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Greetings from the Philippines!
I'm a naturalized US citizen living in the Philippines since 2007. My wife and I had to go through an adoption process to change her 7yr old sons surname to mine. I love her son and we've been together as a family since he was just almost 2yrs old. My adoption lawyer has just informed us that we're a few days away from the released of the Adoption Decree which will finalized the whole process I guess. Which is about time since we started this a year ago.
My question now is, should have I filed an I-600 before starting the adoption process? I was researching on my next step and came across I-600 and got all confused. Also, the visa that we need should fall under IR-3, is this correct?
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I could be wrong, but the I-600 is an application for an immigrant visa for your child to come to the U.S. as a permanent resident, and does not apply to Hague adoptions. Since both the Philippines and the U.S. have ratified the Hague Convention on intercountry adoptions, you would have to use the I-800 process to get the equivalent visa (IH-3) for your son, I believe. Check with the Embassy or with a U.S. immigration attorney.
Now, from what I can tell, you do not plan to live in the U.S. You plan only to come to the U.S. with your child to obtain his/her citizenship. Remember that Americans living overseas do not acquire automatic citizenship for their children exactly like Americans living in the U.S. You go to the U.S. -- many people make a trip to Hawaii -- and go through a naturalization process, I think, though I am not sure of the details.
You may want to check with other expats, with the U.S. Embassy in Manila, and/or with a U.S. immigration attorney, regarding how that works in your case.
Sharon
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Hi Sharon,You're right, the I-800A and IH-3 is what we need/needed. I wonder what the repercussions are for failing to file I-800A prior to starting the adoption process? Reading thru the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 again, IH-3 is the equivalent of IR-3 for Hague Convention countries and has the same requirements for automatically acquiring citizenship?Right now, we have no plan on going back to the states. Like you said, if/when we get approved for an IH-3, we'll go back to the US but not stay. And as soon as we get back I'll apply for my son's US passport in the Philippines.Thanks and and I'll ask around some more :-)