Adoption Agency Ratings

Do not use them. I had a nightmare experience with CHSFS. Their St. Paul office, for all its webinars and e-mails, is extremely dithery and disorganized when it comes to the nuts and bolts of paperwork. If you ask for help, they will direct you to a Google search or the agency who did your home study (who will direct you right back to them.)

You get your referral before the medical exam is done. And that medical exam is practically guaranteed to be wrong the medical exam on the Ethiopian end is the only untrustworthy part of that staff.) You don't see a video. You don't get the social report until after the child is legally yours. And once you get there, the process is set up backwards, so that instead of beginning with your visa date, you end with it. (The results being that if you experience any problems, you're faced with the choice of staying in-country for as long as it takes to resolve it or abandoning your child.)

Once I got to Ethiopia, it was a total nightmare. The Ethiopians who manage the program there give excellent care and the nursery/adoption center is clean, safe, and very well-staffed. Their adjunct programs are incomparable. That said, the process was completely traumatic for both me and my son, due mostly to mismanagement statesdie.

The day that I was looking forward to for almost my entire life was completely ruined by their incompetence and the fallout has been traumatic. I now wish that I had never adopted.

We are not strangers to adoption. This was the worst agency ever. I only gave 1 star because I can't give negative stars. The entire year was fraught with complete inefficiency -- you can't understand 90% of what the non-native English speaking employees are telling you. When you ask questions they send you to websites you already checked (commons sense). They don't KNOW anything you can't look up online yourself. The $ was grossly understated. China was a joke. Everyone was in it for a kick-back. We were basically deserted at the airport with no handicap access or working elevators. Guangzhou -- the representative was hardly even there. Again, everything seemed to revolve around kick backs, special accounts (resulting in $ being charged to my account that I was prepared to pay cash for)...routinely told "can't" or "that's how it's done". The travel liason was incredibly RUDE and basically told me I had no choice in the room, etc that I was paying for.
Our special needs child was given to us with a bag full of candy and the clothes on her back. $3000 worth of dental bills because her foster fam. apparently was pocketing the medical/dental $ and no one checked up on that. The medical test that showed her "negative" for TB was a farce. Our pediatrician said she'll always test positive because she was vaccinated for TB. NO medical records, MRIS, nothing were provided for her. NOTHING. This is a special needs child. NO photos of her foster mother or family were allowed. RIDICULOUS.
The whole experience was atrocious. I couldn't wait to get out of China. I couldn't wait to pay the last cent I owed the agency and turn in the last ppv report so we can wash our hands of this agency. Terrible terrible experience.

We had a terrific experience with CHSFS's China Waiting Child program. During the paperwork chase, the staff responded quickly to any questions or concerns we had. We were also pleased with their pre-adoption education and the homestudy social worker we used through CHSFS.

Unlike some agencies who participate in China's Waiting Child program, CHSFS doesn't have dozens of families waiting for a match ahead of you. The woman who does the matching even called the night the "new list" came out initially to tell us we most likely wouldn't be matched so I wouldn't be up all night wondering. Fortunately she called back an hour later with better news! I received a referral within 3 days of my LID. Many people I have been in contact with through CHSFS Waiting Child program also received referrals very quickly.

The in-country guides were amazing! They spent hours trying to sort out a luggage fiasco I had. They were knowledgeable and handled our official meetings well. They were also willing to do as much or as little sight seeing as we wanted. I will be grateful forever to the guide who managed to arrange for us to meet with our daughter's foster mother.

Be aware that CHSFS will give you conservative estimates on timelines. Other agencies may give you best case scenarios for how long each step of the process will take. I much prefer to expect things to take longer and be pleasantly surprised than get my hopes up and be disappointed.

I am extremely pleased with CHSFS and intend to use them on our next China Special Needs adoption.

Adoption is not easy, it can be very challenging and emotional - but our experience was all worth it - and CHSFS helped us achieve it! We have had a good experience using CHSFS for our adoption from Ethiopia and feel that they are respected in Ethiopia and are trustworthy. We just arrived home in Nov. 2010.

There have been a lot of changes in the overall process with Ethiopia lately, but CHSFS always knew the facts and let us know as soon as they were sure about changes. Our specialist kept good track of our papers and let us know when things needed to be updated. When it was time to complete the next step, instructions/forms would be e-mailed to us. We were well informed in our referral, were able to request additional information as needed before accepting, received updates and a social report with more information prior to traveling for court and legally adopting, and were well prepared for our travels.

We are very happy with our experience with CHSFS - the staff in the US as well as the staff in Ethiopia were professional and kind and shared in our excitement!

We had an EXCELLENT experience with CHSFS's Guatemala program. The staff was very responsive, often returning emails within minutes, at the most within a day. We were confident that they were ethical and worked with ethical people in Guatemala. Our adoption went very very smoothly, much better than many folks we have talked to and heard about. We highly recommend CHSFS.

Adopted through CHSFS in 2003 and again in 2008. Both times, we were surprised at how quickly and efficiently we received a referral and how incredibly helpful the staff in Russia is. Our in-Russia experience was light years better than any other family we met in our region because our coordinator was so well-connected. My only complaint would be that sometimes the in-US staff fails to return phone calls and emails in a timely manner. We would definitely use them again, however!

Outstanding, professional and patient (with us). Switched to them after 17 months with another agency that was stuck in re-accreditation. Had referral within 3 weeks and adoption completed in 6 months time! Russian staff was very hard working, supportive and willing to meet our needs and requests They have outstanding pre and post adoption services and a refferal network for services. They just started webcast programs as well. Would use them again in a heartbeat!