Is it possible to Adopt a child while on H1B Visa?

Can you please share how to start adoption process (for Indian infant) in USA?

Remember that at least one parent must be a U.S. citizen, in order to adopt from any country overseas and bring the child to the U.S. 1. Select a placement agency anywhere in the U.S. that is accredited by India's Central Adoption Resource Agency and that is Hague-accredited by the U.S. 2. Select a homestudy agency in your state that your placement agency will accept, and begin your homestudy, a process that will usually take 1-3 months. 3. Download a copy of the I-800A (I believe that India is a Hague-compliant country; it would be the I-600A if it was not.) from the USCIS website and complete it. Send it to the appropriate USCIS office with your homestudy report and the other required materials; some states may let you send it in before your homestudy is complete, but you will not get a review of your paperwork until the homestudy report is received. 4. Go for fingerprinting when told by the USCIS. At this point, you will wait anywhere from <1->4 months for USCIS approval, depending on your state of residence. 5. Prepare pre-referral documents for your dossier, under guidance from your placement agency. Have all documents appropriately notarized, certified, and authenticated, as instructed by your agency. You will generally need to add your homestudy report and the 171-H or 797-C approval when you receive it from the USCIS. 6. Send dossier to placement agency, which will follow appropriate procedures for sending it to India. At this point, you will experience a wait of 12-24 months for a referral, which is what it's generally taking people of Indian origin residing in the U.S. 7. Review referral information, when you receive it, and decide whether you can parent the referred child. Notify your agency in writing. 8. Prepare the post-referral portion of your dossier, which your agency will send to India 9. Wait for CARA to issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC), which can take up to a month. 10. Wait for Family Court in the area where the child lives to approve the adoption, which may take 3-5 months or so. Unless you belong to certain religious groups, the court will grant you guardianship of your child, rather than a final decree of adoption, and you will have to adopt him/her in the U.S. 11. Work with your agency on paperwork to obtain your child's visa from the USCIS. 12. Travel (India requires at least one parent to do so) to bring home your child. 13. Work with your homestudy agency and your placement agency to complete all the requirements to finalize your child's adoption in your U.S. state of residence. Sharon

kindly tell us who to contact to help us through the process of domestic adoption. my husband is on h4 visa and has started the green card process.

can u tell us how to proceed with domestic adoption?

Can you please tell us how to proceed with domestic adoption while on H1 visa in USA?

m-d-t-b, like you I was an H1B holder (now I have a green card and I will apply for citizenship in 1.5 years). I adopted my son when I was on an H1B and my daughter when I had the green card, both via domestic private adoption. :flower: Domestic private adoption is the only option you have. U.S. immigration has barred international adoption for non-U.S. citizens (BTW: I wrote to some organizations and senators but was told that granted, although I have a perfectly valid case, there was "no political will" to change the current status quo. A distasteful situation indeed). Domestic public adoption (from foster care) is also not possible for H1B holders and sometimes they can also make problems for green card holders due to lack of experience. In domestic private adoption, foreign nationals face a disadvantage. As non-Americans, it may be more difficult for a birthmother to relate to us plus she might be concerned that we will leave the United States and she will lose contact with the child (if she is interested in contact). The difficulty is increased tenfold if you do not belong to a Judeochristian religion. In that case, it can be a real challenge to find an agency that will work with you because many agencies have arbitrary "restrictions" which typically reflect the likes/dislikes of the agency director and/or how "marketable" they see you. It might be beneficial working with a lawyer because they don't have arbitrary restrictions, they will work everybody who is home study approved. It is definitely possible to overcome all the hurdles and to adopt successfully. I have done it twice and it went fast in both cases. It takes determination, the ability to do what is required and most importantly, the right professional professional. I will PM you a recommendation on whom you might contact.

Dear WizardofOZ,Sometime when all door seem to be closing or closed, a new one opens up. Reading your post was just like that. Me and wife have had a series of unsuccessful pregnancies which have left us absolutely bankrupt (due to medical procedures) and emotionally scarred and exhausted. We are on H1 and H4. We have thought about adoption before, but always thought that our only option was to adopt internationally. We didn't know that it is 'possible' to even adopt dometically here in US. We would be highly oblidged if you can give us some direction about whom to contact and how to go about domestic adoption. We must add that it is hard to put in words how glad we are to see that someone in the same immigration status as we are was able to successfully adopt domestically. I am grateful that you have shared your experience.Thanks again.

we are an indian couple on h1 and h4 visas....hoping to adopt domestically from usa. we empathise with you a lot.....we are in the same position.....just starting the homestudy. please google to find support and sound advice from nri domestic adoption groups etc please obtain legal clearance first..... like us ...from different official sources with reliable lawyers in india and usa......and select capable homestudy agencies, adoption facilitators, adoption placement agencies etc. we started the process in july 2009 and got clearance from all the mentioned sources below.....thru emails/phone calls etc in the last 2 months .....from cara, india and indian state branch of cara; indian consulate;us central authority for adoption ie federal govt; state high court approval document etc collect emails by googling. then collect proper birth certificates for you/your spouse....and child abuse clearance certificate as well as police clearance certificate from indian consulate. the money is unfortunately a very big issue....irs gives some tax`relief but try to save around $40k ....before u begin.then again....this is a personal observation. please collect references from...2 relatives and 3 other sources.....all living in usa. please feel free to contact me. also, please research every agency/attorney and read good books on domestic adoption. best wishes on your adoption journey!

I think (as far as I clarified as Israeli citizen) that it is even easier than that. As long as you are a legal U.S. resident and do the adoption process from A to Z here, including finalization, it is irrelevant for foreign authorities whether the child was ever adopted or not. That's what I was told. Once you finalize, you will receive a new birth certificate in whcih you are listed as parents of the child. The fact that the child was adopted loses its relevance from that point on. From the foreign government perspective (and form anybody else's for that matter), it is as if the child had been naturally born to you. That's the whole idea of adoption finalization: Your child will be entitled to the same legal status as your naturally born child would, including an Indian passport. All you need it to provide his/her birth certificate, that's all, that's how it works with Israel.

Dera sharpalien I have responded to you privately but I also want to respond to you and everybody who is a non-US citizen wanting to adopt in public. You CAN adopt domestically via private adoption.! I have done so twice, my first one when I was on an H1B visa and my second one on a green card. You do not need clearance from your country either, as far as I know. The domestic process is identical to what US citizens ho through, The only problem is to get selected by a US birthmother. Non-US citizens, especially if they are non-Christians have a whole lot harder time to get chosen. Agency picks are a good option. The main point is to work with the right professional. I can wholeheartedly recommend the attorney who did my second adoption. She can help you! Please PM me for her contact details. :woohoo: As we all know, we cannot adopt internationally because of US immigration laws. The laws which forbid us to adopt internationally violate the Hague agreements which the US has signed. In those agreements, it says that you cannot discriminate between and adopted and a biological child (since India has signed the Hague, I do not think you need to get apriori clearance from CARA and/or Indian embassy for domestic US adoption - after finalization the child is as it was was born to you!). Now, what the US is doing by not providing a legal status to adopted is exactly discrimination and hence is violating the agreements. I have called up US immigration, an immigration attorney, contacted a congress man, you name it. The general response that I was given was "you have a valid case but there is no political will to change the current situation". Our problem is not "interesting" to the politicians because they do not see an electoral gain from it. :eek: We all have experienced that US immigration is double faced. It is ridiculously punitive with legal immigrants and ridiculously lenient with the illegal ones. I remember very well during my merry H1B times when the immigration official (whose salary I was paying via my taxes, BTW) kept on inquiring me at Dallas airport. I asked him if in all sincerity he thought as I was an illegal immigrant (I have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and was working Samsung) but he kept on digging and digging. So I finally said to him "if you are really looking for illegal immigrants, why don't you look for them at our local restaurants". Now, THAT is an outrageous idea! :arrow: I urge all of you to contact you local congress man on the matter of adoption by non-US citizens, even though the chances to change the current laws are practically nill. But even so - we cannot not (try to ) do anything about it.

I had been to an adoption agency in Pune, India in Dec 2009 for investigation. The agency lawyer informed us that non resident indians (in my case H1B) will have to return and live in India for one year, and after that can start the process of adoption. Before any adoption, home study needs to be done, and stay in India for one year is a pre-condition. This applies only to cases when Indian citizens want to adopt from India.

This petition is requesting US to change rules and let GC holders able to adopt internationally. [url=http://www.petitiononline.com/nradopt/]A Petition For International Adoption By U. S. Permanent Residents Petition[/url] Your help can bring a big change and help thousands of unlucky people like us. Thx, Sai.

I have signed the petition four years ago (and nothing happened since ... bu t we cannot give up hope). Please help us promote this effort and sign the petition.

Yeah dont want to give up...but rather try all possible ways.Only 2000+signatures till today :( Please sign and help to promote.

Can you please let me know which agency you approached (you can PM me or email me madupu at gmail dot com). I will greatly appreciate a response.