how to adopt my sisters baby from samoa.

... whether he/she is related or unrelated, you must comply with the adoption laws of the foreign country and with the adoption rules of the U.S. Let me discuss the U.S. side first. Any person wishing to adopt a child, internationally, must have a homestudy by a provider in his/her home state licensed to do them. And any person who wishes to adopt a child internationally, must also be approved by the USCIS to bring a child into the U.S. So if you were going to adopt a child, any child, from overseas, you would need to do these two things. However, before you start on them, there is something else you need to know about the U.S. side. To bring an adopted child into the U.S. on an adoption visa, the child must meet the requirements of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. Not all children meet the requirements. Basically, the child must qualify as an "eligible orphan", and CANNOT have been living with married parents (or even parents living in a common-law relationship, if common-law marriage is recognized in the foreign country). The child must either have a single parent who cannot support him/her at the normal level for the country, or he/she must have been abandoned or totally relinquished to an orphanage. If you manage to adopt a child overseas who does not qualify for an adoption visa, you would have to live overseas with him/her for at least two years, and then apply for a standard (non-adoption) visa for him/her. On the Samoan side, you must realize that the child is a citizen of Samoa, and that any adoption must conform to the laws of that country. Since there are very few adoptions of Samoan children by U.S. citizens, I'm not familiar with the requirements. Two U.S. agencies that I know of work with Samoan adoptions, and you could call them to discuss the process -- Journeys of the Heart and Focus on Children. However, you have to understand that they are primarily involved with finding homes for children who do not have relatives willing to adopt them, and that they might not have much time to spend with a person doing an identified adoption. You can also contact the U.S. Embassy in Apia, Samoa, or the Embassy of Samoa in the United States (New York City). These embassies should be able to give you specifics about applying to adopt an identified child. Sharon

hi sharon - thank you so much for the informative info!! by any chance, do you have the numbers i can contact these agencies? i'm thin on time as i leave in 2 weeks! i hope i can make something happen. that is the case with my sister & her daughter, she left her daughter! bastard! anyways.. thanks again for all the info. i so appreciated. have a wonderful day & looking fwd to hearing from you again! regards!

Hi. I hope you are able to adopt this baby if she is in need of a loving home. Just keep in mind that the requirements Sharon outlined cannot be done in 2 weeks. If you are going to Samoa in 2 weeks, you will not be able to adopt the baby at this time. Start by contacting the embassy to find out if an adoption is even possible from Samoa and what requirements they have. If you find it is possible, you need to begin an int'l homestudy (this typically takes 2-3 months if it goes very quickly. 4-5 months is certainly not unheard of). You also need to apply for an Orphan Visa (I-600). You must be fingerprinted for this visa, and again--it can take up to a few months so you should do that as you do your homestudy. Sharon covered everything really thoroughly (as she always does!!). Having a realistic timeframe will help you feel less frustrated. IF you even can adopt from Samoa, and if this child qualifies for an orphan visa, you should probably keep in mind that most international adoptions take at LEAST a year to complete, start to finish. I wish you the best.

Here are the agency contacts: Journeys of the Heart Adoption Services P.O. Box 39 Hillsboro, OR 91123 503-681-3075 (ph) 503-640-5834 (fax) info@journeysoftheheart.net (e-mail) [url]http://www.journeysoftheheart.net[/url] (web) Susan Tompkins, Executive Director Local service agency/Placement agency Branches: Glen Ellyn, IL Focus on Children 405 Sage Street Cokeville, WY 83114 307-279-3434 (ph) 307-279-3444 (fax) info@focusonchildrenadopt.org (e-mail) [url]http://www.focusonchildrenadopt.org[/url] (web) Danalee Thornock, Director Local service agency/Placement agency Branches: UT Again, most agencies focus on finding homes for children who have no loving relatives to take them in, so they may not want to spend time on an identified adoption by a person who is not their client. So do be prepared to contact the U.S. Embassy in Apia and the Samoan Embassy in the U.S., and also check with the U.S. State Department, Office of Children's Issues, for details on how to pursue an adoption from Western Samoa. You can find contact information for all of these entities on the Internet. If you cannot find any information on your own, either while you are at home or while you are visiting Samoa, contact a reputable adoption attorney in the U.S. He/she will be able to research the process for you, and to shepherd you through it, but there will be fees involved. That's why you should do as much homework as you can on your own. But do remember that Teranga is right. While an adoption of a relative is sometimes slightly easier than adoption of a non-relative, NO adoption can ever be completed in two weeks. You are probably looking at six months or more of work on your part. Your local USCIS office, alone, will probably take at least two months to process your paperwork, and many USCIS offices take even longer. And besides the U.S. process, you may be looking at an overseas process that takes months. Especially when a country doesn't do a lot of international adoptions, you may run into snags along the way. Sharon

Hello, I noticed your thread on adopting a relative's baby. We are blessed as well with my extended family blessing us with a baby boy. He was just born last week and we have been planning our trip to adopt him since Jan 2011. We thought everything was going good and we have a roadblock. My questions:1. We live in Texas and want to know what papers are required to have a private adoption completed. 2. How long will it take to complete? We have both natural parents in agreement to adopt the child to us and we are getting documents prepared to travel with him as we leave for American Samoa 6.14.2011. I have spoken to many lawyers and they want thousands of dollars and we feel that we have done all the work and this will be an uncontested adoption. PLEASE HELP! Sincerely.

American Samoa and Samoa are different. American Samoa is a U.S. territory. As such, you may be able to do a domestic adoption, not an international adoption. Consult an adoption/immigration attorney. Sharon

I have spoken to about 5 "adoption" lawyers thru my work lawyer network and they ALL don't get that simple part that American Samoa is a US Territory.. I am glad some people understand that part of the world. :-) At this point I really am tired of trying to get that part across. I want to do the paperwork myself as from my research it is a few documents with notary. We have lawyers back home and it is an adoption within my family, no agency, no searching, no nothing except being "approved" by a government agency. Sorry if I am going on as we are getting so close to having our son in our hands. Thank you very much for your advice and suggestion. Gerald & Alina

Hello, I think I found you by accident. We adopted my husbands nephew from Apia last year. We are pretty much done with the adoption process. I'm flying this April to bring him home (CA). I'll be happy to share my story with you if your interested. Best Lisa

Hello Lisa,Thanks for the offer. I'm very interested in your story from start to finish in terms of the adoption process and of courses any successes you can share related to what you would do differently to improve/speed up the process if you were given a second chance to do a similar adoption.Thanks in advance for your contribution in sharing your adoption successes.Regards,Li

HI! I'm trying to bring my adopted son from Samoa to Hawaii but having difficulty in obtaining a visa for him. Since you were successful in your adoption, can you please help me with what i need to do or what info i need to gather so the US can grant him a visa please? BTW the adoption was granted in December 2015. Looking forward to hearing from you. GB.