The Assistant Stork

Twelve years ago, folks on the APC(Adoptive Parents of China) list asked me to become their personal courier. They helped me set my prices, and even came up with my name! I agreed to start this courier business to be able to quit my job as a secretary and be home more for my "homemade" daughter and the new baby. A few years later, my husband Steve joined me as "The Assistant to The Assistant Stork" and we have served the adoption community ever since. As adoptive parents, we know how important it is to get your dossiers authenticated quickly and correctly. We will make sure all of your documents going through the authentication process at the State Department and/or the Embassy get exactly that kind of service.

Here's all my info for processing dossiers through any DC Embassy:

For your fee, as soon as we receive your documents, we will go through everything and scrutinize your documents thoroughly, making sure each document has been authenticated correctly. Next, we will take your documents to the State Department as soon as possible. (The State Department is only open 7:30AM-11:00AM and the mail usually comes in too late for us to take them over the same day we receive them.) At the State Department we will wait while they Authenticate your documents. We will check to be sure that they authenticate every single document correctly (after all, they're human beings, they make mistakes too.)

As soon as that's finished, we will take your documents down to the Embassy for Authentication. We will leave your documents with the Embassy and pick them back up on the date they are ready,

The State Department will only let a person take through 15 documents per day. If you have more than 15 documents, we have to make two trips. So that'll take an extra day. Please divide your documents. We'll need one check for the first 15 documents and another check for however many you have over fifteen. (i.e., if you had 18 documents, that would be one check to the DoS for $120 for the first fifteen and a second check made for $24 for the other three.) You only need two checks for the US Dept of State. You do NOT need two checks for the Embassy.

We also process Visas for all Embassies.

Please include the following for authentication of DOCUMENTS:

1. A check made out to The Assistant Stork for:

Our fee for DOCUMENTS:

• $60 flat fee for 4 documents or fewer -OR-
• $15 per document for 5 or more documents

For XEROXES:

• $1.00 per page if I absolutely have to - I do not have time to make copies as a general rule, but I will if it is an emergency

2. A check made out to U.S. Department of State for $8/document. (Two separate checks if more than 15 documents.)

3. A prepaid, self addressed DHL/FedEx/UPS/ExpressMail (whichever you prefer) envelope to send you back your documents. Do NOT put the "Assistant Stork" or an Embassy in the sender area of the waybill. DHL, FedEx and UPS charge the sender whenever there is a problem with the account and we've been hit with charges of over $4,000 in the past years from folks who wrote down their credit card number wrong.

*WARNING* United States Post Office Priority Mail has lost many dossiers and passports. The United States ExpressMail has lost packages also, but not as many. We do not recommend them.

4. A self addressed, stamped envelope for us to send you back your receipts if your documents are being forwarded to someone other than you (i.e. your agency, another couple traveling to your child's country, etc.)

5. A money order or cashier's check (they won't accept personal checks) made out to your Embassy. (click on "Embassy" to find your country's information)

6. A note containing phone numbers where you can be reached if there is a problem, plus the name and phone number of your Adoption Agency.

NOTICE: It has come to my attention that some of you would prefer to pay by credit card. Some of you are overseas and cannot get Money Orders. Due to this, I am now willing to accept Pay Pal payments, but they charge me 4% of the total for the privilege. Let me know if you wish to pay via PayPal and I will email you an invoice.