Question about adoption finalization

Since I had a question about the finalization process, I thought I'd make a post to answer so everyone is "in the know".

Our home study agency (Lutheran Social Service) has a finalization person who gave us the correct legal paperwork.   This paperwork includes the actual adoption decree, what we want her legal name to be, what we want on her birth certificate and requesting copies of the birth certificate.  It also includes a letter that we are enclosing the amount set by the county for adoption minus the amount charged for the putative father registry, since the MN legislature has ruled that internationally adopted children need not be charged.

We sent the papers and the payment for the court fees to LSS, and they added their own paperwork to it (I believe a cover letter saying we had met all their stipulations) and sent it to our county court. We now wait for our court to call us and schedule a date to appear to have the adoption finalized.   There is no charge to us except the court fees which are minimal.  (I'm sure these finalization services are included in the post-placement fees charged by LSS.)  It seems to vary state to state---that is how it is done in MN.

Our agency, although large, had never done an IR-4 visa adoption before, so there was some confusion initially.  All kids from India come on IR-4 visas, meaning that they were not adopted abroad, and must be adopted here.  We are their legal guardians, not adoptive parents when we come home with them to the US.  Only Hindus are allowed to adopt in India.  Most other countries (China for example) allow you to adopt in the court system abroad, so your child comes home on an IR-3 visa and becomes a citizen immediately upon entering the U.S.  

There's your Indian adoption finalization 101 for today.