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Hi, I am married to a US citizen and we got legal custody of my niece from the Canadian social services. we now want to adopt her. She is now 17 going to be 18 in sept.. I have 6 kids including her and we are military so funds will not permit another trip to Canada. My husband is in Iraq till march 2008 so it will have to be an adult adoption. .I am puzzled as how to go about this...she is living with us..can i just file adoption papers for her in Georgia where we live or do we have to do it in Canada?...
And we want to do a step parent adoption as well...those 4 are CND as well...can we file here in Georgia or Canada?
Thanks
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Remember that international adoption has two components -- adoption and immigration.
Adoption has to be done according to the law of the child's country of citizenship, which is Canadian. So you would need to comply with all Canadian adoption laws.
Immigration needs to be done according to U.S. law, in order for the child to be able to reside in the U.S. and become eligible for U.S. citizenship. I presume that your child is legally in the U.S. now, but on a non-immigrant visa; if so, she will need to be able to get an immigrant visa. Unfortunately, the adoption visa, which is the easiest immigrant visa to obtain, is not granted if a child has passed his/her sixteenth birthday, unless the parents already have adopted the child's biological sibling.
Because your situation is a bit complicated, I would suggest that you retain the services of a competent adoption/immigration lawyer. I happen to know an absolutely wonderful one in the Atlanta area, and if you need her name, I can refer you to her by PM.
Sharon
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