Soy-based adhesives have been regarded as the most suitable candidates for wood industry. For a widespread use of soy-based adhesives, new technologies need to be developed to improve the water resistance. An overview on the methods to improve water resistance of soy-based adhesives is presented. Denaturants were once considered necessary to modify soy protein. However, water-resistant soy adhesives could be prepared by simply removing water-soluble carbohydrates and low molecular peptides from soy flour. In addition, proper grafting and cross-linking agents help to prepare water-resistant soy-based adhesives, which are used widely to bond interior wood composites. In particular, a new type of polyamidoamine (PADA) resin and an itaconic acid-based polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin (IA-PAE) resin were synthesized to perform as cross-linking agents for soy-based adhesives. This review concludes that soybased adhesives have great potential for use in numerous applications. However, future work is still needed to make soy-based adhesives more competitive with synthetic adhesives.