[shimsha]

Hello,

I am new to this forum.

I am NRI and OCI card holder.

We want to adopt a baby from India.

Is it possible to bring a baby from India as we will be guardians to the baby and then apply for adoption here in USA? If anyone knows the details, could you please share with me?

thanks,
Shimsha.

[sak9645]

Unfortunately, under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, the child will not be able to get an adoption visa (IR-3 or IR-4) to enter the U.S., unless at least one of the prospective parents is a U.S. citizen.

It doesn't matter whether you would be adopting the child overseas or bringing the child to the U.S. under a decree of guardianship for adoption here. At least one parent must be a U.S. citizen to get an adoption visa for the child.

Unfortunately, there are no other visa categories that would allow two non-U.S. citizens to bring a child to the U.S. immediately after adoption or acquisition of guardianship. You would probably have to move back to India, live there for at least two years with the child, and then apply for the child to come to the U.S. as your dependent.

This is an immigration requirement that many people would like to see changed. At this time, however, it does not appear that this aspect of the Immigration and Nationality Act that is likely to change any time soon.

Sharon

[shimsha]

Sharon, thanks for your reply.

I forgot to mention. I am US citizen and holding OCI(Oversea's Citizen of India).

So, if I am US citizen, can I take a baby from orphange there in India as care taker or guardian and then bring here to USA and then apply for adoption here?

thanks,
Shimsha.

[sak9645]

I'm afraid it is nowhere near as easy as that.

Whether you complete an adoption overseas or bring a child to the U.S. under a decree of guardianship for adoption here, you must comply with some very specific requirements of your home state, the U.S., and India. It doesn't matter whether you are of Indian origin or not. Also, because both the U.S. and India have ratified the international treaty called Hague Convention #33 on intercountry adoption, the process becomes slightly more complicated, with more requirements to satisfy.

You can get more detailed information about the process from the following two websites, although I will give you a brief summary, below:

1. The website of the U.S. State Department, which has an excellent section on adoption from India, at Country Specific Information for india.htm.

2. The website of CARA, the Indian government's Central Adoption Resource Agency, has an excellent section on intercountry adoption at Central Adoption Resource Agency

Basically, you will first need an approved homestudy by a provider in your state. This provider will need to be acceptable to the placement agency you plan to use (see below). You cannot adopt from or get guardianship from any country in the world without one, and the homestudy must satisfy the requirements of your home state, the USCIS, and the Indian government.

Second, you will need to have an approved I-800A from the USCIS. Anyone adopting a child from overseas or bringing a child from overseas to be adopted here must have USCIS approval. The I-800A is used for Hague adoptions, and the I-600A is used if you were adopting from a non-Hague country.

Third, the Indian government requires ANYONE living outside of India to use an agency in his/her country of residence, even if he/she is of Indian origin, for the placement of a child for adoption. You may not do an independent placement, either from a family or from an orphanage.

The American agency you use must be accredited by the Indian government. India calls such foreign agencies "Enlisted Foreign Adoption Agencies" (EFAA) and has a list of them on its website.

Fourth, the American agency will help you put together a dossier of documents required by the Indian government. Among these will be your homestudy report and the approval document from USCIS, but there will be many others. The dossier will be submitted to a Registered Indian Placement Agency (RIPA) in India, which must approve you before a child can be placed with you.

Fifth, the RIPA will match you with a child in an orphanage. You may NOT identify a child on your own, by going to birthparents or orphanages. The child will have to meet U.S. requirements for immigration, such as the "orphan definition"; not all children in Indian orphanages will meet that definition. You will be allowed to specify things like an acceptable age range, and whether or not you will accept a child with known special needs.

The child will also have to be approved as eligible for international adoption by the Indian government. The rules for families where one parent actually holds an Indian passport are slightly less onerous than those for families where neither parent holds an Indian passport, but basically, the goal is to give priority to Indian families living in India. It is sometimes hard to get approval for international adoption of healthy infants and toddlers, though families of Indian origin may have preference over non-Indian families.

Sixth, if you accept the match that has been made for you, you will work with your agency to begin the process of getting the U.S. to indicate its willingness to allow the child into the country. The USCIS has to issue a letter to the Indian government, indicating that the child appears to be eligible to get an adoption visa and enter the U.S.

Seventh, your agency will then help you petition an Indian court to grant either adoption or guardianship. Only Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains can actually complete an international adoption within India. All others will apply for guardianship of the children referred to them, and must then adopt the child in their home countries.

Eighth, if you are awarded guardianship by the court, your agency will help you with the acquisition of the child's Indian birth certificate, Indian passport, U.S. visa, and travel arrangements. You will need all of these items to bring the child to the U.S. You will then bring the child home.

Ninth, if you have gotten guardianship, you will adopt your child in your state courts. This will require things like post-placement visits in your home, an updated homestudy, and so on.

This all sounds very complicated and time-consuming, I'm sure. And it is. But do remember that the goal of both the U.S. and India is to protect children, birthparents, and adoptive families. Every step in the process is intended to ensure that every child is legally free for adoption and was not bought or stolen; that every adoption is legal and ethical under the laws of both countries and the Hague treaty; and that every chld comes into a home where parents are able to provide a favorable environment for his/her development.

Many, many people have adopted successfully from India. If you work with a good agency, it will help to make the process as smooth as possible.

Sharon

[shimsha]

Sharon,

Thanks for your reply again. It answered a lot of my doubts.

As you said, it is a very long process.

I have some more questions:

1) What is the timeframe for the whole process?

2) a) How easy is to do domestic adoption of a child of indian heritage here in USA?
b) Is it easy to get these children here?
c) What is the timeframe?

3) Will it be a problem, if we loose the job in this bad economy during the middle of this adoption process?

4) What to do or what happens if we change the job, city or state during the middle of this adoption process?

5) What to do or what happens if we have to visit India during the middle of this adoption process?

6) What to do or what happens if we have move to India during the middle of this adoption process?

7) Will it be a problem if we move to India after successfully adopting?

a lot of questions.

thanks again,
shimsha.

[sak9645]

1. Time frames in international adoption are always a bit unpredictable, but seem to be lengthening considerably, of late. You'd have to talk to several agencies with good India programs to see what the time frame is currently, and even then, as they say with stocks and mutual funds, current performance is no guarantee of future returns.

Given that you are of Indian origin, my guess is that you'd need 18-30 months from homestudy to homecoming. The first six months or so would be for the homestudy and USCIS clearance. The rest of the time would be for your approval by India, the assignment of a child, and the completion of the process.

A lot would depend on how flexible you are in your requirements. If you want to specify a particular part of India, for example, you will probably wait longer. If you are determined to adopt only a young, healthy infant, you will probably wait longer, and so on.

2. Most domestic agencies doing newborn adoption don't focus on specific nationalities. At best, you may be asked if you want only a Caucasian baby, or whether you are open to babies who are Black, biracial, etc. There just aren't that many babies available through domestic agency adoption that matching on nationality makes sense. In fact, couples who are open to any nationality, as long as the baby is Caucasian, can wait years.

Your best chance at getting a baby of Indian origin through a domestic agency would be to go to an agency in an area with a large Indian population. Domestic agency adoption of a healthy newborn tends to be fairly expensive -- often more so than international adoption.

And while agencies try to minimize the possibility of a fallthrough by screening pregnant women carefully, there IS some risk that a woman whose child you planned to adopt will decide to parent, once the child is born. The time frame, if you insist on an Indian baby, could be several years. You would do better to consider children of other ethnicities.

You might do better to try to do a private domestic adoption, where you find a birthmother in the U.S. on your own and use a lawyer and a social worker to make sure that everything is done in an ethical and legal way. This might work especially well if you are well connected in the Indian community, and are willing to make outreach to obstetricians and others working in the Indian community, who are likely to hear about Indian women who want to make adoption plans.

However, private adoption can be risky. Private adoption can be low cost if you find a baby on the first try. However, there is a fairly high risk of fallthroughs due to women deciding to parent, and multiple fallthroughs will drain your finances. You also have to be very leery of scams.

If you are lucky, private adoption could go quickly, and you could have a child finalized in a year or less. However, many families simply aren't that lucky, especially if they insist on a specific ethnicity.

Going through the foster care system is another option, especially if you live in a state with a large Indian population. However, the likelihood that you will find a healthy infant of any race or ethnicity is fairly small, and the likelihood that you will find an Indian baby is even smaller. The majority of children in foster care are older and/or have significant special needs. You may be lucky, but you may not. The cost of adopting from foster care is often very, very low, and some kids come with subsidies to offset the costs of medical care.

3. One topic covered in the homestudy is your job stability and your finances. While you certainly don't have to be rich, you should be able to demonstrate a history of stable employment and a salary that would allow you to support a child. If you have a good education and in-demand work skills, you will be considered more likely to have income stability. If you have a lot of debt, that will work against you.

Any time you have a homestudy, you are required to have a homestudy update if something material changes in your life before you complete an adoption. A job loss, a job change, diagnosis of a serious illness, divorce or marriage, a move, a criminal conviction, a diagnosis of drug or alcohol abuse, new people living in your home, a new biological or adopted child other than the one whom you are seeking to adopt, a bankruptcy or foreclosure -- all of these sorts of things will require an update.

Most people who are laid off try to find a new job quickly, so that the homestudy update does not show a major drop in income. If you remain unemployed, and you don't have other sources of adequate income such as a spouse's salary or hefty investments, you may be asked to put your adoption plans on hold until you can demonstrate that you are employed and able to support a child.

4. Changing a job during your adoption process requires a homestudy update, but if you get a job with the same or higher salary and it does not force you to make major changes in your lifestyle like commuting an extra 100 miles a day or switching to the night shift, it's no big deal. Do remember, however, that if you are planning to use the Family and Medical Leave Act to take some months off to bond with your new child, unpaid but without fear of layoff or loss of benefits, you probably won't be able to do it unless you've been at a job for a year.

Moving to another home in the same state requires a more complex homestudy update, but it's doable. Remember that one part of a homestudy is an inspection of your home, to make sure that it is safe and welcoming. You will also be asked to demonstrate whether the move improves or worsens your financial position, and whether the move makes family life easier or harder.

Moving to another state during the adoption process is a nightmare, and something to avoid. You will probably need a whole new homestudy, because the homestudy must be done by a provider licensed to do them in your state of residence, and most providers do not work in multiple states. Moreover, each state has specific requirements for the homestudy, and your report will have to be in the format and have the content required by your new state.

Also, if you will be bringing a child home under a decree of guardianship and adopting in the U.S., you will need a major update after your adoption to get ready for the finalization. It is best to remain in one state through the foreign process AND the domestic adoption, in that case.

5. You are certainly free to travel wherever you wish during the adoption process. Spending significant amounts of time away from home, however, could make it difficult for you to schedule your homestudy visits and gather all your homestudy and dossier paperwork in a timely manner. Moreover, you will probably want to limit expenditures, so that you can maintain savings for your adoption.

If you go to India, do NOT attempt to interfere in the adoption process. If you try to talk to the officials, visit orphanages, etc., you may jeopardize your ability to adopt, so be careful. And remember that, even if you meet a pregnant woman who wants to make an adoption plan, you will not be able to adopt or get guardianship of her baby and bring him/her to the U.S.

6. If you have to move to India during the adoption process, you will have to work with your agency and the Indian government to ensure that the process can continue. Since you are a U.S. citizen, it may be assumed that you are not going to live there permanently, so you may not have the advantages of an Indian citizen living in India and seeking to adopt. And, of course, all of your paperwork will need a lot of changes, to ensure that your current living situation, financial picture, etc. is reflected. In general, I would NOT begin an adoption if I envisioned moving to another country, either permanently or for a year or two, during the process.

7. Once you finalize an adoption, you can do pretty much whatever you want in terms of moving. If you are the legal parent of a child, you are permitted to make whatever decisions you consider to be in his/her best interests.

If you adopt a U.S. born child in this country, he/she will be a U.S. citizen. Likewise, if you adopt a child in this country who was born elsewhere but naturalized in the U.S., he/she will be a U.S. citizen. He/she will retain that citizenship unless you seek another country's citizenship for him/her.

The U.S. recognizes dual nationality only if a person (or his/her parent, if he/she is a minor) did not do anything to acquire the second citzenship. Once you apply for another citizenship for a child, he/she will lose American citizenship. So if you go back to India, you and your child can either renounce your American citizenship and get Indian citizenship, or simply live in India as American citizens, if that is allowed by the Indian government.

If you try to adopt a child domestically and he/she was neither born in the U.S. nor naturalized as a U.S. citizen, you may not succeed. Technically, the child has to be adopted through the government of his/her country of citizenship, although domestic adoptions do occur in certain cases, especially if a child is in State custody.

If you do an international adoption from India, and the child comes home under a decree of guardianship, he/she would NOT become a U.S. citizen until you complete adoption in your state. Although, technically, the child would be a U.S. citizen as soon as the state court finalized the adoption, you would need to apply for a certificate of citizenship for the child, which could take some time to receive. He/she would remain an Indian citizen until finalization, and Indian law would determine whether he/she would lose Indian citizenship thereafter.

If you were a member of a religion allowed to finalize an international adoption in Inda, both you and your spouse would have to see the child before the issuance of the final decree of adoption, in order for him/her to become a citizen as soon as he/she enters the U.S. If both parents do not see the child before the issuance of the final decree, you would need to readopt the child or do a "recognition" in your state, before the child would become a citizen.

Again, if India considers an internationally adopted child as retaining Indian citizenship, even though the U.S. government has granted him/her American citizenship, this is not a problem for the U.S. government. The child can have dual nationality. However, if India strips a child of Indian citizenship once he/she is adopted internationally, and the child acquires U.S. citizenship, it would jeopardize that U.S. citizenship if his/her parents later applied for Indian citizenship for him/her.

One cautionary note. Nowadays, it is expected that parents tell their child that he/she was adopted, and not treat it as a secret. In this country, that is normal. Most Americans who adopt internationally are very open about the fact that they adopted, whether or not their children are of the same race or ethnicity. And adopted children tend to be treated the same as any other children.

In India, however, if you go back there to live with your child, you may run into some prejudice against adopted children. These are, after all, children whose biological families are unknown, in a society where issues like the "blood tie" and the social class of one's relatives can be very important. Hopefully, you will not try to hide your child's history from him/her or others, and hopefully, you will try to give him/her the tools to handle ignorance and prejudice.

Also, I am not Indian and I do not profess to be an expert on Indian adoption and Indian culture. However, one thing I've noticed in the Indian community, even in the U.S., is that there are some people with biases related to skin tone. These people seem to view lighter skin tone as better, and indicative of higher social class.

Remember that you will not be able to specify skin tone, if you choose to adopt from India. And be aware that many of the children awaiting adoption in India have darker skin tones. You will need to feel comfortable raising an Indian child, even if he/she has a dark skin tone. In the U.S., he/she may face some prejudice from within the Indian community (perhaps even from an occasional member of your family), though a bit less from the general population. However, the situation could become more pronounced if you return to India with your child. You will need to consider whether a dark skinned child will be given the same opportunities as a light skinned child, in terms of education, career, and so on, in India. And again, you will need to consider whether you can provide your child with the tools to deal with ignorance and prejudice.

Sharon

[shimsha]

Hi Sharon,

Thanks for all your information. I appreciate your patience in writing all the details so neatly. I am glad that you are so kind to me.

I am very confused what to do. I am worried about the job situtations here. I am not sure when we loose our job here.

I am thinking about going back to India and stay there for 2-3 years. I heard somebody doing that. After staying there for 3 months, that family took guardianship of a baby. After staying with the baby for 1 year there, they can apply for her US visa... Not sure, I don't know much details. If you know, please give me details.

billions of thanks,
shimsha.

[sak9645]

I'm afraid that I don't know much about that situation. You might want to talk with an immigration attorney.

Sharon

[bigboy1967]

Shimsha:

I really have to compliment Sharon on her vast knowledge of the Indian adoption process. We went through it...started in 7/2006 with the homestudy and brought our little guy home in 3/2008. I can share our experiences with you if you wish. Private message me if you want more info.

[melimon]

Hi Shimsha,

CARA has its own requirements for adopting within India. I believe you have to establish one year residency to begin adoption in India. You can check CARA's site: Central Adoption Resources Agency for more exact guidelines.

For the US, the child needs to be in your custody for two years before being eligible to apply for entry to US. See U.S. Citizens Abroad

So, this might be an option for you if you return to India for about three plus years (the plus being the adoption process time in India).

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any quick way around adoption from India. Now that the Hague treaty has been signed by the US (April 2008), there are even more restrictions and fewer options available in Indian adoptions.

Regards,

Melimon

[sumo]

Thank u so much for ur detailed explanation on the Indian adoption process. It is very helpful.

[possibleindiaadopter]

Shimsa, you've mentioned that you are OCI but this is not the same as Indian citizenship. Does your spouse currently hold Indian citizenship?

[shimsha]

Hi,

Both of us have OCI card.
And, I want to mention you that we have started the adoption process here in US. Home study is completed. Waiting for the referral, which may take over an year. This is very very painful.

-shimsha

[shimsha]

Hi Melimon,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I didn't see this forum since many months.

-shimsha