Adoptions

If the child you adopted is residing abroad, the child will need an immigrant visa to enter the United States. Visas are issued by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) at the Embassy or Consulate in the foreign country where your child resides.

Filing a Petition for Your Child

If you have already identified a child you want to adopt (or you have already adopted the child), you may file Form I-600, Petition to Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative. Submit your home study with your Form I-600 and any other relevant evidence that you are suitable as an adoptive parent. Submit evidence that the child is an orphan and that you have adopted or intend to adopt the child.

Advance Processing

You may also begin the orphan process before you identify a particular child for adoption. You do so by filing Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. Submit the home study with the Form I-600A. If USCIS approves your Form I-600A, the finding that you are suitable as an adoptive parent will make it unnecessary to address this issue again, when you file a Form I-600 for a particular child. Once a particular child has been identified, you would then file a Form I-600 for that child.

If you do not file Form I-600A, then you must complete all requirements of the I-600A when filing Form I-600.

The Orphan processes are special processes for children who are adopted by U.S. citizens and meet the specific requirements of those programs. There is, however, another provision under which an adopted individual is considered the child (or adult son or daughter) of his or her adopting parent(s) for immigration purposes. This provision is the immediate relative process.

This process is not limited to individuals who have been or are going to be adopted by U.S. citizens.
The adopting parent must have evidence of a full and final adoption and satisfy custody and residence requirements before the adoption may be the basis for immigration benefits.

Under this process, an adopted child is considered, for immigration purposes, to be the child (or adult son or daughter) of the adopting parent if:

The parent adopted the child before his or her 16th birthday (or before the 18th birthday under certain circumstances as described below). Must submit evidence of a full and final adoption.

AND

The parent had legal and physical custody of the child for at least two years while the child was a minor.

The legal custody must have been the result of a formal grant of custody from a court or other governmental entity. The custody and residence requirement may be met by custody and residence that preceded the adoption. The two years’ custody and residence requirements are waived for certain abused children.

A child is still considered to be an adopted child if they were adopted after his or her 16th birthday but before his or her 18th birthday, and:

The child is the birth sibling of another child who was adopted by the same parent(s) before the other child’s 16th birthday and immigrated through the Immediate Relative Process. Form I-130.

The child is the birth sibling of another child who was adopted by the same parent(s) before the other child’s 16th birthday and who immigrated as an orphan based on an adoption by the same parent(s).

VISAS

(Non-Hague) Adoptions

IR-2 visa: Issued to a child which is adopted by a citizen if the child immigrates to the U.S. while unmarried and before his or her 21st birthday or after the child’s 21st birthday, if he or she is treated under the Child Citizenship Act Information. The child under 18 automatically acquire U.S. citizenship upon entry to the United States if over 18 he/she become a permanent resident.

IR-3 visa: Issued when a full and final adoption is completed abroad. Requires that the parent(s) physically see the child prior to or during the adoption proceedings. If they are under 18 years old, they become automatically U.S. citizens upon admission to the United States.

IR-4 visa: Issued to a child that is coming to the United States to be adopted or was adopted abroad by only one parent (if married) or was not seen by the parent(s) prior to or during the adoption. Child will automatically receive a permanent resident card and will automatically acquire citizenship on the date of their adoption in United States, if the adoption occurs before the child’s 18th birthday.

For more detailed information see http://www.adoption.state.gov