Non US Citizen adopting ?

HiI have heard from several sources that it IS possible to adopt as a non-US citizen while living in the US. I am now chasing up an immigration lawyer and my own Consulate to confirm this. Does anyone actually know of someone who has achieved this? I believe that as a British person (and non-resident alien) I may be able to adopt internationally as the adoption takes place in the child's country, and I then bring the child back in on my exisiting visa. I may have to conform to British guidelines of designated countries for adoption, so that I can then apply for British citizenship for my child once I am back in the States. Again, if anyone knows someone that has done this, I would love to hear about it!Julie

Okay, I have just got off the phone with a fabulous and highly informed immigration lawyer and here is the info:People living legally in the US on non-immigrant status CAN adopt domestically - no question. As for adopting internationally, those who have done it have been very lucky, as it is not legal. You can take your chances on countries like Russia where you are basically hoping for a sympathetic US embassy immigration official to grant you an entry visa to the US for your child - but this is illegal. Once you have the child in the US you then deal with your own consulate for a passport for the child. If you are prepared to take the chance that you won't be able to re-enter the US with your new child in your arms, then it's up to you to try. Other options - prove to your own country of origin that you are still domiciled there to an extent that you can adopt through their social services (in England I forsee this would be a nightmare). OR - change the law in the US! (Why not?). The existing law is an old law that does not take account of the rapidly increasing amount of professionals living and working in the US. The government is happy to have us here paying taxes, etc, but we have limited adoption rights. If I can find enough professional people in my situation (ideally in states such as CO, CA, NY, TX) then the lawyer I spoke with is prepared to lead the petition to a senator to take this to congress. Is anyone interested? Julie

This is a very old thread, but in case anyone has these questions nowadays, here are some answers.1. If a person who is living in the U.S. on an immigrant or non-immigrant visa (such as a green card or work visa), adopting a child who is a U.S. citizen is not generally a federal matter. It will be up to the laws in the child's state of residence and the policies of the agency or person representing the child -- for example, the state foster care system, a private adoption agency, or an attorney. In most cases, you will find that the laws either allow it or are silent on the matter. HOWEVER, that does not mean you can do so easily, for several reasons: a) In the U.S., open adoption is the norm, and birthmothers often have a role in selecting the adoptive parents for their birthchildren. Birthmothers who are relinquishing voluntarily often choose adoptive parents who are amenable to letting them keep in contact with the birthchild through visits, as well as letters and phone calls. Many birthmothers will NOT choose a prospective adoptive parent who plans to take the child overseas to live, at some point, worrying that they won't be able to maintain contact. As a result, you may need to focus on children whose biological parents have lost their parental rights for reasons such as abuse or neglect. These are often children with emotional or behavioral issues related to the parenting they received. b) With healthy newborns, infants, and young children, there are far fewer American babies placed for adoption than there are American families wanting to adopt. As a result, most agencies won't bother accepting applications from foreign prospective adoptive parents, for these children; they can place these children very easily with American parents. c) Social workers worry about whether a child sent overseas will be monitored for possible abuse/neglect, and also about whether a child who might have physical, cognitive, or emotional issues will have access to services normally available in the U.S., but not necessarily overseas. As a result, they may not want to allow adoption by foreigners, except for those who are in the U.S. as permanent residents and likely to stay; people on non-immigrant visas may not be accepted. d) In general, most U.S. children adopted by foreigners are related to the people adopting them, or are children who are extremely difficult to place with American families, such as teens, children with significant disabilities, and so on. Nonetheless, SOME people DO succeed in adopting domestically. e) Many prospective adoptive parents from overseas want ONLY a child of their ethnicity. If a prospective adoptive parent wants ONLY children of his/her ethnicity -- for example, an Indian person wanting only an Indian child -- the chances of finding a child are much lower than if the person is open to a variety of ethnicities. Networking in communities where many people of a given ethnicity live can be helpful, to a limited degree.2. If a person who is already living in the U.S. on an immigrant or non-immigrant visa wishes to adopt a child from his home country or another country and bring him/her to the U.S. on an adoption visa (IH-3, IH-4, IR-3, or IR-4), that will NOT be possible unless the person's spouse is a U.S. citizen. That is a matter of federal law, and can be found in the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. Even if the person manages to obtain a final decree of adoption from the foreign country for the child, he/she cannot be admitted on an adoption visa unless one parent is a U.S. citizen. And there is no other visa category that will allow the child to come to the U.S. immediately after adoption, even in the case of relatives. In such a case, the prospective parent will have only a few options, none of them good: a) Do not adopt the child. b) If you have already adopted the child in the foreign country, overturn the adoption and return the child to his orphanage or foster home. c) Live overseas with the child for two years, and then apply to bring the child to the U.S. as an immediate relative. (In virtually all cases, this will mean giving up your green card or non-immigrant visa, as you will not be able to maintain continuous residency in the U.S.) d) Be aware that it is highly unlikely that you will get a waiver from this restriction on humanitarian or other grounds. And you will NOT be able to add the child to your original visa application, once you are living in the U.S.NEVER try any illegal tactics for adopting and immigrating a child, or you could lose your right to remain in the U.S. and could incur criminal penalties -- for example: a) It is strictly illegal for a woman in the U.S. on a green card or non-immigrant visa to go overseas, pretending to be pregnant, make a private arrangement with a woman overseas to relinquish her baby, get a fraudulent birth certificate for the baby that names her as the mother, and return to the U.S. with the child as if she had given birth. This sort of practice has occurred with people from certain countries, and the USCIS is on the lookout for people who might try it. The specific offense is visa fraud, a felony. b) It is strictly illegal to bring a pregnant woman to the U.S. for the purpose of giving birth and relinquishing her child for adoption by a U.S. citizen or resident. In general, the USCIS is quite cautious about granting visas to pregnant women, particularly since U.S. law regards any child born in the U.S., even if born to an illegal alien, as a U.S. citizen. c) It is strictly illegal to bring a child to the U.S. on a tourist, student, or medical visa, with the intent of keeping him/her here and, possibly doing a domestic adoption of him/her. Tourist, student, and medical visas are NOT immigrant visas. The holder of such a visa MUST go home when the visa expires or when he/she no longer meets the criteria for that type of visa. As an example, if a child on a student visa stops going to the school approved on his/her application, he/she must return to his/her home country. The person who sponsored the child can be considered as committing visa fraud if he/she lets the child remain here. And the child overstaying his/her visa can be deported. You will not be able to adopt the child domestically; in most cases, children must be adopted in their country of citizenship, or must come to the U.S. under a decree of guardianship, for adoption here. That decree of guardianship must be issued by the foreign government and approved by the USCIS, and applies only in cases where the USCIS has already approved a US citizen to adopt the child. If you are in the U.S., whether on a green card or other type of visa, and have questions about either domestic or international adoption, PLEASE contact a reputable adoption/immigration attorney. While people on these boards try to be helpful, there is a lot of misinformation on some of the adoption boards and listservs. If you follow some of the advice you may receive, you could be setting yourself up for heartbreak and even legal trouble.Sharon

Hello everyone, i am call Beldwin 22 years of age, male, looking for parents that can adopt me into the US or Canada.

The U.S. does not permit the immigration of people to the U.S. on an adoption visa, unless they are under 16 years of age at the time the "orphan petition" is filed with the USCIS. The ONLY exception occurs in the case of a child whose sibling was already adopted by the same family; then the child must not have had his/her 18th birthday at the time of the filing. An adoption visa is the only way that a child would be eligible to come to the U.S. immediately after adoption. In some cases, people who adopt a person over 16 may be able to get a regular immigrant visa for the person if they live overseas with him/her for two years, but most Americans can't just get up and move to a foreign country for two years, leaving their jobs and so on. And most foreign governments won't permit a person of any age to be adopted if they know that the U.S. government isn't going to issue that person a visa immediately.One option would be for you to get a job in the U.S., where the employer is able to sponsor you for an H1B visa. That is not an immigrant visa. It is just a work visa and expires if you leave or are fired from that particular job; at that point, you'd have to go home, unless you have another job lined up with a firm able to sponsor you. In most cases, you qualify for an H1B visa, only if you have a specialized skill that is in short supply in the U.S. or are willing to work at jobs in underserved areas of our country Examples might be an experienced nurse willing to work in a rural hospital, an experienced teacher willing to teach in an inner city high school, or an IT person willing to work at low level IT jobs, such as writing code, which often go to foreigners because Americans aren't interested in them.Some people your age can get education visas to enter the U.S. Again, however, these are not immigrant visas; a person must go home if he graduates from or leaves the school. It is difficult to get a student visa. For one thing, you must get accepted to a school in the U.S. that is willing to take you and that the USCIS has approved for educating foreign students; in most cases, you will need to pass tests, showing that you are capable of doing the work of a typical student at the school. For another, you must have someone or some institution willing to pay the full cost of your education plus all of the costs of supporting you while you are in the U.S. This can be the academic institution, your parents, or someone else. And, finally, the USCIS will want to see some indication that you are unlikely to leave school and attempt to stay in the U.S. illegally. Most often, it wants to see that you have ties to your home country, such as loving parents, bank accounts, property, and so on.While the U.S. allows for adoption of adults already living in the U.S., this legal process is designed to be used mainly in the case of adults who have physical, cognitive, or emotional deficits that make them unable to care for themselves, so that they function as if they were children. As an example, some parents of an adult with severe mental retardation keep him/her at home and provide for his/her needs, because he/she will never be capable of caring for himself/herself. When they die or become incapacitated, a relative or friend may adopt the person and continue providing for him/her, so that he/she does not have to be placed in an institution. The new spouse of a person who has an adult child and some minor children may occasionally decide to adopt the adult child along with the minors, even though the adult child is of normal physical and mental health and supporting himself/herself , just to show that he/she loves that child as much as the younger ones, but that is not common. My suggestion to you is that, instead of looking for adoption, you should try to rebuild your relationship with your parents, if that is possible. If it is not, I'd suggest that you begin establishing a wholesome life without them -- finding work, renting an inexpensive apartment, getting your high school diploma or a college degree if you need it to advance in a job, living within a budget, meeting decent friends through community organizations, and maybe doing some volunteer service. Build some close friendships with people your own age and with older and younger people, who can serve as honorary family, and invite them for holiday meals or celebrations. In the U.S., some young men and women in your situation join the military, which often becomes a substitute family, and which often pays for their education and job training. Of course, with the military, you need to be able to accept strict discipline and follow rules, keep in good physical shape, and be prepared to fight and die for your country. It worked well for some people I know, but it's not for everyone.All in all, there are two things you need to STOP doing. One is to stop sitting around and thinking of yourself as a victim of your mother and father's bad parenting or poverty or whatever. You don't need to be a victim, you don't need to be rescued, and you don't need adoption to make you successful and happy. You can make it on your own, if you put your mind to it and surround yourself with other people who are trying to make a good life for themselves. And if you get truly depressed, there are free and low cost therapy options. Another thing you need to stop doing is making choices that, in the longer term, will give you more pain, more trouble, and so on. Many young people turn to drugs and alcohol as a way of medicating themselves so their unhappiness, feelings of not belonging, feelings of anxiety will go away. Unfortunately, that's not how drugs and alcohol work. They may give you a few minutes or hours of altered mental status, but afterwards, you will still have your unhappiness, isolation, and anxiety. And they will lead you into poverty as you spend money on them and find getting and keeping a job impossible, lead you into more physical and mental health problems because they harm your body and mind, lead you into legal troubles as you steal to support your habit or hang out with criminals, and, as we see all too often, lead you to an early and needless death, sometimes in very painful ways. Seeking adoption on the Internet can be a bad choice, too. Unfortunately, there are a lot of perverts who troll the Internet looking for teens and young adults who are vulnerable and unhappy with their situation. They then lure these teens and young adults into situations where they may wind up forced into prostitution or slavery. The lives of these young people can be a living Hell, and they may die an early death from violence, AIDS, drug abuse, and so on. If you really feel that you are unable to care for yourself, and need help -- for example, if your parents have thrown you out, or if you have been evicted after losing a job -- go to a local social services agency and discuss your situation. Most developed countries have services that can help you get on your feet.Sharon