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

Dear Rajmoon, you ask a very good question: Why can't you, as an H1B visa holder, bring an adopted child here on a dependent visa (H4) just like your biological child??? And I will add to that my own question: Why can't I, as agreen card holder, bring an adopted child here on a dependent visa (H4) or on a permanent residence visa (green card)??? The United States has signed the Hague Agreements in which it says that the United States will not discriminate between adopted and biological children. So how can it be that U.S. immigration refuses to issue dependent visas for adopted children but will do so for biological children? Isn't this in contradiction to the Hague Agreements? Since I thought it clearly was and since I thought that this distortion is not tolerable, I decided to first look at immigration laws in Switzerland. I am Swiss citizen and Switzerland has also signed the Hague agreements and in general, the two countries have a similar legislative system. I called up the Swiss embassy in Atlanta and inquired how Switzerland deals with immigration of adopted children by non-citizens. As I expected, Switzerland does not discriminate between biological and adopted children and non-citizen residents can get a dependent visa for the adopted child provided that the adopted child has another foreign citizenship. When I told the Swiss official about the situation in the United States, he was quite amazed since it is so obviously in violation with the Hague agreements. Then , I called up USCIS and asked them why U.S. immigration discriminates when they issue dependent visas. The official who answered my call was very nice. In the beginning, he tried to feed me some scripted cliches like "what do you think? The whole world wants to immigrate to the United States!! A survey has shown that 50% of all the Chinese want to live in the United States!". After he realized that I won't be satisfied with such scripted statements (of which I don't believe a word, by the way!), he started to help me analyze the situation. After he heard me out patiently, he said that indeed I do have a valid case here and gave me some resources that I can turn to try to change the current laws. As for myself, I was forced into domestic adoption because of U.S. immgration and right now, I have started a domestic process again - being forced by U.S. immigration laws, not because this is what I really want. What I really wanted what to adopt an orphan for humanitarian reasons. Domestic adoption has some humanitarian aspect, too, but my heart is with international adoption. For people like yourself, domestic adoption which is based on the concept of American pregnant women choosing you, is de facto out of question and that for two reasons: 1. You want to return to Indian. Most birthmothers won't like that and will not select you. 2. Most birthmothers choose Christian adoptive parents. As a Jew, I got barely selected. I can only imagine how little the chances are that a Hindu would get chosen. Although I will not benefit form a change in policies myself, I decided that I will not let go. We have a saying in Jewish culture: "The one who saves one soul is saving a whole world". The thought that by correcting the immigration laws lives of orphaned children will be profoundly improved is so important to me that I will do all it takes to make it happen. So in practice it means that my next steps are local congressman and some more institutions that the USCIS official referred me to. As for yourself, the only choice that you have is to wait until you are back in India. I PM-ed you some more on that. I don't think that something will change while you are in the United States. The more I look into the topic, the more it is my impression that the current laws result from a lack of understanding on what adoption is and what immigration is and how the two are related to each other. This lack of understanding is not only prevalent in the American public who is largely ignorant on how (legal!) immigration works but it percolates up to USCIS itself! The good news is that I expect a change to happen but it will take a long time. The bad news is that you and I will probably not benefit from it. namaskar Jasmin