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Hello, I was speaking with a friend of mine this morning who is interestd in adopting a 13year old girl from Columbia. My friend is from Columbia, (dual citizen, US and Columbia), married to a US citizen and living in the US. The girl is her neice, and the parent(s) is willing to relinquish the child for adoption to my firend and her husband so the girl can get out of the 'dangeous' situation she is in. Does anyone know how she would proceed with a situiation like this with an identified child? Or where she could find out what would be involved to accomplish this? I am thinking that a US agency would not be needed, maybe just an attorney in Columbia, (and maybe a US immigration attorney) does that sound right? If someone could help point me in the right diretion to help her to get these type of answers for Columbia we would appreciate it.
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A US agency IS needed and your friend would have to go throught the exact same process as anyone else. However, it is infinitely more complicated than a regular adoption. There is a LONG list of USCIS Immigration requirements including that the girl has to be in FOSTER CARE -- outside of her birth family for at least 1 year and ICBF must prove that there are NO living relatives in COlombia that could care of the girl. This process can take a LONG time and must be completed before the family even applies for the I-800A. I recommend that you tell your friend to join a yahoo group that is exclusively for COlombians that wish to adopt from Colombia. I must add here that in the time I have moderated the group we have seen many similar situations -- only 1 was eventually able to meet the requirements and adopt the relative. In that case, the girl was a younger sister and the father had disappeared, the mother was institutionalized, and the only living sibling was living on the street. The girl had been in a convent for 5 years. Even at that it took almost 2 years for all of the papers to be processed and in the mean time the girl almost aged out of being able to come to the US as USCIS has an upper age limit at which a child can be adopted. Here is the link to the group. The group only allows the membership of Colombian families where at least one parent is Colombian or the child of COlombian parents. So, tell your friend to explain her situation when requesting to join the gorup so that she will be admitted. [URL="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ColombiansAdoptColombians/"]ColombiansAdoptColombians : Colombians Adopt Colombians[/URL]
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