[tamayoana88]

I am in the need of a whole lot of help.
many things to explain.
my name is ana us citizen and i am married to a guatemalan national. We have 3 daughters and I am pregnant with baby #4. He has a daughter in Guate who is 8 years old. She was abandoned by her mother when she was 2 months old and left in the care of my husband and his mother. She still lives with his mother because he came illegally to the US to be able to pay all the cost of having a child and helping out his mom and his 11 other brothers and sisters. We have already applied with immigration and have been approved for his I130 but we are waiting until a new law comes around like the I245 to approve the visa application and immigration appointment in the united states. If i send in the application now we are subject to having to go to Guatemala and have the immigration appointment which may result in 10 years of a punishment for abandoning the country.
After 8 years we have now been able to locate the mother of my stepdaughter.
we have spoken to her about the situation on how we want her here with us. She said she will sign over her maternal rights through abandonment so that my husband can have full custody of his daughter so that he can get her a passport and try to process document to get her here through me as my daughter maybe signing his rights to me or me adopting her as my daughter. I understand that the hague convention there is no international adoptions allowed in guatemala but i do not know if this pertains to also family based situations. i may have another option if it completely impossible. the family lives on the border with el salvador. Maybe i can go through el salvador instead of guatemala but i have no idea what to do. another thing i heard was that if i live in guatemala i can adopt her but now, how do i prove if i live or do not live in guatemala. if she is my daughter in guatemala doesn't that mean i can adopt her there with some type of maybe 'boleto de ornato' and wait for all the documents then get her a passport and take her with me since she is the daughter of a us citizen making her a citizen through me. this is so frustrating!!! HELP
please post here or pm me i am new to this also may email me anayarov@gmail.com

[hellorebecca]

If you are legally married to the father in the U.S. and the child has a birth certificate with your husband's name on it, then she is considered your legal stepchild and can get an IR-2 visa. My understanding is that, to qualify for that visa, there is no distinction between biological child and stepchild.

But you have to prove that you are legally married and that he is the legal father.

I'm in a similar situation and going through this process for my stepson in Guatemala right now. My I-130 petition for him was approved by USCIS and my stepson is now in the NVC process. I won't believe it until it happens, but so far, so good.