Experienced Immigration Adoption Lawyers For Foreign Adoption
An immigration adoption lawyer is crucial for any foreign adoption due to the complexities of international law. Not only must an attorney competently navigate the rules of an international adoption treaty, but they must also have experience in U.S. immigration laws. You attorney must be resourceful, thorough, and diligent to keep up with the ever-changing international landscape and evolving immigration policy.
At Warren Law Firm, we have the skills, experience, and resources to help you through the administrative complexities and legal matters surrounding foreign adoptions.
If you’ve chosen to adopt internationally, you have a few pathways. Together, you and your attorney will decide the best path for a successful adoption that’s in the best interest of your expanding family.
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Angela D. Warren
With more than 20 years of immigration and business immigration experience, Angela Warren has helped hundreds of individuals, families and businesses.
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The Hague Adoption Convention Process
The Hague Adoption Convention is an international treaty that provides safeguards for everyone involved in international adoptions.
It protects the children, birth parents, and adoptive parents. If you are a U.S. citizen living in the United States and the child you wish to adopt lives in another country that is party to the Hague Adoption Convention, the Hague process must generally be followed.
Some exceptions apply, as is true with almost everything in immigration law.
More than 100 countries around the globe take part in the Hague Convention.
Primary Forms Used for Hague Convention Foreign Adoption
The forms used by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for international adoptions from treaty countries include:
Eligibility for Hague Convention Foreign Adoption
If you would like to adopt a child from a treaty country, you must meet all the following requirements:
- You must be a U.S. citizen.
- You must habitually live in the U.S.; in other words, your main home must be in the United States.
- If you aren’t married, you must be 24 years old or older when you file your application to determine
- If you are not married, you must be at least 25 years old when you file the petition to classify your new child as an immediate relative.
To be classified as a Hague Convention adoptee, your new child must meet all the following requirements:
- They must be under 16 years old at the time you file the petition to classify them as your immediate relative (though an exception may apply if you’re adopting siblings allowing you to adopt a child under 18 years old).
- They must habitually live in a Hague Convention country.
- They must be eligible for foreign adoption by the Central Authority of that county and have all required consents for adoption in place.
Steps of the Foreign Adoption Process
- Connect with an immigration attorney familiar with international adoptions.
- Find and contact a U.S. accredited adoption service provider (ASP).
- Take part in a home study by an authorized agent and be found suitable and eligible to adopt.
- You or your attorney must file Form I-800A.
- If all goes well, USCIS will approve your Form I-800A application.
- You’ll get a proposed placement with the child’s country’s Central Authority.
- You or your attorney will file a Form I-800 petition with USCIS.
- If all goes well, USCIS will provisionally approve your Form I-800.
- You will adopt the child in their birth country or obtain legal custody for the purpose of removing them from their country to be adopted in the United States.
- You will obtain an immigrant visa for the child and officially begin an exciting new parental journey!
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Adopting a Child from a Non-Hague Country Using the Orphan Process
If the child you wish to adopt is not from a treaty country, you may be able to adopt through the orphan process.
If you are married, your spouse must also file the petition and adopt the child with you, but if you are not married, you must be at least 25 years old when you file your petition.
The USCIS form used for foreign adoptions from nontreaty countries is Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative.
You must establish both of the following:
- You will give the child proper parental care.
- The child is an “orphan” according to the definition used by U.S. immigration law.
You must also establish one of the following:
- You adopted the child abroad and either you or your spouse have seen the child in person at least once before you adopted them.
- You have permission to remove the child from the foreign county to bring them to the U.S. for the purpose of adoption and will do so.
A child is considered an orphan under U.S. immigration law if one of the following is true:
- The child doesn’t have any parents because they died, disappeared, abandoned the child, or deserted the child.
- The child’s only surviving parent is unable to care for them and has written an irrevocable release of the child so that they may be taken from their country for the purpose of being adopted.
As with the Hague Convention, the petition must be filed by the child’s 16th birthday or by their 18th birthday if you are also adopting their sibling.
Foreign Adoption Using the Immediate Relative Visa Process
If you’d like to adopt a child from another country and they are your immediate relative, you may also petition USCIS for an immigrant visa for that purpose. If your situation involves an immediate relative, your attorney can explain the details of petitioning for an immediate relative visa on behalf of your loved one.
Your Adoption Service Provider is Not a Replacement for an Immigration Adoption Lawyer
You may feel confident with the pathway of the foreign adoption because the ASP is accredited to provide the service, but USCIS warns prospective parents to understand that even an ASP cannot provide legal advice nor services before USCIS. So, it’s imperative that you also have an immigration attorney representing you.
While we’ve discussed many of the primary forms needed for foreign adoptions, your immigration adoption attorney will help you figure out which supplementary forms, waivers, and additional documentation you may need for your family’s unique circumstances. We encourage you to reach out to us before you begin the process of a foreign adoption so that you will have someone to represent your best interests at every step.