How to Adopt a Child From the Philippines: Agencies, Forms, Costs

To adopt a child from the Philippines, a U.S. citizen works with a U.S.-accredited adoption agency authorized by the Philippine National Authority for Child Care (NACC), files Form I-800A with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, completes a home study, submits a dossier to NACC, waits to be matched with a child, files Form I-800 once a match is accepted, travels to the Philippines for a mandatory five-day bonding period and U.S. Embassy processing, and then completes a six-month post-placement monitoring period before the adoption is finalized. The process runs under the Hague Adoption Convention, typically takes three or more years, and generally costs $20,000 to $40,000.

Who Can Adopt

You have to satisfy two independent sets of rules, one from each government. Failing either side ends the application.

U.S. Rules

The petitioner must be a U.S. citizen. If you are unmarried, you must be at least 25. Married couples file jointly, and only one spouse needs to be a U.S. citizen.¹ The child must be under 16 when you file the immigration petition, unless the child is the sibling of another child you have already adopted or are adopting.

Philippine Rules

NACC requires that you be at least 27, at least 16 years older than the child, and no more than 45 years older. Married couples must have been married at least three years and apply jointly. Household income must be at least $40,000 a year, and you cannot have a conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude.²

Single applicants face a narrower path. Since July 2007, NACC has held a moratorium on applications from single individuals unless they are seeking a child with special needs, such as an older child or a sibling group.²

Which Children Are Available

On February 7, 2023, NACC put a moratorium on new applications from parents seeking children aged six and under. Families already pre-approved for a child on the special home finding list, or whose dossiers were complete before the moratorium, are not affected.³ In practical terms, children available today are generally older, may have medical or developmental needs, or are part of sibling groups.

NACC also runs a Special Home Finding program for children who cannot be matched through the standard roster. That group includes children needing surgery, children with disabilities or developmental delays, children six and older, sibling groups, children who have experienced abuse, and children with serious medical conditions. Families open to Special Home Finding placements often complete the process in roughly one to two years rather than three or more.⁴

Choose an Accredited Adoption Agency

Before anything else, pick a U.S.-accredited adoption service provider that NACC has authorized to operate in the Philippines. The Hague Convention requires an accredited agency to handle the case; NACC will not accept a dossier submitted by a family directly.³ The agency prepares or coordinates your home study, acts as the intermediary with NACC, and supervises the post-placement period once the child is home. Agency fees are the single biggest variable in the total cost, so compare carefully.

File Form I-800A and Complete the Home Study

Your first formal filing with the U.S. government is Form I-800A, which asks USCIS to determine that you are suitable and eligible to adopt from a Hague country.⁵ The filing fee is $920.⁶ Each adult member of the household completes a Supplement 1, and both spouses must personally sign the application.⁷

The core of the I-800A package is the home study. An accredited agency, approved individual, or supervised provider evaluates your living space, finances, health, parenting experience, and the background of every adult in the home, and incorporates FBI fingerprint-based background checks and child abuse registry clearances for each adult. If someone other than an accredited agency prepares the study, an accredited agency still has to review and approve it before you submit it.⁸ Home studies commonly run from about $1,000 to more than $5,000.

Once USCIS approves your I-800A, your agency assembles your full dossier — approval notice, home study, financial records, medical evaluations, and supporting documents — and submits it to NACC.

Wait for a Match From NACC

After NACC reviews your dossier and approves you under Philippine law, you go on the Roster of Approved Applicants. NACC then works to identify a child whose needs fit your family’s profile. Standard-program families should plan on three or more years from application to travel. When a potential match is identified, your agency sends you a child referral with the child’s social, medical, and psychological background. You have the right to review it thoroughly, including getting an independent medical opinion, before accepting or declining.

File Form I-800 and Work With the U.S. Embassy

Once you accept a referral, you file Form I-800 with USCIS. This petition asks USCIS to classify the specific child as a Convention adoptee eligible to immigrate. You must have a valid, approved I-800A on file.⁹ With the petition you submit the child’s Article 16 report from NACC, a statement from your agency confirming pre-placement training, an Affidavit of Support, and evidence you have met any pre-adoption requirements in your state of residence.

Sequencing matters. The State Department warns that you must not adopt or take custody of the child until USCIS has approved both the I-800A and I-800, NACC has confirmed the child’s eligibility, and a U.S. consular officer has issued an Article 5/17 letter.³ Adopting out of order can create serious immigration problems.

After USCIS provisionally approves the I-800, the case moves to the U.S. Embassy in Manila. The child gets a medical exam from an Embassy-designated panel physician. The Embassy issues a Hague Adoption Certificate or Hague Custody Certificate, gives final approval of the I-800, and issues the child’s immigrant visa. The visa will be an IH-3 if the adoption is finalized in the Philippines, or an IH-4 if you obtain custody to finalize the adoption in a U.S. court after arrival.¹⁰

Travel and the Five-Day Bonding Period

Before you can leave the Philippines with your child, you must complete a mandatory five-day bonding period in country.³ Build the trip around that requirement plus the Embassy medical exam, visa interview, and document processing. Some families end up staying more than a week depending on Embassy scheduling. Budget round-trip airfare, lodging, meals, and local transportation. Both parents often travel together.

Post-Placement Monitoring and Finalization

Once the child arrives in the United States, a six-month post-placement period begins. Your agency conducts three bi-monthly reviews of the child’s health, adjustment, and relationship with your family, and sends each report to NACC. Those three reports support NACC’s Consent to Adoption, which clears the way for legal finalization.² Each supervision visit typically costs a few hundred dollars.

If your child entered on an IH-4 visa, you must finalize the adoption in a court in your state of residence. Even IH-3 families should check state law, because many states require or recommend re-adoption to give the child full state-law recognition and a U.S. birth-certificate equivalent. After NACC receives the finalized decree, it no longer requires further reports.²

U.S. Citizenship on Arrival

Under federal law, a child born abroad and adopted by a U.S. citizen automatically becomes a U.S. citizen when at least one parent is a U.S. citizen, the child is under 18, and the child is residing in the United States in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent after being lawfully admitted for permanent residence.¹¹ For most Philippine adoptees, citizenship takes effect the moment they enter the country on their immigrant visa.

You can apply to USCIS for a Certificate of Citizenship on Form N-600 as documentation. Some adoptees qualify for a fee exemption.¹² The certificate is not legally required, since your child is already a citizen, but it is the cleanest proof.

What It Costs

Total costs generally fall between $20,000 and $40,000, driven mostly by agency fees and travel. The identifiable fees:

I-800A filing fee: $920 to USCIS.⁶
Home study: roughly $1,000 to $5,000 or more, depending on agency and state.
NACC application fee: $200.¹³
NACC processing fee: $2,000 for a single child or $3,000 for a sibling group, paid when you accept the match.¹³
NACC pre-travel fee: varies with the child’s location in the Philippines and the receiving country’s document requirements.¹³
Adoption agency program fees: commonly $10,000 to $25,000 or more, covering case management, dossier preparation, translation, and post-placement services.
Travel: round-trip airfare to Manila, at least a week of lodging, meals, and in-country transportation.
Post-placement supervision: several hundred dollars per visit, three visits.

Ask any agency you are considering for a detailed fee breakdown in writing before you commit.

Adopting a Relative From the Philippines

The Philippines allows intercountry adoption of a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, such as a niece, nephew, or cousin. The relative route does not shortcut eligibility: you still have to meet every qualification a non-relative adopter would meet, you still need an accredited adoption service provider, and the application still has to route through your country’s Central Authority or authorized foreign adoption agency rather than going directly to NACC.¹⁴ Beyond the standard dossier, you will need birth certificates establishing the family relationship within the fourth degree, a completed Questionnaire for Relative Adoption Applicants, and a family genogram.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions
2
National Authority for Child Care. Frequently Asked Questions on Intercountry Adoption
3
U.S. Department of State. Philippines Intercountry Adoption Information
4
National Authority for Child Care. Special Home Findings
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-800A, Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country
6
eCFR. 8 CFR Part 106 – USCIS Fee Schedule
7
eCFR. 8 CFR 204.310 – Filing Requirements for Form I-800A
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Chapter 4, Home Studies
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-800, Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Bringing Your Internationally Adopted Child to the United States
11
GovInfo. 8 USC 1431 – Children Born Outside the United States
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Certificate of Citizenship for Your Internationally Adopted Child
13
National Authority for Child Care. Fees, Charges, and Assessment
14
National Authority for Child Care. Relative Adoption