Help Needed...

August 8, 2012

Hello,

We need some help. Here's a brief summary of our story. I met my Peruvian wife in 2008. We were married in Peru in 2010. My wife and her two children (8 & 6) arrived here in the United States (New York) in June 2011 (Legal Permanent Residents). The next step is for me to adopt my step-children. Their biological father still resides in Peru, has no relationship with them, and is willing to terminate his parental rights. That being said, we have some questions.

1. Do I need to adopt them in Peru first (even though they are already here), change their last name legally there, etc...Then readopt them here?

2. Should we just have his parental rights terminated in Peru and then only adopt them here in the US?

3. One issue is we want to be able to travel between Peru and NY freely without any fear or issues with regard to immigration, etc...and permission for the kids to leave Peru once we are there (visiting). The reason I say this is because we needed permission from the biological father for the kids to leave Peru when they first came here, etc...The kids miss their family in Peru a lot and we want to always be able to travel without issue, etc...

4. Does anyone know of any attorneys that can help us out that are reasonably priced :-)?

5. Is there anyone in the forum that has similar experiences?

This is something that we really want to do and not only us as parents BUT the kids too! For example, they always ask "When will I have the same last name as you and my sisters?". :-) We have 5 kids (6,7,8,9, 1 month) in total 2 from my previous marriage (they don't live with us but we see them all the time and all the kids love each other and get along...hehehe...most of the time...), two from my wife, and we just had one little precious baby girl together... :-).

ANY HELP would be greatly apprecaited!!

Thanks,

Joshua

DianeS

August 8, 2012

I'm sure someone will chime in on this thread with more information than I have, but I'll start it out.

First, it is the country of the child's citizenship that matters, not the country of their residence. So, since the children are Peruvian citizens, the adoption must take place under Peruvian law. (That may or may not require traveling there.)

Once you have adopted them under Peruvian law, you are their legal father and will be the one who has to consent to their international travel. Much easier.

Many families who adopt internationally choose to do a "readoption" in the USA. I'm not sure if there are additional legal reasons to do this (its usually pretty easy and inexpensive), but it does give the children the ability to have birth certificates in English, obtainable from a USA city. Much easier to get those than to ask Peru for copies when they are needed.

Hope that helps!