Giving a Child a Home: Foreign-Born Orphans

If you have come to this foreign adoption site, chances are you are considering adopting a foreign born child. There are many questions you want to have answered. What are the policies involved in adopting foreign orphans? How can you make the process quick and painless? Can you do this process on your own? Read more about the pros and cons of foreign adoptions.

What is a Foreign-born Orphan?

Not all orphaned children are eligible for foreign adoptions. USA immigration law states that a child is an orphan if he or she meets several qualifications.

• The child has no parents because of disappearance, abandonment, separation from, or death of both parents.
• If the child's surviving parent is incapable of providing care for the child, and has given up the child for emigration and adoption in writing.
• The orphan petition for immigration must be filed before the child turns sixteen, unless the child is the sibling of a child under sixteen. In that case, the petition must be filed before the child turns eighteen if the child and his or her siblings are going to be adopted by the same parents.

If the child is eligible to be adopted, then the adoptive parents need to file an orphan petition. The petition must be filed by a U.S. citizen. If one spouse is not a citizen, he or she must be living legally in the US.

How to Apply to Bring a Foreign-born Orphan to the US

Adoption is a scary thing for a child, and the adoptive parents need to do the best they can to make the process go quickly for the foreign adoption. This will make the transition as easy as possible on the child being adopted. The quickest way to start the process is to file USCIS Form I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) before you choose a child to adopt. This will allow the USCIS to show that you are eligible to adopt and able to provide a good home for a child. It is important that your home environment and suitability as parents be approved before you begin the process of adopting, as it will save significant amounts of time.

Once you are approved and find a child to adopt, file USCIS Form I-600 (Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative). Do the advance processing form even if you have already found a child to adopt. You will need to provide certain documentation to the USCIS on behalf of the child:

• The birth certificate, if possible, or some other evidence of the child's age and identity.
• Proof of the child being an eligible orphan.
• Final adoption decree, if needed.
• Proof of custody of child for emigration and adoption.
• Proof that you have complied with pre-adoption requirements, if there were any.

Have all of this documentation available when filing your paperwork.

Continue to : Help in the Adoption Process of Foreign Orphans