[NYCgaycouple]

I am going to discuss this with our lawyer, but I was wondering if anybody here has had experience with the following.

I am an Italian citizen (green card holder in the US, will become eligible to apply for US citizenship this year, and if I get it I will have dual citizenship). I assumed all along that once I finalize the adoption of my child here in the US, that I would just have to bring the birth certificate to the Italian Consulate and get them to make him/her a citizen too.

Well I was at the Consulate yesterday to get my translation of the my Italian birth certificate approved (the Court wanted it), and when they asked what was it needed for, I told them and I actually asked if there was any special issue I was to be aware of.

The lady told that both me and my *wife* would have to do the entire adoption process all over again in Italy (get a homestudy, approved by the family court etc.) When I mentioned that this was a gay couple, she then rolled her eyes and said "no hope". That I knew: gay people cannot adopt in Italy. To her credit she said how awful this is for gay people, and how backward etc. blah blah blah

So I asked, what if I brought a birth certificate for my biological child, listing me as the parent. She said "then it would be no problem". To which I responded that my understanding is that after the adoption is finalized that's exactly what I get, and she said no, that I get a adoption decree, not a birth certificate, and besides even a birth certificate in its "long form" would show that I am the adoptive parent.

Anyway, at the end it would not be a disaster, though Italian citizenship would be very valuable (it allows one to work and reside anywhere in the EU). Not to mention the sentimental issue: I can't believe my own child would not be a citizen of my own country!

So the questions are:
1) anybody here had to do something like that?
2) what do you really get after finalization? I thought you do get a birth certificate listing you as the parents ...

thanks

[gigigeorge]

Hi there

We have kinda a similar thing, my husband is canadian and we decided to establish our sons canadian citizenship too. We just had to fill out a form with all our information, certifying that one parent was canadian and then send along a certified copy of the birthcertificate and that's that.

After finalization you will get a birthcertificate that looks exactly like the original except with your information in place of the birthparents, there is no mention of the adoption. In fact after the new birthcertificate is issued there is no record of the original one. We were told that the only person that can request the original one is the birthmom.

hope that helps

g.

[AdoptInMe]

I have no answer for you, because we don't even have our child yet. But I was curious as well. I would assume that it is different in each country. I have dual citizenship, US & Swiss, so we would want our children to have that as well. Let me know what you find out & good luck!

[nycfsa]

I don't have dual citizenship, but I just wanted to say good luck. Having EU citizenship would be great for your child. I agree that no one will be able to tell from the amended birth certificate that you're adoptive vs. biological parents.

It's true that you just get an adoption decree from the actual finalization process, but you can use that to get the amended birth certificate and then it sounds like you're all set.

[rtsmom]

Nothing to do with Italy, but... My husband is a US citizen and I am a Canadian citizen. Our four children were born in Canada and have Canadian citizenship. We were stunned when the US had no problem granting our two biological children US citizenship, but absolutely no go with our adoptive kids. They said that they must have a biological connection to my husband (the US citizen) in order to be automatically eligible for US citizenship. Hrmph!

Janet

[sandymomof2]

I have friends who are both Austrian, and have green cards here in the US. After they adopted their son, they checked the Austrian embassy in NYC about a passport for their son. What they would have had to go through was unbelievable (I can't remember the details, but I do remember it involved actually applying for citizenship because he was adopted and having to pay lots of money).

Then they had a bio son about 8 months after their first son was born. Obviously, they wanted him to have Austrian citizenship as well. They could easily have gotten him a passport at the embassy since he was bio, but didn't want to go back there and raise any flags. Once the adoption for their first son was final, they got both boys American passports. The next time they went to Austria, they presented both birth certifcates (listing them as parents) and applied for the Austrian passports in Austria without even mentioning that the older boy was adopted. They didn't have any problems.

I don't know if you and your wife are adopting as a couple or if you adopted as a single mom. As a single mom, just do as you would for a bio child and don't mention adoption. It doesn't show up on the birth certificate.

Good luck!

[loveajax]

First of all, I am sorry that gays and lesbians are not allowed to adopt in Italy (I could go on and on about this, but I won't!).

What will the birth certificate say? I mean, DH and i have a birth certificate where I am listed as the "mother" and he as the "father." I'm just wondering if there would be a way to do this so as not to "highlight" the issue for the Italian consulate so your child could have the dual cititzenship (that would be pretty cool and advantageous as you say).

GOOD LUCK!

[NYCgaycouple]

I think it says parent 1 and parent 2, but I am not sure. We'll have to wait and see