Use this 14-stage record to review the process, costs, timing, parentage steps, and open questions. Answer five questions to compare it with your situation.
Your key questions
Start with the answer to your question. Open source details only when you need to inspect the evidence boundary.
Review the published 14-stage process and sources, then use the checks below for parentage and return-home questions specific to your situation.
As of 2026-07-10 | G2 review limited | 12 source references.
3 provider-published destination-market cost signals are available below. The ranges are not directly comparable and do not form a verified total budget.
As of 2026-07-10 | G1 provider claim | No source-backed range attached.
No complete public timeline range has been reviewed for this route.
As of 2026-07-10 | G3 source gap | No source-backed range attached.
Destination parentage steps and home-country recognition must both be confirmed for the selected jurisdiction and family context.
As of 2026-07-10 | G2 review limited | 6 parentage source references.
Recommended next step
Answer five intended-parent questions to compare reviewed destinations, documented cases, budget and timing evidence, and the checks that apply to your facts.
US-CA, US-NY, US-WA
Check required
Route-specific gates, sources, and unknowns. General industry guidance lives in the journey guide.
Screen Chinese regulatory and child-status uncertainty
Separate China's prohibition on medical institutions and personnel performing surrogacy from the unverified treatment of an outbound arrangement. Record each Chinese parent's citizenship and overseas-settlement status, the child's expected U.S. nationality, genetic plan, U.S. parentage order, travel-document theory, and unresolved parentage and hukou questions.
Choose the GC residence, contract, treatment, and expected birth jurisdictions before matching. Parentage, agreement enforceability, agency licensing, compensation, and vital-record procedures vary by state; a model act is not proof that a state adopted the same rule.
Identify the matching program or independent-match process, IVF clinic, separate IP and GC counsel, escrow or trust administrator, insurance reviewer, obstetric team, and birth-hospital contact. Licensing is jurisdiction-specific; New York's public list is an example, not a national approval list.
Confirm embryo inventory, genetic contributors, donor consents, infectious-disease testing, storage location, records, clinic acceptance, and shipment feasibility. The receiving clinic decides whether records and embryos satisfy its protocol.
Match only after checking residence, prior pregnancy history, communication expectations, travel, termination and selective-reduction views, embryo count, compensation expectations, disclosure, and support system. Matching estimates are provider claims, not guaranteed timelines.
Complete obstetric-record review, physical and infectious-disease testing, uterine evaluation, psychosocial evaluation, medication compatibility, household-support review, and informed-consent counseling. The GC remains the decision-maker for her medical care.
Use independent counsel for IPs and the GC. Address compensation and reimbursements, medical decision-making, travel, lost wages, bed rest, insurance, confidentiality, failed transfer, miscarriage, termination, multiples, breach, rematch, parentage filings, and post-birth cooperation under the selected state's law.
Build an itemized budget covering agency or matching fees, clinic, compensation, reimbursements, legal work, escrow, GC medical and life coverage, travel, lost wages, failed cycles, rematch, newborn coverage, NICU, and post-birth documents. Confirm who holds funds, disbursement triggers, audit rights, and unused-fund return.
After medical and legal clearance, the clinic manages cycle preparation, embryo thaw and transfer, pregnancy testing, medication continuation, and failed-transfer follow-up. Avoid language that implies a guaranteed transfer or pregnancy outcome.
Set communication cadence and emergency contacts; coordinate clinic-to-OB handoff, maternal-fetal medicine, reimbursements, insurance claims, travel, miscarriage, bed rest, hospitalization, delivery changes, and conflict mediation. The GC controls consent to medical care throughout pregnancy and delivery.
Before the third trimester, coordinate hospital registration, parentage documents, room and access expectations, newborn decision authority, infant insurance, pediatrician, NICU contingency, interpreter needs, discharge, and document pickup.
File the state-specific pre-birth or post-birth parentage process, confirm the order's effective timing, and coordinate the initial or amended birth certificate and certified copies. The exact order, filing venue, standing, and birth-record amendment depend on state law.
Obtain certified birth and parentage records, confirm the child's current citizenship position, apply for the appropriate passport or travel document, satisfy parental-consent requirements, and align names across court, vital, airline, and home-country records.
Obtain a formal nationality assessment using each Chinese parent's citizenship and overseas-settlement facts and the child's foreign nationality at birth. Apply for the resulting Chinese travel document or foreign-passport visa route. Separately seek authority-specific advice on parentage evidence, entry, residence, and hukou; no uniform official surrogacy workflow was located.
