Archives for August 2020

Is It Harder to Adopt Via a Surrogate During the Pandemic?

How Has the Pandemic Affected Surrogacy Arrangements?

Each year, about 750 children are born through surrogacy. The surrogate process can be a great way to expand a family, but things may be trickier during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has affected several different parts of the surrogate and adoption process.

Starting the Process May Be Slower

If you have not already started the New Jersey surrogate adoption process, you should expect it to take a little longer than usual. The New Jersey Gestational Carrier Agreement Law requires that the surrogate must go through medical and psychological examinations before agreeing to carry a pregnancy. During the pandemic, many elective medical procedures have become unavailable. Doctors may be busy handling emergencies, or they could be spacing out patient appointments to reduce in-office crowding. This means that your desired surrogate will have to schedule her examination appointments months in advance. It is important to be patient and start the process as soon as possible.

Handling the Legal Complexities of Surrogacy May Take Longer

In New Jersey, surrogacy is divided into two categories: gestational surrogacy and traditional surrogacy. In gestational surrogacy, an embryo is implanted into a surrogate carrier who is not the biological mother of the child. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate carrier is artificially inseminated with the father’s sperm, so she is the biological mother. New Jersey only allows pre-birth agreements in cases of gestational surrogacy. For traditional surrogacy, the surrogate has no duty to surrender the child. Instead, the intended parents must go through typical adoption following the birth of the child.

In both of these cases, parents usually need to go to court. For New Jersey surrogate adoptions, you have to file a petition for adoption, go to preliminary hearings, and then potentially return for a final hearing. With the huge case backlog due to the pandemic, this means that parents going through traditional surrogacy may have to wait months to resolve the situation. For gestational surrogacy, the couple just needs to get a pre-birth order establishing parentage. This helpful document identifies the intended parents as the parent both before and after birth. You typically obtain this order in court, but it is possible to waive court appearances. With most New Jersey family courts so busy, they are encouraging families to seek waivers whenever possible. Typically, your New Jersey adoption lawyer can just file a bit of paperwork, so the COVID delay will be very brief.

You Might Not Be Present at the Birth

Often, surrogacy adoption agreements include discussions of what everyone expects to happen right after the birth. Prospective parents may be looking forward to cutting the cord, skin-to-skin time with the newborn, and other family bonding moments. However, this is not always possible with surrogacy during COVID. Depending on the hospital you go to, only the pregnant woman may be present in the delivery room, and newborns may be isolated for their own safety.

As your New Jersey adoption lawyer will explain, the health of the surrogate and the child is always a priority. If doctors deem it medically necessary for the carrier and child to be isolated for a certain amount of time, you need to respect this decision. Regardless of what your initial agreement was, it may be quite a few weeks before you can bring your baby home. This is understandably frustrating, but it is inevitable in some surrogacy cases. During this difficult time, try to focus on the positives. Despite the disruptions from the pandemic, it’s still possible to finalize your adoption and welcome your new family member eventually.

COVID-19 might be slowing down adoptions, but there is still hope for your family. Have more questions about how the pandemic will affect your adoption via surrogacy plans? The office of Cofsky & Zeidman is here to help New Jersey residents. We have offices in Haddonfield and Woodbury. As experienced New Jersey adoption lawyers, we can guide you through all the complexities of adopting during a pandemic. Our team is happy to provide remote consultations, so go ahead and call us now at 856-429-5005.

How to Prepare for Your Adoption During COVID-19

Getting Ready for a Domestic Adoption During the COVID Crisis

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a record number of families beginning the adoption process. More people are taking the time to think about what they want for the future and are taking steps towards achieving their adoption goals. However, COVID-19 has changed quite a few things about the domestic adoption process, so it is important to be fully prepared.

Decide Between Private and Foster Care Adoptions

If you are just getting started on the adoption journey, your first step needs to be talking with a New Jersey adoption attorney and examining your options for domestic adoption in New Jersey. You can adopt through the foster system. You can also go with a private adoption where an agency guides you through the process. Before making your choice, call several organizations to see how they are handling adoptions during COVID-19. Some agencies may be easier to work with right now since the government is overloaded.

Get Ready for Your Adoption Assessment and Home Study

In most regions, home studies have become a video call with your social worker. Preparing for an adoption home study often involves cleaning the home, creating a bedroom for the new child, and gathering all relevant documents. For COVID adoption studies, you need to make sure you have a scanner so that you can send important documents. Invest in a quality video camera so that you can show your home clearly. If you are using your child’s future bedroom as a home office, go ahead and clear it before the call so that there will not be concerns about the home’s suitability.

Have Childcare Plans Ready After COVID-19

Most adoption agencies want to confirm that you are prepared to handle a child both during and after the COVID-19 crisis. The biggest way this can affect adoption approval is with child care. Agencies may be wary of parents who just assume that they can continue to work remotely indefinitely. You need to make sure you have a way of giving a child appropriate care even if you have to go back to working on-site.

Address Changes to Your Employment Status

If you are currently unemployed because of COVID-19, it might be tempting to just ignore it and hope that the situation resolves itself. However, most organizations require prospective parents to alert them to any major changes in the parents’ situation. If you have a change in employment or living situation after you are approved for adoption, you need to be up front with the agency.

Make Sure You Have a Way of Travelling to Meet Your Child

If your prospective child is far away from your hometown, you need to think about how COVID-19 will affect travel plans. It is no longer as simple as just flying to pick them up. Instead, with adoption during COVID, you may need to prepare for long drives and find hotels that are still open. Some prospective parents have turned to RVs as a solution. This can help reduce coronavirus exposure because it limits the need for stopping at hotels and restaurants.

File Your Court Petition As Soon As Possible

In any type of domestic adoption, you have to file an official complaint for adoption with the court after about six months. Figuring out the timing for this during the pandemic can be tricky, so you may want to consult with a New Jersey adoption attorney. Right now, there is a big backlog of cases in family courts. Therefore, you should file as soon as you can so that you have less of a wait ahead of you.

With just a little extra planning and preparation, it is still possible to adopt even during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have any questions, Cofsky & Zeidman is here to help. Our Haddonfield team is working from home and setting up remote consultations, so it is easy to get the assistance you need. To get more information, call 856-429-5005 or fill out our online contact form.

Is It More Difficult to Adopt Internationally During the Pandemic?

Pandemic Increases Anxiety for Families Adopting Internationally

Over 4,000 children come to America each year for international adoption. These are children brought over from a wide variety of countries and for many different reasons. For those families who have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of their new child, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought new anxiety to the process.

Closed Borders and Travel Restrictions

One of the most frustrating aspects of the pandemic for adopting parents has been the various travel restrictions. Not being able to see their child has been heartbreaking, especially if they were at the end of the adoption process. While virtual visits can be an option for some families, there are parts of the world where even those are not possible.

Quarantines

If the parents have been allowed to travel, there have often been quarantining procedures they must follow. Depending on where they live and where they are traveling, they may have been required to quarantine both before and after their travels. This creates an extra level of stress and could prevent one of the parents from being able to travel because they need to work. Social workers have also not been able to perform home visits, further delaying the adoption process.

Closed Courtrooms

Even if traveling has been allowed and necessary paperwork has been filled out, there has been another major glitch in the process. Most courtrooms around the country were shut down for any type of filings that were not essential. Unfortunately, the courts often do not consider adoption proceedings essential. As many adoptive parents will attest, finalizing the adoption brings a great sense of relief to their family. There is always a fear that there will be an unforeseen glitch and the adoption will not go through.

There are different types of international adoptions. A child can be born and adopted in their home country, or they can be adopted in a different country. Sometimes, if an adoption has been completed in their home country, they must be readopted into the United States. There is a lot of paperwork required no matter the type of adoption proceeding. For instance, if you have adopted a child in another country, they may need to be readopted into the United States. In this case, you must mail the following forms to the New Jersey Office of Vital Statistics and Registry:

 

• Report of Adoption form (REG-44)
• Certified copy of the final judgment of adoption from a New Jersey court
• Certified copy of the original birth certificate, as well as a certified English translation
• $2 in the form of a check or money order made out to the Treasurer of the State of New Jersey
• Proof of residency in New Jersey
• A Certificate of Citizenship from the United States Immigration and Naturalization Services

 

An experienced New Jersey adoption lawyer can help you obtain any of these documents that you may not have. In addition, they can answer any questions you have about which documents to provide. If the child’s adoption was completed in another country, there is a different set of forms required.

An Uncertain Future

As our country and the world move through this pandemic, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. For parents adopting internationally, they have a host of questions and worries about how this will affect the future. Parents who are considering international adoption may turn to domestic adoptions because of all of these obstacles. International adoption rates have been decreasing anyway, so these problems may cause even fewer of those children to be brought into loving homes.

Choose an Experienced Adoption Lawyer

With all of the uncertainty regarding international adoptions, you need an experienced New Jersey adoption lawyer on your side. Donald C. Cofsky has helped over 1,500 families achieve their dreams of adoption. Whether you are working with an agency or not, our firm can guide you through the process. Cofsky & Zeidman has offices in Haddonfield, Woodbury, and Philadelphia. Give our firm a call today, toll-free, at (856) 429-5005 to set up an appointment.