How to Legally Adopt a Child From Haiti: Process, Timeline, and Costs

To adopt a child from Haiti, you work through a Hague Adoption Convention process in which both the U.S. and Haitian governments must approve each step. You need to meet both countries’ eligibility rules, hire an accredited adoption service provider, complete a home study, gain USCIS approval to adopt, wait for Haiti’s child welfare authority (IBESR) to propose a match, finalize the adoption in a Haitian court, and obtain a U.S. immigrant visa for your child. The State Department reports that Haiti cases currently average four years and can stretch to seven.¹

Before committing financially, know the current environment. The State Department advises prospective adoptive parents to reconsider intercountry adoptions from Haiti. Widespread violence has forced IBESR and other Haitian offices to close intermittently or run at reduced capacity, and U.S. commercial flights are not operating to Port-au-Prince because of an FAA prohibition. A separate complication took effect January 1, 2026: Presidential Proclamation 10998 paused immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries, but children being adopted by U.S. citizens can qualify for a case-by-case National Interest Exception without filing anything extra beyond the normal adoption paperwork.² Cases are still being processed. Just expect a timeline measured in years.

Who Can Adopt From Haiti

You have to satisfy two sets of eligibility rules at once. Haiti’s tend to be stricter on age and marriage; the U.S. side focuses on citizenship, lawful status, and financial capacity.

Haitian Rules

For a married or cohabiting couple, at least one parent must be 30 or older. A single applicant must be at least 35. No prospective parent may be over 50 when the dossier is submitted to IBESR, unless the child is a relative. Every applicant must be at least 14 years older than the child, or nine years for relative adoptions.²

Married couples must show at least five years of marriage and must be living together. Common-law couples need proof of at least five years of co-residence. Haitian procedures do not allow adoptions by same-sex couples regardless of marital status.²

A few other Haitian rules catch families by surprise. You cannot submit a new application until at least two years after a previous Haitian adoption was finalized. Any biological or adopted child already in the home who is eight or older must state an opinion about the adoption. And Haiti bars anyone convicted of a felony or who has ever had parental rights terminated.²

U.S. Rules

At least one prospective parent must be a U.S. citizen. Under federal regulations, an unmarried citizen must be at least 24 to file Form I-800A (the initial suitability application) and at least 25 to file Form I-800 (the child-specific petition). A married citizen’s spouse must be a U.S. citizen, a non-citizen U.S. national, or a foreign national holding lawful immigration status.³

Haitian law does not set an income threshold, but U.S. immigration law requires you to show you can support the child financially. The standard benchmark is household income at or above 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.⁴

Which Children Are Eligible

A child must be younger than 16 when the intercountry adoption application is submitted to IBESR. No child can be placed for adoption, and no birth-parent consent can be given, until the child is at least three months old. U.S. immigration law allows a narrow exception up to age 18 for the birth sibling of another child being adopted by the same parents.²

IBESR is the sole authority that decides whether a child is eligible for intercountry adoption. Children may be relinquished by birth parents, placed after both birth parents are deceased through a local Family Council, or placed after a court terminates parental rights. A birth parent’s poverty alone is not enough. Siblings must be placed with the same adoptive family unless a competent authority finds that would not be in their best interests.²

Choose an Accredited Adoption Service Provider

Haiti prohibits private and independent adoptions. You cannot arrange an adoption directly with birth parents, a crèche, or an orphanage. Every intercountry adoption must go through an adoption service provider (ASP) accredited by the Center for Excellence in Adoption Services (CEAS) and authorized by the Haitian government.⁵

The State Department maintains a searchable directory of accredited providers at travel.state.gov. If you cannot find an accredited ASP with an active Haiti program, the State Department suggests contacting CEAS directly.⁶ Many agencies have paused or scaled back Haiti programs under current conditions. Confirm any agency you are considering has recently completed cases there before signing a contract.

Complete the Home Study and Background Checks

The home study is the anchor document for the whole process. A licensed home study preparer conducts multiple interviews and home visits, then produces a report on your social history, physical health, psychological fitness, finances, living situation, and parenting philosophy.

The home study must be less than six months old when you submit it to USCIS. If more than six months have passed since the preparer signed it, you will need an update.⁷ Since Haiti cases routinely take years, expect at least one update.

Federal law requires fingerprinting and biometrics for every applicant, their spouse, and every adult in the household. Fingerprint-based background check results are valid for 15 months. The preparer must also check child abuse registries in every state and foreign country where each adult household member has lived since turning 18. If a registry will not release records, the preparer notes that in the home study.⁸

File Form I-800A With USCIS

With the completed home study in hand, you file Form I-800A (Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country) with USCIS. The filing fee is $920.⁹ Approval is a hard prerequisite. No child matching or in-country adoption work in Haiti can begin until USCIS approves your I-800A.¹⁰

An approved I-800A is valid for 15 months. You can request extensions, and the first two carry no filing fee.¹¹ Let it lapse without extending and you start over with a new application and fee. Once approved, your ASP sends the full dossier to IBESR and the process shifts overseas.

The Process in Haiti

Matching and Familiarization

IBESR alone proposes matches between approved families and eligible children. Neither your ASP nor any orphanage can influence the match. Contact between prospective parents and a child’s birth parents, legal custodians, or caretakers is restricted under the Hague Convention until required determinations about suitability, adoptability, and best interests are made.¹²

When IBESR proposes a match, you have up to 15 days to accept or decline. If you accept, you travel to Haiti for a familiarization period of at least 15 days. IBESR then takes four to six months to complete a socialization report assessing how the child responded to you.¹

Form I-800 Provisional Approval

Before a Haitian court can finalize the adoption, you must get provisional approval of Form I-800 (Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative) from USCIS. This confirms the specific child qualifies for U.S. immigration as an adopted child under the Convention.¹³ If this is your first I-800 under the current I-800A approval, there is no filing fee. A $920 fee applies for subsequent petitions involving children who are not birth siblings.⁹

After provisional approval, the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince issues a letter to IBESR (the Article 5/17 letter) confirming U.S. agreement to proceed. IBESR then takes another four to six months to issue an authorization to adopt.¹

Court Finalization and Exit Documents

Legal finalization happens in a Haitian Tribunal of First Instance. Court proceedings through the adoption decree usually take three to four months, followed by a mandatory 30-day appeal period. Legalizing the decree adds another one to three months.¹ The adoption must be fully finalized in Haiti before the child can leave the country.

After the decree, you need two more documents. A Haitian passport for the child, issued by the Ministry of Interior’s Bureau of Immigration, currently takes three to five months. An exit letter from IBESR authorizing the child to leave the country typically takes one to three business days once paperwork is submitted.²

Visa Interview and Travel Home

With the adoption finalized and Haitian exit documents in hand, you complete the U.S. immigration side. Your child needs a medical examination by a physician authorized by the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. You also file Form DS-260 (Immigrant Visa Application) online, which requires the child’s passport information and case number.¹⁴

The final step in Haiti is a visa interview at the U.S. Embassy. Bring the child’s Haitian passport, birth certificate, medical report, adoption decree, and DS-260 confirmation. A consular officer reviews the file for compliance with the Convention and U.S. immigration law. If everything checks out, the officer issues a Hague Adoption Certificate and an immigrant visa, and the child can travel to the United States.

How Long Haiti Adoptions Take

The State Department reports that Haiti adoptions currently average four years and can take as long as seven. The main milestones:¹

Match proposal from IBESR: two to three years after qualifying, with no required timeframe
Match decision: up to 15 days to accept or decline
Familiarization visit: at least 15 days in Haiti
Socialization report: four to six months
IBESR adoption authorization after the Article 5/17 letter: four to six months
Court proceedings plus mandatory 30-day appeal: three to four months
Decree legalization: one to three months
Haitian passport: three to five months
IBESR exit letter: one to three business days

The match wait alone accounts for roughly half the total. Delays at any stage ripple forward, and the current instability in Haiti means every estimate is a floor, not a ceiling.

What It Costs

Government filing fees are the predictable part of the budget: $920 for the I-800A, and no fee for the first I-800 filed under that approval.⁹ Home study fees from licensed agencies typically run between roughly $900 and $4,900 depending on where you live and the complexity of your case. Beyond that, you will pay agency program fees, document translation and authentication costs, Haitian legal fees, and travel expenses for at least two trips to Haiti. Total costs generally fall between $25,000 and $40,000, though the exact figure depends heavily on which agency you choose and how many trips are required. Travel costs are especially unpredictable right now given the suspension of commercial flights.

The federal adoption tax credit can offset a significant portion of these expenses. Eligibility and credit amounts are adjusted annually, so check current IRS guidance for the tax year in which you file.

After Your Child Arrives

U.S. Citizenship

An adopted child automatically becomes a U.S. citizen when three conditions are met: 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 lawful admission for permanent residence.¹⁵ For most Haiti cases, where the adoption is fully finalized abroad, citizenship attaches the moment the child enters the United States on the immigrant visa, and USCIS mails a Certificate of Citizenship to the family.¹⁶

If the adoption was not fully finalized abroad, you may need to re-adopt or obtain recognition of the foreign adoption in a U.S. state court, and then file Form N-600 (Application for Certificate of Citizenship) with USCIS.¹⁷

Post-Adoption Reports to Haiti

Haiti requires ongoing post-adoption reports on the child’s adjustment and well-being. Expect five reports during the first 24 months after the child arrives in the United States, typically at one, six, twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four months, followed by annual reports until the child turns 18. Your adoption agency coordinates the reports, which are prepared by a licensed social worker and sent to IBESR with photographs. Failing to submit them can jeopardize the agency’s ability to operate in Haiti and affect other families still waiting.

1
U.S. Department of State. Haiti – Current Processing Timeframes for Hague Adoptions
2
U.S. Department of State. Intercountry Adoption – Haiti
3
eCFR. 8 CFR 204.307 – Who May File a Form I-800A or Form I-800
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-864P, HHS Poverty Guidelines for Affidavit of Support
5
U.S. Embassy in Haiti. Adoption
6
U.S. Department of State. Adoption Service Provider Search
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Suitability and Home Study Information
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Background Checks – Security and Child Abuse Registry
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Fee Schedule
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-800A, Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Extension and Validity Periods
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Guidance for Haiti Convention Cases – Prior Contact
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-800
14
U.S. Department of State. Filing the Form DS-260
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1431 – Children Born Outside the United States
16
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Automatic Acquisition of Citizenship after Birth
17
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship