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My daughter is 21 and was adopted from Russia when she was 14. My ex husband kept her documents and did not register her adoption in the States. He will not give her or me the papers (adoption documents). She only has her passport and green card. She is unable to get health services because she can't prove she is adopted or a citizen. I have tried calling INS to no avial, the state dept etc. We are unable to get help. Any suggestions on how to get copies of the documents. Help!
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Whenever you complete an overseas adoption and go to the U.S. Embassy in the foreign country to get a child a visa to enter the U.S., you receive a sealed envelope. Leaving the envelope sealed, you hand it to the people at Customs and Immigration at your port of entry into the U.S.
It is possible to get the papers from that envelope by filing the G-884 with the USCIS. In most cases, the papers in the envelope include a copy of your child's foreign adoption decree and foreign birth certificate, which you submitted as proof of age and adoption at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Another option, if you choose not to file the G-884, is to go ahead and file for a certificate of citizenship, using the N-600. If you read the rather confusing N-600, you will find that you do not have to include documents which the USCIS already has in its possession. Since the sealed envelope should contain your child's original adoption decree and birth certificate, the USCIS should be able to use it to issue a certificate of citizenship.
Automatic citizenship was not in effect when your daughter entered the U.S., but since she would have been under age 18 when the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 took effect in February 2001, she is supposed to be "grandfathered in".
As long as your child came home on an IR-3 visa (you can check by looking at what it says inside your daughter's Russian passport), readoption in the U.S. is not necessary in order to claim citizenship. If the visa stamp says IR-4, however, meaning that only one of you saw your daughter in Russia before the adoption was finalized, you will not be able to file the N-600 until you readopt in your state. For that readoption, you will need the materials in the sealed envelope.
You WILL be able to get your child's documents. These are the easiest approaches. Alternatively, you would have to retain a lawyer and attempt to get your ex-husband's documents through legal action.
Sharon
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