We’re Officially a Licensed Surrogacy Agency in New York! 🎉
We have some exciting news to share—we’ve been working hard behind the scenes, and as of September 23, 2025, Surrogacy Is is officially a licensed surrogacy agency in New York!
Getting licensed as a gestational surrogacy agency in New York isn’t something an agency can simply apply for without effort. It’s a rigorous, state-regulated process that ensures surrogacy organizations meet the highest standards of care, ethics, and transparency. And we’re proud to say—we showed New York that we’re doing the work, and now we can wear this accomplishment like a badge of honor, celebrating our high standard of care.
Why does New York require surrogacy agencies to get licensed?
Since 2021, New York has required surrogacy agencies to be licensed in order to manage surrogacy journeys within their state. This is in order to protect the health, rights, and well-being of everyone involved in a surrogacy journey—especially gestational surrogates and intended parents. Under the Child-Parent Security Act, the state set strict licensing standards to ensure that agencies operate ethically, transparently, and with appropriate oversight.
By requiring licensing, New York aims to prevent exploitation, promote informed consent, and ensure that all parties receive proper support, legal protections, and access to qualified professionals throughout the process. This regulation helps maintain the integrity of surrogacy arrangements and provides families with greater confidence when choosing an agency. To date, New York is the only state in the United States that requires agencies to be licensed to operate within their borders—but honestly, we wholeheartedly believe that this is a practice that should be more common everywhere. We believe this would help protect the best interests of every surrogate and intended parent embarking on a surrogacy journey. Plus, getting licensed takes a lot of work. If this were a requirement for every agency to practice everywhere, then that would help weed out the agencies that aren’t in it for the right reasons—and this could help prevent them from ever having the opportunity to mistreat surrogates or intended parents.
What does it take to get licensed in New York as a surrogacy agency?
We initiated the process to obtain a license in New York in September of 2024. To obtain our license, we were required to provide several documents and review our operating procedures.
We had to show:
- Detailed information about our owners and leadership teams by including résumés, professional histories, comprehensive background checks, and credit reports.
- A comprehensive ‘Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual’ that outlines our screening and support processes for both surrogates and intended parents, including medical and psychological evaluations, legal counseling, and informed consent practices. (Side note: Our attorney even said she had never seen any agency with such thorough policies and procedures in place!)
- A strict ‘Conflict of Interest policy’ to promote transparency and protect our clients.
- Proof of professional liability insurance with $1,000,000+ in coverage.
- Our ‘Informed Consent forms, to prove they were easy for every party to understand, and there was no language that could be deceiving.
- A complete ‘Surrogates’ Bill of Rights’, ensuring all surrogates are protected with independent legal counsel, life insurance, and health care coverage.
…plus a whole lot of other business requirements like IRS documentation, licensing fees, and financial reports.
We will say, providing everything needed to obtain this license was a lot! It took time. It required a lot of collecting and emailing documents. It involved numerous meetings for our founders and extensive background checks that they had to complete. But honestly, we believe this is exactly how it should be.
In our humble opinion, every surrogacy agency in the U.S. should undergo a process like this. This practice raises the standard for how surrogacy should be managed in New York—and we’re happy that we just had to prove that we were putting in the work and committed to doing things right. We didn’t have to change anything because we were already supporting every surrogate and intended parent with the highest level of care.
Why this matters for you
In a time where surrogacy agencies aren’t regulated and there are horror stories of agencies bending the rules or solely focusing on profit over support, our true hope is that every surrogate and intended parent can find a surrogacy agency they can trust. In an ideal world, every surrogacy journey will be handled with the right hands, and no one will ever have to question if they picked a safe surrogacy agency.
Whether you’re looking to become a surrogate in New York or you’re a hopeful intended parent, working with a licensed surrogacy agency means peace of mind. You can trust that we’ve done the work to protect you, support you, and guide you through your journey every step of the way.
But even if you’re not in New York, you can take comfort in knowing that no matter where you reside, we’re going to take care of you exactly the same way. We prioritize supporting both surrogates and intended parents equally in their journey, and we’re dedicated to providing free educational resources, personalized journey support, and benefits that help you make the most of your journey.
To obtain this license, we were already doing things the right way—this, in a way, just made it feel more officially recognized.
Let’s make more families—together.
We’re incredibly excited to now serve families interested in pursuing a surrogacy journey in New York. If you’re ready to take the next step or just curious to learn more about how we work, we’d love to connect with you!
If you’re a potential surrogate, you can take our qualifying quiz here: surrogacy.is/life-changing-quiz
If you’re a hopeful intended parent, you can fill out our interest form and our team will be in touch with you here: surro.is/parents
If you want to get more updates from our agency or connect with the surrogacy community, make sure to follow us @surrogacyis on all your favorite social media platforms!
