A Perfect Match, Inc. (APM) has been working with international families since 1999 and we find our experiences to be very positive for the intended parents, for our gestational surrogates, and for our staff. We not only welcome the opportunity of working with international families, but we also sincerely enjoy working with people from other cultures and enjoy developing close ongoing relationships with them.

Our gestational surrogates are very open to working with international families. It may require a bit more effort by the surrogate and intended parents in order to develop and maintain a mutually respectful and caring long-distance surrogacy relationship, but our gestational surrogates are experienced with the internet, and this provides an easy way for continuing contact between the parties despite time and cultural differences.

A Perfect Match (APM) is able to provide the same high quality and personal gestational surrogacy services to our international families as to our U.S. families without having an increased burden placed on our staff. Our experience has been so positive, in fact, that we believe there never should be a need to charge an additional amount of money known as an “international surcharge” simply because a gestational surrogacy involves international families. We find our international families are not only very respectful of differences in time and culture, but they are also very technologically advanced, so we are able to communicate very effectively through email and fax. We also find that whenever it is necessary for us to speak personally via a phone conversation our international families always initiate the calls. On occasion, and only if necessary, we may have to use the services of FedEx or a translator, but we always get pre-approval before incurring any charges that would be paid for by the family. APM has enjoyed relationships with families from the U.K., Germany, Czech Republic, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and more. We love working with other cultures and find the experience very enriching for our staff.

Further services available through APM: APM primarily recruits gestational surrogates within the Southern California area so that we can easily maintain a close and personal relationship with our surrogates. An APM staff member does attend the local embryo transfer as part of our service to the intended parents and surrogate. We also send a staff member to the hospital when the local gestational surrogate gives birth (if we can get there in time!) or as soon thereafter as is possible. Most of our U.S. intended parents are able to attend most OB visits with their surrogate, so we do not routinely attend every appointment the surrogate has. When the intended parents are unable to attend an appointment, and they haven’t requested that APM attend these appointments, our surrogates still provide us with updates about what they did during the appointment as well as what the Physician said. We also have a close working relationship with the local physicians and they will update us and the parents in regards to the visit that day. APM, the surrogate and the physician understand the need to keep the intended parents informed, and we all make a great effort to keep in touch with international intended parents throughout every step of the surrogacy, so they are not only adequately informed, but so they can feel like they are intricately involved and a part of their surrogacy journey.

We do understand, however, that our International intended parents will be unable to attend the majority of the surrogate’s IVF and OB/GYN appointments throughout the pregnancy, and we also understand the intended parents may feel more comfortable if a staff member from APM attends the doctor visits and reports directly to the intended parents, so we are willing to attend the surrogate’s doctor appointments on the intended parent’s behalf, but only if the intended parents request this additional service in writing. We do charge an hourly rate for this service; however, the important thing to remember is that this hourly rate only applies should the intended parents request that a staff member from APM attend any appointment on their behalf. We also offer this same service to many of our U.S. families who are not able to attend the doctor visits.

Legal rights as parents: An international family will receive the same legal treatment that a U.S. parent receives in regards to the establishment of their parental rights to a child born through surrogacy provided the birth takes place in a ”surrogate friendly” State, such as California.  This is why A Perfect Match, Inc. chooses gestational surrogates who live primarily in California.  The unique situation with international families arises because the international family will be taking the child out of the U.S. and back to their home country…countries in which surrogacy may be illegal or that may treat surrogacy very differently than the U.S. Each international family should make sure they understand the legalities of getting citizenship for their child in their own country prior to entering into any surrogacy agreement because specific terms may need to be written into the legal contract between the intended parents and the surrogate. We work closely with National Fertility Law Center (NFLC) in order to ensure our international families will be treated as the legal parents when the gestational surrogate gives birth to the child/children, but they also have a good understanding of the laws in other countries and will be able to help you through the legal process of bringing your own child back to your country. Please read the following for more information on the general legal processes involved for international families.