New Jersey is a great state for surrogacy for intended parents and women who wish to be surrogate mothers. At first, understanding how surrogacy works can seem a bit confusing, but have no fear! If you live in New Jersey, we are here to help you navigate surrogacy, from the surrogacy process, to how to become a surrogate, how to find a surrogate, and much more.
Surrogacy is supported in New Jersey for both gestational carriers (surrogate mothers) and intended parents. Whether you live in Newark, Trenton, Hoboken, or anywhere in between–here's everything you need to know about gestational surrogacy.
Surrogacy allows couples and individuals from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations to build their families. The types of intended parents who may use surrogacy include:
Each surrogacy journey is as unique as the intended parents and their reasons for taking the first steps.
New Jersey is an excellent state for intended parents and surrogate mothers because it has favorable surrogacy laws and is close to top-notch IVF clinics.
Circle Surrogacy has a surrogacy agency team near New Jersey in New York City who meets regularly with intended parents interested in growing their families through surrogacy. If you're thinking about becoming a parent through surrogacy, you can schedule a 15-minute surrogacy chat with Jen, our Tri-State area rep.
The surrogacy process can feel complicated and overwhelming because there is so much to manage. Our best advice: Work with an agency that can help you navigate the milestones and events throughout your journey. The intended parent process and surrogate process are different, but they both lead to the same big event: delivery day!
Circle Surrogacy has been helping straight and LGBTQ+ singles and couples grow their families through surrogacy and egg donation since opening their Boston office in 1995, making us one of the first full-service surrogacy agencies in the U.S.
Choosing an Agency
Not every surrogacy agency is a good fit. Finding a surrogacy agency with which you have good chemistry and that shares your surrogacy views is key to a successful journey. Beginning your journey toward surrogacy is a big step, so it's important to do your research!
Surrogacy laws vary by state, so working with an agency with lawyers knowledgeable in assisted reproductive technology (ART) and surrogacy law is essential. They will help you understand the surrogacy laws in New Jersey.
Finding a Surrogate and Egg Donor
Prior to matching with your surrogate, you may need to match with an egg donor. Our egg donor database contains information about the bright, ambitious young women who are excited for the opportunity to help you grow your family.
Your Program Coordination (PC) Team will help you find the perfect surrogate match and encourage you to form a strong bond with the woman who will carry your baby(ies). If you'd like to find a surrogate with specific criteria, you can share your preference with your PC team.
Pregnancy and Parenthood
You’ll further develop your relationship with your surrogate during pregnancy, and if she lives close to New Jersey, perhaps even visiting her for appointments. Your agency will be supporting you through each milestone, helping you prepare for traveling for the birth and ensuring you have everything you need to return home safely and securely.
Once you've identified surrogacy as the way you'd like to grow your family and you've selected an agency with which you'd like to meet, it's time to schedule a consultation.
A surrogacy consultation is an in-depth meeting (about 2 to 2 1/2 hours long) with a parent intake consultant and a lawyer. This private meeting will allow us to get to know you and your story, as well as talk about surrogacy and the process as it relates to your personal situation. We'll help you understand surrogacy programs and surrogacy costs, as well.
Understanding New Jersey surrogacy laws, the surrogacy process, and surrogacy costs will help you make an informed decision to grow your family.
If you live in New Jersey and are ready to start a surrogacy journey, there are many benefits for you as intended parents, including:
Surrogacy costs can be divided into the following four categories:
Most agencies do not offer fixed costs for any of these cost categories, resulting in surprise fees and financial uncertainty throughout the surrogacy journey. However, Circle Surrogacy fixes the costs for professional fees, gestational carrier and egg donor fees, and medical and insurance expenses.
Circle Surrogacy's programs and pricing are structured to achieve two primary goals: success and cost security.
Circle is the only agency that offers you two truly fixed price options for intended parents in New Jersey, tailored to your specific circumstances.
Our Fixed Cost Program and Journey Protection Guarantee are designed to help intended parents bring home a baby while reducing variable costs.
Fixed Cost Program
Surrogacy only: $128,750
Surrogacy plus egg donation: $149,750
(both prices exclude IVF)
Our Fixed Cost Program provides intended parents the security of paying one fixed price for a single transfer journey, reducing unexpected expenses and the uncertainty of variable costs.
Journey Protection Guarantee Program
Surrogacy only: $137,250
Surrogacy plus egg donation: $158,250
(both prices exclude IVF)
Our Journey Protection Guarantee offers intended parents unlimited transfers for a fixed price, plus the Circle Promise: We’ll refund 100% of our agency fee plus unused third-party funds if you do not bring home a baby.
Financing Plan
Our Financing Plan is an option for qualified intended parents in New Jersey who would like to make monthly payments on a large portion of the cost of their journey.
Matching with your surrogate mother is an exciting time in your surrogacy journey. Circle works with many surrogate mothers from New Jersey, as well as all the surrounding states. With headquarters in Boston and an office in New York City, we have strong representation in the New Jersey area, making it even easier for surrogates and intended parents to connect.
Our Intended Parent Profile
Our intended parent profile allows us to get to know you and helps our Matching Team find your surrogate match. This profile is filled with information about you and your:
We'll ask that you also share photos of yourself, your loved ones, and anything else that gives a good sense of who you are as people.
Intended Parent Matching Criteria
In addition to your profile, there are certain criteria on which you will be matched with your gestational carrier. Intended parent matching criteria includes your preferences on:
If you are looking for a surrogate on your own, it can be helpful to consider these criteria when searching for a good match.
We recommend intended parents consider the following criteria when searching for a surrogate mother in New Jersey:
1. Is she an appropriate legal fit? In the United States, each state has its own laws regarding surrogacy. In addition, each country we assist in has different requirements and laws regarding surrogacy. Our legal team ensures that the laws of the surrogate’s home state (where the delivery will take place) complement the laws of the intended parents' home state/country (including laws around same-sex parenting). The legal department will always approve a match from a legal standpoint before a surrogate profile is presented to the intended parents.
2. Do her personality and surrogacy expectations match yours? Both surrogates and intended parents undergo phone calls or in-person meetings with the Circle team early in the process; these meetings help determine your personality as it relates to surrogacy. We also look at IPs' and surrogates' expectations and hopes for the journey, including the number of embryos to transfer and communication styles.
3. Do you agree on expectations surrounding termination and selective reduction? We ask IPs and surrogates their views on termination of a pregnancy as we want to create a match of IPs and surrogates who share similar views. We want to ensure that the surrogate’s views and the intended parents’ views align in the event a reduction or termination issue arises. In our experience, many intended parents prefer the option to make the choice of termination.
Circle Surrogacy conducts a full screening of their surrogates to determine which are the strongest, healthiest, and most likely to be successful surrogate mothers before matching with intended parents.
Some intended parents require an egg donor in order to grow their family. Matching with an egg donor is an important part of your journey to parenthood – you are selecting the young woman who will provide half of your child's biology.
Qualities to Consider
The first step to finding your perfect egg donor match is to think about the type of woman you're looking for. Are you looking for someone who has similar qualities that you or your partner possess? Or do you wish for a woman whose traits complement your personality or appearance? These are a few things to think about when beginning your egg donor search.
As you begin searching, have some thoughts as to what's important to you in an egg donor match, such as:
And remember, nature vs. nurture – not every characteristic or trait is hereditary!
Search Through Our Egg Donor Database
A great first place to start your egg donor search is in an egg donor database. Most egg donor databases allow you to search for an egg donor by certain criteria. Circle's egg donor database is easy to use and easy to navigate.
Within each donor profile, you'll find a tremendous amount of additional information, including:
You may not know what you're looking for in a donor, and that's okay! Some intended parents take the "I'll know her when I see her" approach.
The Garden State has agreeable surrogacy laws for both intended parents and surrogates. If you're looking to become a surrogate mother and you live in Newark, Trenton, or elsewhere in New Jersey, you’re in luck. Circle Surrogacy is the best surrogacy agency with an office right in New York City!
Determining Parentage in New Jersey
In 2018, Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill that legalized gestational surrogacy in the Garden State! The new surrogacy law, entitled The New Jersey Gestational Carrier Act, recognizes contracts for gestational surrogacy arrangements. The state’s comprehensive law protects the rights of the surrogate, the intended parents, and the baby. This makes New Jersey an excellent setting for surrogacy, protecting all the parties involved.
Because parentage is determined in the state where the surrogate lives, it's safe and secure for intended parents to match with New Jersey surrogate mothers.
If you live in New Jersey and you'd like to apply to become a surrogate, we'd love to work with you! We can help you become a surrogate in Newark, Jersey City, and more! All of our attorneys are admitted to practice law in New Jersey. Since 1995, we've helped numerous intended parents and surrogates achieve successful surrogacies in the East and all over the United States.
Requirements for Becoming a Surrogate in New Jersey
In order to qualify to become a surrogate in New Jersey, here are some requirements an applicant must meet:
Women from New Jersey will have the opportunity to work with an East Coast surrogacy agency (we're right in Boston and New York City!). Also, we work with many intended parents from the East Coast, including the tri-state area. Surrogates from New Jersey will have the opportunity to work with intended parents who are local to them. Plus, Circle works with many IVF clinics in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, reducing the amount of travel for surrogates and travel costs for intended parents.
As a New Jersey surrogate, you may also enjoy other benefits, including:
When women apply to become surrogate mothers in New Jersey, they do so because they want to help others experience the joy of parenthood. While there is a monetary incentive to be a surrogate, surrogates enjoy an indescribable sense of fulfillment from helping intended families bring a child into the world. It’s a feeling that cannot be found doing anything else.
As a surrogate in New Jersey, you have the opportunity to earn between $50,000 and $60,000 in total payments and benefits. Surrogate mothers are paid a base fee of $40,000, plus additional compensation and benefits for milestones along their journey. New Jersey is considered a "high-demand state" for surrogates, due to its favorable location to airports and clinics.
Calculate your surrogate pay with our surrogate compensation calculator.
Surrogate payments are made monthly, and surrogate mothers start earning compensation and benefits even before they are pregnant.
Circle provides best-in-class surrogate support because so many of our staff are experienced surrogates – and they have shared with us the type of support needed on their journey.
Read our blog post about the 10 steps to becoming to a surrogate.
As a New Jersey gestational surrogate, the question of who you help is almost as important as your decision to help. After all, you and the prospective parents will embark on a monumental journey together. You want to be sure that you connect with and trust them fully. That’s why Circle Surrogacy built an extensive and thorough matching process.
As a first step, your Surrogate Support Team will try to find the perfect intended parent(s) for you based on personality fit and legal circumstances. You’ll get to review each other’s profiles, ask questions, and generally feel each other out. There will also be an initial Skype call and, possibly, an in-person meeting. It’s all about making sure both you and the intended parent(s) feel completely comfortable with the match. And of course, the surrogacy agreement only moves forward if you do.
Circle works with single parents, LGBTQ+ and heterosexual couples, domestic and international couples, and more. We’re confident you’ll be able to find a great match.
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