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INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION
Alien Adoption and Foreign adoption Information
The law on international adoption,
alien adoption or foreign adoption, requires that the
prospective parents be married, or if single, he or she must be at
least 25 years of age. Under international adoption, alien adoption
or foreign adoption law, you
have two major options.
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you may adopt through one of the U.S. international
adoption agencies.
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you may adopt
directly, without the help of any international adoption agencies.
If you adopt through an international-adoption
agency, you will be spared much of the legal hassles
associated with international adoption. However if you prefer to
adopt directly, then you will have to comply with the adoption laws
of your state, U.S. immigration laws, as well as the laws of the
child's country.
In either case, the procedures for adopting a
foreign-born child are as follows:
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Filing of an Orphan Petition (INS form I-600)
with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS)
formerly known as Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The petition
must show that either:
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the child's parents have died, disappeared or have abandoned
the child, or
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that the remaining parent is not able to care for the child
and consents to the child's adoption and immigration to the U.S. If both parents are known, the child will not qualify as
an orphan under any circumstances.
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Submission of other documents such as
adoption home study or
adoption homestudies report. It is advisable to prepare these documents
in advance, since the BCIS paperwork often takes a long time to
process, a possible cause of delay in the child's arrival in the
U.S. despite compliance of all foreign requirements.
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Check your own state's law on adoption, and try
to conform to it as much as possible.
Once the BCIS has approved the petition, and there
are no disqualifying factors such as a communicable disease, the child can be issued an immigrant
visa, and the adoptive parents may thereafter also file for U.S.
citizenship on the child's behalf, since U.S. citizenship is not
granted automatically.
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