We came to this agency b/c of their great reputation for Guatemala and Vietnam. But you know what happened with those programs. They advised us to enter their Kazakhstan program even though no one currently working at the agency has Kaz experience. They assured us they still had their in-country contact. Although their online education was excellent, and home study went fairly smoothly, help with dossier prep was non-existent. Forms were outdated and incorrect. No electronic forms provided. They really didn't know what they were doing.
Sadly, we spent 5 months and nearly $15k with this agency attempting to adopt from Kaz. Turned out they didn't know how to get our dossier translated or submitted, so it sat on their desks until they returned it to us. Also they signed us into their Kaz program at the same time Kaz announced impending reduction of their maximum age for parents--only LNI didn't tell us. We only found out from message boards--after it was too late.
Now they are balking on refund. VERY disappointed.
We have switched agencies and countries, and are now zooming along--the difference is amazing.
We hired Los Ninos based on a friends recommendation that had used them several years ago. We communicated with them several times prior to signing a contract and were reassured that everything was fine and would go smoothly. We decided to apply for the Vietnam program after speaking with the program director and were told that this program was moving very quickly and smoothly. Well, once we paid them money and signed the contract it quickly became a nightmare to work with them. They would not answer emails or return phone calls and it eventually became so bad, that we contacted the BBB in Texas as well as writing a letter to the owner of the agency to ask for assistance. After one year of being misled and wasting precious time and thousands of dollars, we made the painful decision to cut our losses and stop our contract. Vietnam had been closed for adoptions by this point and Los Ninos offered no other country or options. It was absolutely heartbreaking for us.
Now for the happy news......after we took a few months to heal and think about our situation, we decided to try once more and hired a new agency in another state. What a blessing! We applied for the Taiwan program and after waiting only 8 weeks, we received a referral for a beautiful happy and healthy baby girl!! She's now been home with us for 14 months, and our family is now complete!
Beware of this agency. We signed with them in 2008 after speaking with them over the telephone and also speaking with a family that had used them many years prior. Well needless to say, everything had changed since that other family had worked with them. We signed with the Vietnam program after the Program Director advised us that it was the fastest moving program and things would go quickly. They strung us along for a year and we paid them $9,000. Well, once we began to ask questions, they quickly stopped answering our emails, didn't return our phone calls and became very defensive. We quickly figured out they were not being honest with us and began to ask for a refund of certain monies. They wouldn't return any calls or answer emails, so we sent a Registered letter to the Director of the agency. After communicating via email, we did eventually receive a refund of $1,800 after we informed her that we would be speaking with an attorney, but we felt that was a drop in the bucket of what we were owed. We had lost a year of time, $9000 and trust in the adoption process. It was a horrible experience and very upsetting!
We were fortunate enough to find a wonderful new agency the following year and are happy to say we are now the very proud parents of a beautiful 2 year old little girl!
DON'T waste your time or effort or money with Los Ninos. They were super nice and supportive until we gave them money, and then they dropped off the face of the earth and were misleading and extremely unprofessional.
Terrible, terrible experience. Originally directed to the El Salvador program, which never seemed to really exist. Failed to inform us about the potential consequences of the imminent Hague accreditation, which caused us months of heartbreak. Endless delays in our case without any explanation. No one in their office seemed to know anything about what was happening with our case. Never could decide if they have extremely poor or no meaningful contact with local facilitators, were intentionally deceptive, or simply didn't care. Paperwork lost repeatedly. Poor follow-up post-adoption. Run to another agency.
We started an adoption with this agency because we wanted to adopt from Latin American and they had several programs at the time. They providing glowing information about their (now-defunct) Panama and El Salvador programs, so we signed on with them. As we went through our home study, we started asking more specific, informed questions about where the babies came from, what they knew about the lawyers they were dealing with, etc and they had few answers. It turned out that no one from their agency had ever even been to those countries or had actually met the people they were dealing with. They had little information about the backgrounds of the lawyers or how children came into care. The more we talked to them, the more we realized that the information on their information sheets was a guess, at best, and downright deceptive at worst. We asked for our money back and, of course, didn't get it. Even after those two programs started crumbling (although they had never really gotten off the ground to start with), they kept advertising them in the same glowing manner until we wrote a letter and complained.
This agency did not do due diligence to ensure an ethical process. They advertised many things about their programs that didn't end up being true. It may not have been done to purposely mislead, but it was certainly negligent. These are kids' lives! At the very least they should meet the lawyers they work with and see the orphanages BEFORE opening a program. They should have full information before they start advertising.
We are with a different agency now and I can't believe the difference. They have strong ties with the countries they work with and so much information about what goes on on the ground. I am so grateful we left Los Ninos.
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Reviews
Los Ninos International - Beware of Kaz program
We came to this agency b/c of their great reputation for Guatemala and Vietnam. But you know what happened with those programs. They advised us to enter their Kazakhstan program even though no one currently working at the agency has Kaz experience. They assured us they still had their in-country contact. Although their online education was excellent, and home study went fairly smoothly, help with dossier prep was non-existent. Forms were outdated and incorrect. No electronic forms provided. They really didn't know what they were doing.
Sadly, we spent 5 months and nearly $15k with this agency attempting to adopt from Kaz. Turned out they didn't know how to get our dossier translated or submitted, so it sat on their desks until they returned it to us. Also they signed us into their Kaz program at the same time Kaz announced impending reduction of their maximum age for parents--only LNI didn't tell us. We only found out from message boards--after it was too late.
Now they are balking on refund. VERY disappointed.
We have switched agencies and countries, and are now zooming along--the difference is amazing.
Los Ninos adoption agency in Texas
We hired Los Ninos based on a friends recommendation that had used them several years ago. We communicated with them several times prior to signing a contract and were reassured that everything was fine and would go smoothly. We decided to apply for the Vietnam program after speaking with the program director and were told that this program was moving very quickly and smoothly. Well, once we paid them money and signed the contract it quickly became a nightmare to work with them. They would not answer emails or return phone calls and it eventually became so bad, that we contacted the BBB in Texas as well as writing a letter to the owner of the agency to ask for assistance. After one year of being misled and wasting precious time and thousands of dollars, we made the painful decision to cut our losses and stop our contract. Vietnam had been closed for adoptions by this point and Los Ninos offered no other country or options. It was absolutely heartbreaking for us.
Now for the happy news......after we took a few months to heal and think about our situation, we decided to try once more and hired a new agency in another state. What a blessing! We applied for the Taiwan program and after waiting only 8 weeks, we received a referral for a beautiful happy and healthy baby girl!! She's now been home with us for 14 months, and our family is now complete!
Los Ninos programs
Beware of this agency. We signed with them in 2008 after speaking with them over the telephone and also speaking with a family that had used them many years prior. Well needless to say, everything had changed since that other family had worked with them. We signed with the Vietnam program after the Program Director advised us that it was the fastest moving program and things would go quickly. They strung us along for a year and we paid them $9,000. Well, once we began to ask questions, they quickly stopped answering our emails, didn't return our phone calls and became very defensive. We quickly figured out they were not being honest with us and began to ask for a refund of certain monies. They wouldn't return any calls or answer emails, so we sent a Registered letter to the Director of the agency. After communicating via email, we did eventually receive a refund of $1,800 after we informed her that we would be speaking with an attorney, but we felt that was a drop in the bucket of what we were owed. We had lost a year of time, $9000 and trust in the adoption process. It was a horrible experience and very upsetting!
We were fortunate enough to find a wonderful new agency the following year and are happy to say we are now the very proud parents of a beautiful 2 year old little girl!
DON'T waste your time or effort or money with Los Ninos. They were super nice and supportive until we gave them money, and then they dropped off the face of the earth and were misleading and extremely unprofessional.
Catherine
Los Ninos International
Terrible, terrible experience. Originally directed to the El Salvador program, which never seemed to really exist. Failed to inform us about the potential consequences of the imminent Hague accreditation, which caused us months of heartbreak. Endless delays in our case without any explanation. No one in their office seemed to know anything about what was happening with our case. Never could decide if they have extremely poor or no meaningful contact with local facilitators, were intentionally deceptive, or simply didn't care. Paperwork lost repeatedly. Poor follow-up post-adoption. Run to another agency.
Los Ninos - Unethical
We started an adoption with this agency because we wanted to adopt from Latin American and they had several programs at the time. They providing glowing information about their (now-defunct) Panama and El Salvador programs, so we signed on with them. As we went through our home study, we started asking more specific, informed questions about where the babies came from, what they knew about the lawyers they were dealing with, etc and they had few answers. It turned out that no one from their agency had ever even been to those countries or had actually met the people they were dealing with. They had little information about the backgrounds of the lawyers or how children came into care. The more we talked to them, the more we realized that the information on their information sheets was a guess, at best, and downright deceptive at worst. We asked for our money back and, of course, didn't get it. Even after those two programs started crumbling (although they had never really gotten off the ground to start with), they kept advertising them in the same glowing manner until we wrote a letter and complained.
This agency did not do due diligence to ensure an ethical process. They advertised many things about their programs that didn't end up being true. It may not have been done to purposely mislead, but it was certainly negligent. These are kids' lives! At the very least they should meet the lawyers they work with and see the orphanages BEFORE opening a program. They should have full information before they start advertising.
We are with a different agency now and I can't believe the difference. They have strong ties with the countries they work with and so much information about what goes on on the ground. I am so grateful we left Los Ninos.