The Final Version of Your Embryo Donation Agreement

Congratulations on having almost completed the legal steps for your embryo donation started. Even though you are near the end, we’ll be here to help you every step of the way and hope you find the following information helpful.

Review The Document

Take a thorough look through the final agreement to make sure there are no typos or errors that have occurred since your last review. There is absolutely no rush as far as NRFA is concerned. We want you to have a legal agreement that you are happy and comfortable with. We do our best to complete a final review before each document is sent; as humans, we sometimes miss things. If you happen to find an error, please let us know by responding to the email we sent with your final copy. If both the donor and recipient parties are included in the email, please use “Reply All” when you send an email, so that everyone stays in the loop. Everyone must sign an identical document, so if only one signer/party is aware of the error, it’s possible the other may need to resign. If you find that a revision was not made how you had intended it to be, please let us know. Amber is really good at making changes if there was a misunderstanding about the intent.

If there are changes you would like made that were not included previously, there will be an additional charge for those moving forward. The cost varies depending on how extensive the revision is, but is typically somewhere between $35 and $100. Our attorney will determine that cost, once she is able to review the additional revisions.

We Are Ready to Sign!

Once all signers have reviewed the agreement and acknowledged there are no errors, you are ready to sign! Each person will sign in front of a notary with identity verification. You will also initial at the bottom of each page, which can be done prior to your notary meeting if you prefer. You have several options for completing the signing process, which are outlined below:

One party/signer prints the contract off, signs with a notary, and mails to the other(s). The next party would then sign with a notary and email a copy to the first party and us at NRFA.

One party/signer prints the contract off, signs with a notary, and then scans it as a PDF to email to the other(s). The next party would then print that copy off, sign with a notary and email a copy to the first party and us at NRFA.

Both parties/All signers can print off their own copies, sign with a notary, and email them back to NRFA as a PDF document. We can then take all the pages and combine them into 1 document, and return an emailed PDF version back to everyone.

For those who live in the US, there is an online notary that is accessible 24/7 at Notarize for US Residents. There is a base fee of $25 for this service and 1 seal. Additional seals are $10 each and more information can be found here.

For international residents, you are welcome to use an international notary from the US, found at US Notary As of my last check in, their fee was $75/seal plus a 6.5% “handling fee.” Please note, for documents where 2 donors or 2 recipients are signing, we can try and get a bit of a discount on the international notary. I can help you with that, so let’s chat before you move forward if that is your plan for signing. Most countries appear to have their own virtual notary options as well, so please feel free to use any platform that you are comfortable with.

There are multiple other online virtual notaries in the US, Australia, Canada, etc… You are welcome to use any notary service that you choose. The ones I mentioned are virtual notaries that previous clients have used and had good success with, but it is in no way an endorsement of their services.

Signing Is Complete! Now what?

Once you have signed your document with a notary and initialed the bottom of each page, you will send a copy of the agreement to us at NRFA. You can also send a copy to the other signings, if you are signing on the “same” document and sharing via email. PLEASE be sure that when you scan the document it is sent as a PDF file and is clear with good lighting. Documents that are too dark to read, fuzzy, or terribly lopsided may be rejected by the clinic if they cannot clearly read the information, which can cause delays. If you are signing via counterparts, we will merge all of the pages into 1 document once all signatures are received. This document can then be provided to the clinics, storage facility, or transport courier to show that the embryo “ownership” has changed from the donor(s) to the recipient(s). If you all sign the same document, you do not need to wait for us to send you anything back, simply send them the same scanned document that you will send us.

If you purchased a Letter of Legal Clearance, that will be provided once all signatures are received.

Is There Anything Else I Should Know?

As a reminder from the previous email, if you have a subscription (profile) on NRFA and are no longer going to use your account, please cancel your subscription.

At any point, if there is any other documentation that is needed, we can help! We are able to do addendums (returning unused embryos, adding additional clarification to the existing document, etc…) as well as the legal agreements and clearance letters. Currently, the cost for an addendum is $100.00 and the purchase must be initiated by reaching out to us at support@nrfa.org.

As we stated previously, those of us at NRFA know firsthand how daunting and emotional this process can be. We have been through it ourselves and know that it’s quite a process. We are here to help in any way we can so please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions or run into issues along the way!