[Anu Subramanian]

Hi Brandy
Yeah, I do. I contacted the Family services in my area and have not had consistent responses from them at this time.
Sharon,
Thank you SO VERY MUCHfor all your input. Your information was very organized and very helpful. We are in transition in terms of our jobs and what we want to do with our careers, so maybe waiting till things are a little less in flux would be the best idea!
Thank you all so much - this is such a wonderfully helpful and knowledgable group!

[Tawnya]

Just a quick clarification, if an Indian or a person of Indian ancestry adopts from India, the adoption might very well be transcultural or transracial as there are at least 10 official languages, multiple cultures, and several races/ethnicities. For example, a child born and raised in an orphanage in Mumbai will speak Marathi and use an alphabet different from a child in an orphanage in Chennai. The cultures can also be quite different.

The difficulties of finding children of South Asian ancestry in the USA is that these children are classified as Asian, which includes a multitude of children who are very different in language, culture, and appearance from those who are from South Asia.

[adoptionnus]

Hi Anu,
This posting from you was a couple of years back. Do you have any updates as to your adoption situation now?
We are green card holders too and I am really going to try hard to find an agency in my area which will assist with international adoption with the additional aspect that we will comply with the 2 year wait on visa. citizenship is far away for us and waiting that long will be so difficult.
However, if you any input about your experiences so far that will be great.
Anybody who has had friends or gone through this adoption process on a green card, please do write.

Thanks

[Anu Subramanian]

Hi
After some research, we just decided to wait till after we get our citizenship. One of us will apply for our citizenship, the other won't and we'll then start the application for the homestudy and the adoption process. It appears that even for the homestudy, at least one of us needs to be a citizen.
If you find other information, please share.
Good luck!
Anu

[WizardofOz]

We are also a green card holders and were very suprised to learn that we cannot adopt internationally because of American immmigration laws!

The Hague agreement, which the U.S. is now implementing, should theoretically prevent discrimination of an adopted child vs a biological child, That would, in turn, imply a reconsideration of certain immigration laws. Theoretically.

I have contacted agencies, talked with a lawyer, posted a message on this forum (got no response, alas) and the conclusion is: There is a lack of interest in our problem from the side of the general public.

So what can we do now? In our case, although we were strongly opposed to domestic adoption for various reasons (you may PM me about our reasons), we eventually went forward with it and adopted a beautiful baby boy of Cambodian descent. We named him Kiran ("ray of light" in Sanskrit") and he sure lives up to his name!

I am not a Hindu by birth, but over the years I got close to Hinduism. I am member in a Hindu temple and I raise Kiran as a Hindu. He goes to the temple with me and when he will be five, he will go to our Sunday school.

I see no problem with adopting a child of non-Indian heritage and raising him/her according to the Hindu tradition. Kiran's birthparents are Buddhists and they are actually very happy about this!

In view of my positive experience, I encourage you to go forward with domestic adoption if you are considering it.

Please feel free to PM me at any time. I will be more than happy to help you.

Jasmin

[adoptionnus]

Hi Jasmin,
Hmm...well, see we thought it will be easier for us to start off with India, because we are Indians ourselves.
I personally would love to just adopt..period! But, that might need some convincing on my husband's part. But, I would love to PM you and hear your end of it.

I am still in the search for an agency which will not reject us for being green card holders. Most of them have flatly rejected us. I do understand the reason why the US government has posted these rules, but I did not imagine that despite us being willing to stay back in India after adoption was finalized agencies would not assist us.

Let me PM you.
Thanks

[prerna]

I know couple of my friends who have adopted from India without an agency...I beleive u shd be able to do the same if u r ready to live in India for 2 years bfor bringing the baby here to the US. My friends took their homestudy+I600a and went to the orphanages in India.But they had their citizenship...(thats the only diff)

[Vaylan]

My wife and I have surplus embryos from a successful IVF cycle - we're looking to donate these to Indian couples in the US. Do you think any India-US adoption rules will apply in our case ?

[socal23]

Hi,

We were in the same situation a few years ago. You have to be US citizens to start the process. If not you have to stay in India with the child for 2 years but that is hard because of teh greencard.

[adoptionnus]

Originally Posted by prerna

I know couple of my friends who have adopted from India without an agency...I beleive u shd be able to do the same if u r ready to live in India for 2 years bfor bringing the baby here to the US. My friends took their homestudy+I600a and went to the orphanages in India.But they had their citizenship...(thats the only diff)

Hi Prerna,
I would love to hear from your friends or if you could pass on infromation about their process.
Both of us do not have our citizenship and that might take upto 3 years.
I think that even if your friends did not use an agency here,
they would need to be citizens to apply for the I-600A.

What process did they follow?

Thanks

[CCrasto]

Originally Posted by BrandyHagz

Anu,

You do know the citizenship requirement is only for International Adoption, right? You can adopt while living in the US from the US, without being a citizen.

It might be something else to consider - if you're open to that.

Hello Brandy:

My wife and I are in the same situation that Anu is.

While we will pursue an adoption from India after we are citizens, we were looking into foster adoptions in the U.S.
We live in Alabama and I talked to the person who conducts GPS training and home studies. She was not sure if
we could foster adopt and then told us that at least one parent had to be a citizen to even foster adopt.

The same thing was told to us by the contact person at childwelfare.gov


Your message indicates that we could adopt domestically. carrie Craft, an expert on these matters who answers
queries on About.com, said that even foreigners could adopt U.S. children according to the State Department.
I am waiting for a reply from her about my situation.

Could you shed some light on this to confirm that we could indeed adopt domestically if we wanted. It's possible
that some of the agencies do not get Green Card holders asking to foster adopt and hence are not aware of the rules.

Thank you very much.

C.

[BrandyHagz]

Adopting from the state has its own set of rules - and it's possible that they may require at least one parent to be a citizen...I can't comment specifically on the laws and/or rules regarding Alabama - but I can tell you, without a doubt, that if you want to adopt domestically (infant, private adoption using an adoption agency, rather than the state) there are no laws that say you must be a citizen.

You can visit Adoption Directory - Local Services Professional Agency Attorney Facilitator Adopt and contact some of the agencies listed there to see if you'd qualify for their program. Some agencies have different requirements, such as faith statements, age, family size, length of marriage and income requirement.

Good luck with your journey!

[CCrasto]

Thanks, Brenda.

It's confusing to me how a federal issue such as Permanent Residency can be overridden by state regulations. But I will find out more about Alabama.

Best,
C.