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When you are doing your home study for the first time it can be very stressful because you don’t know what to expect. Most of us spend more time worrying about how clean our house is (I sure did) than making sure we have everything we need.
If you want to speed up your home study process, having all your documents together when your worker arrives will help to expedite the process, and may even answer many of the typical first visit questions, and allow you to get onto the “meatier” questions earlier on, therefore saving you another visit.
So what documents do you need to have ready?
Marriage license – if applicable
Divorce decree from any previous marriage(s) – if applicable
Pet vaccinations – if applicable
Birth or adoption certificates for other children in the house
Employment history – Complete with names, addresses and dates
Copies of tax returns – These are not always necessary but might be requested
Your references – Each state has different requirements. The general rule is three to five references. Some states allow family members, others do not. Either check the rules ahead of time, or have a list that you can pick and choose from very easily.
Insurance – Copies of all insurance documents for auto, home, health and life insurance
Medical professionals – Have the names and addresses of all medical professionals that you deal with
The worker may not take all the information but it will all be used on the application. Having the documents together will help you fill out the application more quickly and will show the worker that you are serious and organized. It also gives you something to do during the waiting process. Heading to the vet and getting copies of the vaccination reports on Fido may be more enjoyable when you’re not rushing to get it done so that you can get your home study completed. Digging through files and copying documents is never fun, but it’s more stressful when you’re trying to place your hands on a document while your worker is sitting at the kitchen table.
Who knows, you might even stumble across something fun in your file cabinet. OK, maybe not.
We just got certified last week. Yeah, it was a lot of bureaucracy, but it went a lot smoother than we had expected. Honestly, the certification classes were a lot tougher than the actual process!
Congratulations!