[dings35]

Hello,

DH and I are looking to adopt an older child (ages 3-7) and are trying to decide between domestic vs. international. Can you help us understand at what point does your international child become yours? I was under the impression you do not leave the country with them until the adoption is legal and final, right? In other words, they don't even live with you until they are legally yours. DH read somewhere where that's not the case. That it takes about 6 months after the child comes home before they are legally yours.

We are shying away from foster-to-adopt for this very reason. We have recently learned that our foster-to-adopt child could live with us up to 18 months before they are considered legally ours. What a terrible time of uncertainty and limbo!

Can you help us clarify this?

Thanks so much!

[karla-k]

Immigration laws determine when the adoption is finalized. Some countries' adoption procedures are set up so that the adoption is finalized before you bring the baby home, some countries allow the child to come home under a guardianship status (Korea, India).

I would venture to say that in international adoption, that even if you are adopting from a country in which the adoption is not finalized until 6 months after homecoming, the child is "your's" once you get to the US. I am sure under extreme situations of neglect or abuse, you could lose that child, but international adoption is a pretty "safe" way to adopt a child and not worry about them being taken away as in foster to adopt.

[karla-k]

my answer is vague b/c the circumstances between countries can vary so much

We are adopting from a country in which our adoption will be finalized before we pick up our son. In order for this to happen, we had to visit our son and agree to adopt him before our court date. Other countries require you to finalize after you get home and usually require no visit before the court date, you are taking the child "sight unseen." Both systems are much "safer" if you will, than foster to adopt.

[2Bulgarianbeauties]

I believe the adoption is always finalized before you come home (someone correct me here if I am wrong).

There is the issue of whether the child is a citizen the moment they land on the U.S. soil or not. (IR3 vs IR4 visa). That depends on the country you adopt from. Most countries, the child will be a citizen the moment they hit US soil. This requires you to have visited the child before the adoption was taken to court in that country. If you do not visit before hand (Korea for example) you they come home on an IR4 visa, and perhaps that is where the readoption occurs to finalize the paperwork to make them a US citizen.

I adopted from Bulgaria and saw my daughters before the court date. They were completely mine when I picked them up and were US citizens the moment they landed in NY.

Kay

[DPline]

An internationally adopted child enter the country on either an IR3 or an IR4 visa. With an IR3, both parents have met the child prior to the finalization of the adoption in the foreign country and the child enter as a US citizen with a full and final adoption. If both parents (this is assuming married) do not meet the child prior to the finalization, the child enters on an IR4 visa as a legal resident. The adoptive parents must then readopt in the US to finalize and establish the child's US citizenship. How long it takes and how involved the readoption process is varies greatly by state and even by county. (For some it is a simple one time filing of papers, for others it involves post placement reports, additional fingerprint clearances, etc.) It is not a matter of the child being returned to their birth country, but a matter of finalizing and making the child a US citizen.

This is a VERY basic overview and there are variables depending on the country. For example for Korea and India the child comes home on a Decree of Guardianship and for Russia you are required to submit postplacement reports for a period of time (5 years I think??) so it is important to research the specific process for the countries you are considering. But again, it is not a matter of the child potentially being removed from your home, but a matter of finalizing and establishing citizenship and fulfilling any post placement requirements of the sending country.

Hope that helps!

[sak9645]

You've gotten some good answers.

Basically, once you leave a foreign country with your child, if you have done a legal and ethical adoption, you don't have to worry about having to give him/her back.

For one thing, most of the children available for adoption overseas are already legally free for adoption when you meet them. As an example, a child from China has been abandoned, and a mandatory birthparent search has been undertaken, before his/her paperwork is sent to Beijing for matching with an American family.


There are some countries where this is not so, but if there is going to be a fall-through, it will happen before you bring your child home. As an example, Russia requires that you make two trips -- one trip to meet the referred child and decide if you can parent him/her, and one to finalize in court and bring the child home. It occasionally happens that a member of the biological family comes forward before the second trip, and decides to parent the child. However, once the court has finalized the adoption, this is no longer possible.

Most countries issue a final decree of adoption before you take your child to the United States. A few countries allow you to take your child to the U.S. under a decree of guardianship for adoption here. In either case, from THEIR perspective, it's a done deal. Korea, for example, makes the agencies responsible for ensuring that families actually complete the U.S. finalization.

From the U.S. perspective, if both parents saw a child before the issuance of a final decree overseas, then the child comes home on an IR-3 visa and is considered to have had a "full and final adoption". The child does not have to be readopted/have a "recognition" of the foreign adoption in the U.S., unless the parents' home state requires it or unless the parents choose to do it. The child becomes a U.S. citizen the minute he/she passes through Customs and Immigration at the airport, and will get a certificate of citizenship in the mail within several weeks.

If only one parent or neither parent (in a married couple) sees the child before a final decree of adoption is issued in the foreign country, the child comes home on an IR-4 visa. From the US government's perspective ONLY, the child is NOT considered to have had a full and final adoption until he/she has been readopted or obtained a recognition of the foreign adoption in the parents' home state. The child does not become a U.S. citizen until readoption or recognition is completed, and the parents will have to file the N-600 to obtain a certificate of citizenship.

If a child is sent to the U.S. under a decree of guardianship for adoption here -- the Korea model -- the child comes home on an IR-4 visa. He/she must be adopted in his/her parents' home state, and becomes a U.S. citizen once the adoption is finalized in that state. The parents will have to file the N-600 to obtain a certificate of citizenship.

As far as citizenship goes, most Asian countries remove a child from their citizenship rosters upon their adoption. Some Eastern European and Latin American countries continue to consider adopted children citizens of their lands until they reach 18, go to an Embassy or Consulate in the U.S., and officially renounce that citizenship if they wish to do so.

If the foreign country continues to consider a child a citizen after adoption, it is no big deal. It does not jeopardize U.S. citizenship, since the parents or child did not request the foreign citizenship. Since a few countries, such as Russia, require the child to travel to that country on a Russian passport, instead of a U.S. one, if they return for a visit, some parents choose not to make such visits. The U.S. State Department will try to protect any American citizen child who is required to travel on a foreign passport for such reasons, but there may be some cases where its power will be limited because of the dual citizenship.

All in all, you and your husband can do a legal, ethical adoption from a foreign country without a worry that the foreign authorities will "come after him/her".

Sharon