After you have finished your application, home study and compiled your dossier and it has all been accepted, you will start to receive referral from your agency. Once you have chosen the right referral for you, the adoption agency will contact Guatemala and let them know which child you have chosen. A Guatemalan attorney will then collect the consent forms, medical records, and birth certificate. The United States will do the necessary DNA testing. Once all this is done the attorney goes to court for you to finish the adoption. He then gets the Childs passport ready. When all the paperwork and court hearings are finished you have the choice to either go to Guatemala and pick up your child or have the child escorted to you.

In Guatemalan adoptions you can be married, or single, meaning single men and single women can adopt. The only real requirement is that the adopting parents be under the age of fifty years old. Referrals generally start around three to six months after your paperwork has been received. Once you accept a referral it takes about eight months for the adoption to become final.

An international protocol was endorsed by law makers, because the United States said they will stop allowing American parents adopt Guatemalan children. Guatemala has been told that it needs to make provisions of its secret systems. These systems have been criticized due to high adoptive cost and for payment being made to the women and young girls placing their children up for adoption. Guatemalan adoption is still probably on the better choices for single adoptive parents due to the flexibility of their current protocol. Also with private lawyer's currently still in charge of a great deal of the process, this is also a good alternative for people currently turned down for domestic adoption.