 including travel, and the number of international adoptions has fallen sharply as countries have tightened or closed their programs.
Domestic adoptions also fall on a contact spectrum: open (ongoing communication between birth and adoptive families), semi-open (contact through an agency intermediary), or closed (no identifying information shared). The vast majority of modern domestic infant adoptions include some degree of openness, and fully closed adoptions have become rare. Contact terms are usually agreed on before placement, though their legal enforceability varies by state.
Who Is Allowed to Adopt
Eligibility rules are set by each state, and they are less restrictive than most people expect. Most states allow any adult 18 or older to adopt; a handful set the minimum at 21 or 25. Single people, married couples, and LGBTQ+ individuals can adopt in every state, though individual agencies may have their own policies. You will need to show financial stability and pass background checks, but there is no income minimum and no requirement that you own a home.
The Home Study
The home study is the gate every prospective adoptive parent has to pass through. A licensed social worker visits your home, interviews everyone in the household (individually and together if you have a partner), and reviews a stack of documents. It usually takes three to six months and covers your family background, finances, relationships, parenting experience, and reasons for adopting.3AdoptUSKids. Completing a Home Study Through a private agency, the home study itself typically costs $1,000 to $3,000.
You will need to provide:
- Health reports: a physical exam within the past 12 months for all prospective parents, and tuberculosis tests for every household member.
- Criminal background checks for every adult in the household, including state police checks and child protective services registry checks. FBI fingerprint checks and local police clearances are required in certain circumstances, including foster care adoptions under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.
- Financial documentation: tax returns, pay stubs, or W-2 forms.
- Three or four personal references who can speak to your character, stability, and experience with children.
- Legal documents: birth certificates, marriage licenses, and any divorce decrees.
The home study is not a pass/fail test for perfect parents. Social workers are looking for stability, self-awareness, and readiness to parent. When something comes up during the process, most social workers will work with you on it rather than reject you outright.
Matching and Waiting
Once your home study is approved, you formally apply to an agency or begin working with an attorney and submit the completed study along with any remaining paperwork. Waits vary enormously. Domestic infant adoption waits commonly run one to several years, shaped by the preferences you specify and the agency’s volume. Foster care placements can happen within months because the children are already in state custody.
In domestic infant adoption, you create a profile — a letter to the birth parent, photos of your home and family, and a description of the childhood you envision — that birth parents review when choosing a family. In foster care, the direction reverses: you review profiles of children who are legally free for adoption (or likely to become so) and express interest in a specific child. Either way, pre-placement visits usually happen before the child moves into your home.
Birth Parent Consent and the Revocation Window
An adoption can’t be finalized until the birth parents’ legal rights end. That happens either voluntarily, when a birth parent signs a consent (sometimes called a relinquishment), or involuntarily, when a court terminates rights based on findings like abandonment or unfitness. In domestic infant adoption, consent is almost always voluntary.
The timing rules matter. Each state sets its own rules for when consent can be signed and how long a birth parent has to change their mind. Some states make consent irrevocable immediately upon signing. Others give birth parents a revocation window ranging from a few days to 30 days. A few allow revocation only with court approval after the initial window closes. Once the revocation period expires, a birth parent can withdraw consent only by proving fraud or duress.
Post-Placement Supervision and Finalization
After the child is placed in your home, a supervised period begins before you can finalize in court. A social worker visits during this period to observe how the child is adjusting and how the family is doing overall. Length and visit frequency vary by state and adoption type; six months is common. The social worker’s reports are submitted to the court as part of the finalization record.
The finalization hearing itself is usually short and celebratory. You, your child, your attorney, and sometimes your social worker appear before a judge who has already reviewed the file. The judge confirms that all legal requirements are met, asks a few questions, and signs the decree of adoption. The hearing typically runs 30 to 60 minutes, and many judges invite the family to take photos.
After finalization, the court sends a certified copy of the decree to the state vital records office, which issues a new birth certificate listing you as the parents and reflecting any name change. The original birth certificate is sealed. Request several certified copies of the decree — you will need them to update Social Security records and enroll your child in health insurance.
What It Costs
Adoption costs vary widely by path:1AdoptUSKids. What Does It Cost?
- Domestic infant adoption through a private agency: $5,000 to $40,000 or more. Some agencies use sliding-scale fees based on income.
- Independent adoption through an attorney: $8,000 to $40,000, with an average range of $10,000 to $15,000.
- Foster care adoption: most are free because the state funds the process. Families who hire a private agency for help may have some out-of-pocket costs, which can often be recouped through federal or state reimbursement after finalization.
- International adoption: $30,000 to $60,000 or more, covering agency fees, foreign government fees, document authentication, legal expenses, and travel.
In domestic infant adoption, prospective parents are often expected to cover certain birth parent expenses. Roughly 45 states specify by statute which expenses adoptive families can pay; the most commonly permitted categories are maternity-related medical and hospital costs, temporary living expenses during pregnancy, counseling, and attorney fees.4Child Welfare Information Gateway. Regulation of Private Domestic Adoption Expenses These commonly add $6,000 to $8,000 to the total, capped at what is reasonable and customary or, in some states, at specific dollar limits.
Tax Credits and Other Financial Help
The federal adoption tax credit offsets qualified expenses like agency fees, attorney fees, court costs, and travel. For adoptions finalized in 2026, the maximum is $17,670 per child.5Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit The credit is mostly nonrefundable — it reduces your federal tax bill dollar-for-dollar but cannot drop it below zero — but up to $5,120 is now refundable, so families with little or no tax liability can still receive that portion as a payment. The credit phases out at higher incomes: full credit at modified adjusted gross income below $265,080, partial between $265,080 and $305,080, none above $305,080.
If you adopt a child with special needs from foster care, you are treated as having paid the full credit amount in qualified expenses even if your actual out-of-pocket costs were zero, so you can claim the entire credit regardless of what you spent.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 23 – Adoption Expenses
Other help:
- Employer adoption assistance. If your employer runs a qualified program, you can exclude up to $17,280 (2025 figure, adjusted annually for inflation) from your taxable income for adoption-related expenses your employer paid on your behalf.5Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit
- Title IV-E adoption assistance. Children adopted from foster care who are classified as having special needs may qualify for monthly subsidy payments and Medicaid that continue after finalization. Monthly amounts are negotiated individually up to what the state would have paid for the child in family foster care.
- Grants and adoption-specific loans from private organizations and lenders.
Two Situations That Change the Rules
If the child you’re adopting is in another state, the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children applies. The ICPC is a legal agreement among all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands. Both the sending state and the receiving state have to approve the placement before the child can cross the state line. The agency or attorney in the child’s state assembles a packet on the child and the prospective family, the sending state’s ICPC office reviews and forwards it, and the receiving state arranges a local home evaluation. Only after both states sign off can the child travel to your home. There is no way to legally skip or shortcut this.
The Indian Child Welfare Act applies whenever an adoption involves a child who is a member of a federally recognized tribe or is eligible for membership through a biological parent who is a member. ICWA imposes requirements that override standard state adoption procedures. In involuntary proceedings, the child’s tribe must receive formal notice by registered or certified mail and can intervene or request transfer to tribal court. In voluntary adoptions, the caseworker or attorney should contact the tribe to confirm membership or eligibility. Consent cannot be accepted until the child is at least 10 days old, must be in writing, and must be recorded before a judge who certifies that the parent understood the terms and consequences. ICWA also sets placement preferences: first the child’s extended family, then other members of the child’s tribe, then other Native American families, unless the tribe has established a different order or a court finds good cause to deviate.7Indian Affairs. ICWA Notice Failure to comply with ICWA can invalidate an adoption after finalization, so any possible Native American heritage needs to be investigated early.
Add Your Child to Health Insurance Right Away
Adoption and placement for adoption are qualifying life events that open a special enrollment period. Employer-sponsored plans under federal law give you 30 days from placement or adoption to add your child. Marketplace (ACA) plans allow 60 days. Miss the window and you wait until the next open enrollment, so contact your insurer or your employer’s HR department as soon as the child is in your home.