You must be accredited, approved or supervised by an accredited or approved adoption service provider (ASP) if you are providing any of the adoption services defined under 22 CFR 96.2.
Entities/individuals that do not require accreditation, approval, or supervision to provide adoption services:
The six adoption services are:
Under the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 (IAA), providing an adoption service is defined as including facilitating the provision of the service. Therefore, anyone facilitating the provision of an adoption service is considered to be providing that adoption service.
In general, you will be considered to be providing an adoption service any time that you take an action or otherwise have a role, direct or indirect, in the performance of the adoption service. That role may be limited to preparing a document, advancing the interests of one of the individuals involved in the adoption with a competent authority, or making a payment, if the action contributes to the completion of one of the adoption services.
Note: The determination of the role will turn on the action of the individual or body, not his/her title.
Accreditation and approval require that in each intercountry adoption case an accredited agency or an approved person will be identified and act as the primary provider. If just one accredited agency or approved person is involved in providing adoption services, the sole accredited agency or approved person must act as the primary provider. As a reminder, facilitation of an adoption service, even when the prospective adoptive parents perform that service, is provision of the service.
If more than one accredited agency or approved person is providing the adoption services, the agency or person that has child placement responsibility, as determined by the evidence identified in 22 CFR 96.14, must act as the primary provider throughout the case:
Prospective adoptive parents sometimes engage a primary provider late in the intercountry adoption process when some or all of the required adoption services in a case have already been completed. When this occurs, the primary provider is responsible for ensuring that all adoption services were provided in the case, and for verifying, through review of the relevant documentation and other appropriate steps, that any services provided were done so consistent with applicable laws and regulations, and consistent with the best interests of the child.
In addition, the primary provider is responsible for ensuring, through review of available documentation and through direct enquiry with the providers, when possible, that all adoption services take place in the best interests of the child; and the primary provider is responsible for preventing the abduction, exploitation, sale, or trafficking of children in accordance with 22 CFR 96.35(a)