3. With the new two trip rule the process here has changed for most. If
both parents (or single parent) has met the child BEFORE court and
AFTER referral then your child will enter the US on an IR3 visa and will
automatically receive citizenship and the
Certificate of Citizenship
for no extra fee. How nice. I understand that this comes within one to
two months of entering the US with your child after adoption. The child
will have their Ethiopian name and the adoptive father's name as middle
name and then your last name.... mostly (2008-11). If you want to
change names there is a fee
in the neighborhood of $300 + or so to get a new Certificate of
Citizenship with the name change on it. I think you can do a Date of
Birth change with tons of proof on it at the same time. I do not know if
you change their name and or date of birth on the Validation if that
nullifies the COC or not. I expect it is traceable to them and still
proof of citizenship. Getting that COC without the validation first is
causing a great deal of complications for name changes and date of birth
changes.
For those of you who adopted under the old policies or who have had to
recieve a waiver and only one parent met your child prior to court then
the following applies to you.
Apply for your child's
citizenship papers. (USCIS
forms and
info and
fact sheet
on citizenship) You will need to fill out the N-600 and pay the $550
per child (2013, this will go up each year). They DO NOT accept
personal checks you will need a bank check or money order. Until you do
this your child WILL NOT be able to
prove
the he or she is a citizen of the US. This means your kids entered on
an IR-4 visa (meaning the court procedure declaring the child officially
yours happened before you met them in Ethiopia). In addition my
understanding of and experience with this is that you will not be able
to do this until after you have filed for and received the validation of
foreign adoption as the US does not consider the adoption full and
final abroad for certain legalities that I do not understand. Even
though it is, you still have to have this paper. You DO NOT have to
apply for the green card, your child is a legal alien (you should have
received a green care in the mail after returning to the US) until the
validation of foreign adoption at which time they become a citizen but
can't prove it, they keep the green card as their form of ID. If you
come in to the States on IR-4 you will get the green card automatically.
(Two trip families who both traveled for court: If you come in on IR 3
your child will be automatically a Naturalized Citizen and you get the
COC.) If your child comes in on IR 4 -YOU MUST FILE FOR PROOF OF
CITIZENSHIP, while your child is a citizen after the validation they can
not
prove it without this.
This can get sticky after they turn 18. A passport should prove this,
but there have been some issues with it for some.
Other notes on this process:
From USCIS "The
USCIS
has re-engineered its processing in order to streamline the production
of Certificates of Citizenship for certain children adopted abroad.
Streamlined processes have been developed for newly entering IR-3
children who are automatically U.S. Citizens when they arrive. These
newly entering IR-3 children will receive Certificates of Citizenship
within 45 days of their arrival instead of receiving a Permanent
Resident Card and then filing the
N-600 for a Certificate. (Please see our Fact Sheet for additional
information)" This is NOT for a child entering on IR4 visa. It later
explains that you have to buy that proof if both parents did not meet
the child before the foreign adoption.
__________________________________________________________________________
Notes on Citizenship:
*****
:A word on Citizenship (Italics and bold mine. )
from the US gov. page
"U.S. CITIZENSHIP FOR AN ADOPTED CHILD It’s very important
that you make sure your adopted child becomes a U.S. citizen. The Child
Citizenship Act of 2000 was designed to make the citizenship acquisition
process easier and eliminate extra steps and costs. Under the Child
Citizenship Act, children adopted abroad
can automatically acquire U.S. citizenship
if:
1. At least one parent of the child is a U.S. citizen;
2. The child is
under the age of 18;
3. The child is admitted to the United States as an immigrant for lawful permanent residence; and
4. The adoption is final.
(re-adopt or validation is complete)
Because of the Child Citizenship Act,
many (IR3) parents are no longer required to make a separate application for their children to be
naturalized.
If your adoption doesn’t meet these requirements, however, acquiring
citizenship for your child will require an additional process and
additional fees. If you postpone or even forget to file for your child’s
naturalization, your child may have difficulty getting college
scholarships, working legally, voting, et cetera. In some cases, your
child might actually be subject to possible deportation. Make plans
right away to protect your child’s future."
Page 31 | FROM A to Z
From the USCIS website:
"Children with IR-4 and IH-4 visas:
- do not acquire automatic citizenship upon entry to the U.S., but
instead become permanent residents.
- will automatically receive a permanent resident card (green card).
- will automatically acquire citizenship on the date of their adoption in
United States, if the adoption occurs before the child’s 18th birthday."
USCIS site on this issue
"Permanent Residence (a "green card") grants the right to live in, leave and
reenter, and work in the U.S. It does not grant, for instance, the right to
vote in U.S. elections. Permanent Residence may be deemed abandoned if the
U.S. government believes that the permanent resident has not maintained
sufficient ties to the U.S. to demonstrate intent to keep it. It can also be
revoked if, for instance, the permanent resident commits certain crimes.
Citizenship includes all those rights, plus the right to vote and certain
other rights. Citizenship cannot be deemed abandoned even if the citizen
resides aborad for long periods of time without strong ties to the U.S. It
can be taken away, but normally only if the naturalized citizen can be
proven to have misrepresented something during the naturalization process
(or does something which could also cause removal of citizenship to a
U.S.-born citizen, such as fighting with a foreign army against the U.S.)"
http://www.reichimmigration.com/ImmigrationInfo/FAQs/PRvCitizenship.html
My personal opinion note on this: It has been the experience of several
families and on the advice of several agencies involved with adoptions
as well as adoption lawyers, that it is imperative that you get the COC
for your child. The passport will not prove citizenship in an official
way
before you validate the
adoption in the US, because they are permanent residents, not citizens.
It is debatable if it proves citizenship
after
the validation/finalization/readopt. I realize that the documents are
not 100% clear on this issue, there is debate on this subject. However, I
make this statement on the experience of so many others who I have read
about and met on line finding out the hard way that they needed the
COC. For the passport you pay for it every few years and after they are
18 they have to keep doing it, or they bear the burden of having to go
through all the naturalization stuff that you could have spared them,
they can not just get the COC after they are 18. You pay for the COC
once-before they are 18. In the end the cost of the renewal of a
passport and the risk of it lapsing and the burden of maintaining it
after 18 is a far greater cost and risk than paying the $420 for the COC
one time and never having to consider it again. You KNOW you have done
the best thing for your child the first time.
When should I do this?
I would strongly suggest starting on this while you are waiting for the
embassy date. You can download most of the forms to your computer and
fill out what you can and get the name off the adoption birth
certificate, etc. when you receive it. You will need the court adoption
forms from Ethiopia. You can have the validation papers ready to go
when you get home with a few add in's and that will be great being as
tired as you will be when you get home. Sometimes, for older kids you
need to wait a bit to see if their given age is off or not. Mostly it
is, but if it needs changed is entirely up to you. In any case you have
until they turn 18 to do this, of course I think it is best to get it
done in the first two years home.
Legal information
Government page on International adoption
Inter Country adoptions A-Z
Adoption magazine guide to paperwork, clear and well laid out.
BAAS.org
http://www.legal-eaze.com/index_files/Page1946.htm
What ID do you need for what services or proofs? Check it out here.
http://www.coloradoidproject.org/RTF1.cfm?pagename=Resources
Article on why you should get the Certificate of Citizenship
http://www.ethicanet.org/
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