How to Adopt From India to the USA: Steps, Costs, and Timeline

To adopt from India to the USA, a US citizen works through both governments at once: a Hague-accredited US adoption agency prepares you and files with USCIS, while India’s Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) reviews your eligibility, matches you with a child, and clears the case for an Indian court. The adoption is finalized in India, and the child comes home on an immigrant visa. Plan on three to five years and roughly $35,000 to $50,000.

India is a party to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, so every case runs on the Convention’s track. Both countries have to approve independently before a child can leave.

Choose a Hague-Accredited Adoption Service Provider

Your first move is picking a US Adoption Service Provider (ASP) that holds Hague accreditation and actively runs an India program. The State Department maintains a searchable directory of accredited providers at travel.state.gov, filterable by country and state.¹

Accreditation alone isn’t enough. Some accredited agencies have no working relationship with an Indian authorized agency, which means they can’t actually place a child from India. Ask how many India placements the agency has completed in the past two years, and whether they have staff or partners on the ground in India for court appearances and travel logistics. The ASP will build your dossier, file with CARA, and shepherd the court work, so the wrong pick will slow everything that follows.

Prove You’re Eligible to USCIS: Form I-800A and the Home Study

With an ASP chosen, you file Form I-800A, Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country. This is USCIS deciding whether you’re eligible to adopt from a Hague country before any specific child is on the table. The filing fee is $920, and every adult in the household submits fingerprints for an FBI background check.²

The I-800A requires a home study by an authorized preparer. It has to meet the federal standards in 8 CFR 204.311 and the domestic adoption rules of your state.³ Expect several in-home visits, interviews with everyone in the household, financial disclosures, medical exams, and criminal checks on every adult in the home. Home studies typically cost $900 to $4,000.

Once USCIS approves the I-800A, the approval is valid for 15 months from the date the FBI returned your biometrics.⁴ That window matters. Because the India wait is long, many families have to file for an extension and refresh the home study before a referral arrives.

Meet India’s Eligibility Rules

India applies its own criteria on top of whatever USCIS approves, and a few of them surprise people. Under the Adoption Regulations, 2022, CARA uses a composite age system for couples: both spouses’ ages are added and tested against a cap that depends on the child’s age.⁵

Child up to 2 years: combined parental age cannot exceed 85.
Child above 2, up to 4 years: combined age up to 90.
Child above 4, up to 8 years: combined age up to 100.
Child above 8, up to 18 years: combined age up to 110.

Single applicants face maximum individual ages of 40, 45, 50, and 55 for those same child age groups.⁵ Whichever bracket you fall into, the age gap between the child and either parent must be at least 25 years. Married couples need at least two years of stable marital relationship. A single woman may adopt a child of any gender; a single man cannot adopt a girl.⁶

Couples who already have two or more children are generally only eligible to adopt children classified as having special needs or as hard to place.⁶ Every child cleared for intercountry adoption has been signed off by India’s District Child Welfare Committee, which confirms that biological parents relinquished rights, are deceased, or have been declared unfit.

Wait for a CARA Referral

After your dossier clears CARA’s eligibility review, your ASP registers it in CARINGS, India’s centralized online adoption platform.⁷ Then you wait. CARA runs a referral queue and matches registered families with available children based on the approved profile, including age range and any openness to special needs.

This is by far the longest step. Families seeking infants or children under two are looking at roughly three to four years from CARA registration to referral, based on recent data. Families open to older children or children with medical or developmental needs often get matched much faster because those queues are shorter.

When CARA identifies a possible match, you receive a referral package with the child’s medical records, social background, developmental information, and photographs. You can decline a referral, for example if the medical file raises serious concerns, and stay in the queue. Accepting is the point at which the case becomes about this specific child, and the US immigration steps for that child begin.

Finish the Immigration Steps and the Indian Court Case

Once you accept a referral, you file Form I-800, Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative. Where the I-800A cleared you generally, the I-800 is USCIS’s decision on this child. Your first I-800 filed during an active I-800A approval has no fee.²

After USCIS provisionally approves the I-800, the State Department issues an Article 5/17 Letter to CARA, confirming that the child appears eligible to enter and live permanently in the United States.⁸ CARA will not issue its No Objection Certificate (NOC) without that letter, and no NOC means no Indian court finalization.⁶

With the NOC in hand, the case moves to an Indian court for the adoption decree. Most families make one trip of about two weeks, traveling first to the child’s region to take physical custody and then to New Delhi for the closing legal and consular appointments. Some courts require your presence at hearings, which can lengthen the stay or force a second trip. Your ASP or its Indian partner handles scheduling and documents.

Before the visa interview, the child undergoes a medical exam by a State Department–approved panel physician. This is immigration screening, focused on serious infectious diseases and, for children age two and older, tuberculosis. It is not a general pediatric evaluation.⁹ If you want a fuller health picture, arrange a separate private evaluation.

You then file Form DS-260, Application for Immigrant Visa, online and attend the interview at the US Embassy in New Delhi.¹⁰ The child is issued one of two visa types:

An IH-3 is issued when the adoption was fully finalized in India. A child under 18 who enters on an IH-3 and lives in the legal and physical custody of the US citizen parent automatically acquires US citizenship on admission, and USCIS mails a Certificate of Citizenship with no additional form or fee.¹¹
An IH-4 is issued when the parents have legal custody but will complete the adoption in the United States. The child enters as a lawful permanent resident with a green card and does not become a citizen until the adoption is finalized in your state and the Child Citizenship Act conditions are met.¹²

Most India cases result in IH-3 visas because the Indian court finalizes the adoption before you leave. If you come home with an IH-4, don’t let the state-side adoption drift; your child’s citizenship depends on completing it.

Post-Adoption Reporting India Requires

India requires six post-placement follow-up reports over the two years after your child arrives.¹³ They document the child’s adjustment, health, schooling, and emotional well-being, and are usually prepared by your ASP or a licensed social worker near you. Skipping them can hurt future adoptions from India and reflects badly on your ASP. Treat the schedule as mandatory.

What It Costs

Most families spend $35,000 to $50,000, spread across several payees at different stages:

USCIS filing: $920 for the I-800A. Your first I-800 during an active approval period has no fee; later I-800 petitions for non-siblings cost $920 each.²
Home study: $900 to $4,000.
CARA adoption fee: INR 50,000 (roughly $550) for a child with normal health, or $5,000 for a child with special needs.¹⁴
ASP program and placement fees: typically $5,000 to $15,000.
Document translation, notarization, and apostille: $2,000 to $4,000.
Travel and lodging in India: budget $1,000 to $3,000 per person for a one to two week trip.
Post-adoption reports: $300 to $600 each, six required.

The range moves with your agency’s fee structure, whether you’re adopting a child with special needs (a higher CARA fee but sometimes lower agency fees), and how much you spend on travel.

The Federal Adoption Tax Credit

The federal adoption tax credit takes a real bite out of these costs. For tax year 2025, the maximum credit is $17,280 per eligible child.¹⁵ Qualified expenses include adoption fees, attorney and court costs, travel (including meals and lodging), and re-adoption costs for a foreign-born child.¹⁶

The credit phases out between $259,190 and $299,190 of modified adjusted gross income.¹⁵ Claim it on Form 8839. Unused credit can be carried forward up to five years. For an intercountry adoption, the credit becomes available in the tax year the adoption is finalized, so keep receipts for every qualifying expense from the moment you start.

How Long It Takes

A realistic timeline for a young child:

Home study and I-800A approval: 3 to 6 months. USCIS has recently processed I-800A applications in about 2 to 3 months, but the home study runs before that.¹⁷
CARA registration and wait for referral: 1 to 4+ years, with the longest waits for infants and children under two.
I-800 approval and Article 5/17 Letter: 2 to 4 months after you accept a referral.
Court proceedings and travel: 2 to 4 months from NOC to travel, plus roughly two weeks in India.

End to end, plan for three to five years. The referral wait dwarfs everything else. If your I-800A expires while you’re in the queue, and that happens often, you’ll need to extend and update the home study. Keep your paperwork current so a referral doesn’t catch you scrambling.

1
Department of State. Adoption Service Provider Search
2
USCIS. G-1055 Fee Schedule
3
eCFR. 8 CFR 204.311 Convention Adoption Home Study Requirements
4
GovInfo. 8 CFR 204.312 – Duration or Revocation of Approval
5
Central Adoption Resource Authority. Eligibility Criteria for Prospective Adoptive Parents
6
Central Adoption Resource Authority. Adoption Regulations 2022
7
Central Adoption Resource Authority. About CARA
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 7 – Required Order of Immigration and Adoption Steps
9
Travel.State.Gov. Medical Examination
10
Department of State. Filing the Form DS-260
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 4 – Automatic Acquisition of Citizenship After Birth (INA 320)
12
U.S. Department of State. Convention Visa Process
13
Press Information Bureau. Adoption in India – Legal Framework, Procedures and Child Protection Mechanisms
14
Central Adoption Resource Authority. Clarification on Adoption Fees as per the Adoption Regulations, 2022
15
Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit
16
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8839 (2025)
17
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Historic Processing Times