[jimanddarla]

We are trying to add Abraham to my health plan at work. I asked our HR person what will be needed to add an adopted child to the plan. She provided me with a special form and a letter from our health insurance company that said we need to fill out the form within 30 days of getting him and include the "adoption papers."

Now, I'm sure they don't want 3 inches of paperwork sent to them with this application! What should we include with this?

Thanks!

[kathleenmag]

Give the HR department the PGN final decree and BC
that worked to add our daughter to my plan. Good luck.
Kathleen

[DPline]

It has been a while, but I am pretty sure we used the PGN decree and the BC as well.

[jimanddarla]

I was thinking those would be the docs but I wanted to make sure.

[sak9645]

If you have group insurance that would cover a child born to you, it MUST, by federal law, cover any child adopted by you from the moment of "adoption or placement for adoption". (This covers the issue of IR-4 kids.) It may not refuse to cover, or delay coverage for, any pre-existing conditions, whether or not you know about them. The only requirement, as your employer rightly said, is that you notify your employer and insuror IN WRITING within 30 days of the adoption or placement for adoption.

Most insurors need only an original adoption decree and a birth certificate, with an English translation. The protocolo is probably what you will use for the adoption decree.

Some insurors will ask you for a Social Security number for the child. In general, this is no problem, even if your child came home on an IR-4. A lot of people don't realize that they CAN get a SSN for their child, even if the child came home on an IR-4, as soon as they arrive home from Guatemala.

All you really need to do is to wander down to your SS office with your child's foreign birth certificate, foreign adoption decree, and foreign passport, plus proof of your own identity and citizenship. Fill out the form and wait for a clerk. You should be able to get the SSN, itself, that very day, and a card will come in the mail in a few weeks.

If your child's paperwork is in his/her foreign name and you didn't readopt or do a legal name change in some other way yet because you weren't home long enough, the card will be issued in the foreign name. But that's no big deal. Your insuror and the IRS will both let you do something like writing your child's American name with the foreign name in parentheses on your application. When you finally readopt or do a legal name change in some other way, just go down to the SS office with the proof of name change and have a new card issued; it's free.

If you don't have proof of citizenship, either because you are an IR-3 family and the paperwork hasn't arrived in the mail yet, or because you are an IR-4 family and you haven't readopted yet, your child will be listed as a resident alien in SS records. This is no big deal, and won't affect your insurance. Once you obtain a certificate of citizenship or U.S. passport for your child, just go down to the SS office and fill out the paperwork for a status change.

In rare cases, where you have a really stinky Social Security office and decide not to bother spending your 30 days fighting over their responsibility to issue an SSN, you can usually convince your insuror that the law does NOT require a SSN at the time of application, and that you will provide one as soon as you can.

If your insuror still demands an SSN, get a friend who is an attorney to write a "lawyer letter", insisting that the child be enrolled. Do not try getting an ATIN, which is really not supposed to be used for internationally adopted children.

Sharon

[jimanddarla]

Sharon thank you! Our "HR Person" does it part-time because I work for a small company. I don't think she knows half of what you just spelled out.

The insurance company did say that an SSN was not necessary - so we have that going for us.

[connorsmommy1999]

my insurance company said the same thing to me....but the 30 days thing confused me. Our protocolo will be dated July 8th...but she wont be home for a while...

is this going to mess me up with adding her?

[guatparents2be]

i would call the insurance company directly and explain what you do and don't have. after a discussion it turned out that they wanted me to provide a translation of the protocolo and a copy of our plane ticket as the date on the protocolo was months before we brought our son home.

[beverlyanderic]

as you're probably hearing, it all depends on the company and insurance carrier.

by law, you have 30 days after the qualified change in status to add a dependent to benefits. for adoption, many companies use a placement date. i just used the date we came home- no use paying for extra coverage you didn't use if you use the approval date (that's if they take retro deductions).

just explain your situation and show them the protocolo and birth certificate if they ask.

good luck!
eric

[SmileLaughLearn]

I agree with Eric, it does depend on your insurance company.

We chose, though, to use the protocolo date and put the kids on our insurance immediately, because we wanted to be sure the kids were covered just in case they needed medical care in GC before pick-up (and once we were on the family plan, there was no additional cost to add our second son anyway). Our insurance company put them on immediately at the time of the phone call, and allowed us to send in the paperwork after we got home.

I'd call your insurance company and ask, and if the rep you're speaking to doesn't sound like they know for sure, I'd doublecheck.