One aspect of international adoption that has not been discussed openly is the issue of the United States as the "sending" country. In fact, there were only two articles found about this subject, in preparation for this presentation. Though little is revealed about this practice, there are an estimated 100-500 children a year adopted out of this country to Australia, Western Europe and Canada. There is no accurate number of children adopted from America, as the US requires no exit visas and the Federal Government does not regulate foreign adoption or follow up on their progress. It has even been reported in Time that the US is one of the most accessible places to adopt children. From the perspective of the adopting parents, adopting a child from the United States is easier than in their own country, and there is a larger pool of available children. Many of these families are biracial, or of mixed-races, where the child is either African-American or biracial and the parents are Caucasian. The interesting fact is that many agencies in the US are unaware that such adoptions actually exist. This being that the adoptions are being completed by law firms instead of agencies. In fact, one organization, International Social Service/American Branch, conducts such adoptions through a law firm in the mid-West. These adoptions are the primary focus of that firm. They adopt many of their children to the Netherlands, and most of the children are African-American or biracial. As a nation that adopts internationally an estimated 16,000 children a year, there remain many more in this country that are in need of families.

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