Colombian looking to adopt from Colombia

If you want to be sure of getting a visa for your child to enter the U.S., you will have to go through the process that Americans use, and not the one that Colombians use. This process conforms to both Colombian law and the Hague Convention. You will need to use an adoption agency licensed in the U.S. AND Hague-accredited, as well as approved by Colombia. There aren't too many that will meet all of these requirements. Let that agency help you find a homestudy agency in your state, as it will know what agencies are familiar with homestudies for Colombian and other Hague adoptions. As an example, Hague adoptions require that prospective parents take a certain number of hours of pre-adoption coursework. You will need to complete the I-800A and submit it to the USCIS with your homestudy report, some other documents, and a steep fee, once it is finalized. Be sure to use the I-800A and not the I-600A, which is for non-Hague adoptions (from countries that have not ratified the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption). The I-800A lets the USCIS decide if you and your spouse are qualified to bring an orphan into the U.S. Later, once a child has been identified and is in the adoption process, you will fill out the I-800, a companion document, which will review your approval and also determine that the child is qualified for immigration to the U.S. Once you have your homestudy and USCIS approval, your agency will work with you to compile documents that the Colombian government requires. If the Colombian Central Authority for adoption, which is the Bienestar Familiar or ICBF, determines that your paperwork is acceptable, you will be referred a child, and you can decide whether you feel that you can parent him/her. Do be aware that Colombia has some fairly strict rules about the age of the child that you can request, depending on your age. Younger parents are preferred. Older parents may adopt older children. If you accept the referral, you will submit some paperwork about the child to the USCIS, to begin the process of declaring him/her eligible to enter the U.S. on an adoption visa. Then, you will actually travel to Colombia to begin the adoption process. You may have to spend a considerable period of time in Colombia, or to make multiple trips. Once the courts finalize your adoption, you will go through various processes to obtain a new birth certificate for the child listing you as the parents, to get his/her Colombian passport, and to get his/her IH (Hague) visa so that you can bring him/her to the U.S. Once you enter the U.S., your child will become a U.S. citizen automatically, and he/she will receive a Certificate of Citizenship in the mail within a few months. Many Latin countries, like many Eastern European countries, continue to consider internationally adopted children as holding citizenship there, as well,so your child may maintain dual citizenship. Sharon

My husband is a Colombian National. We began the process in late Feb....home study in FL approved in mid July...we are in the process of the I800A approval and have a biometrics appt. on 9.28! All our dossier douments are complete and with the agency...they have decided to send our app down for translation while we are waiting for the Homeland Security approval. There is very little information related to how fast/slow things go for us since we would be given equal priority to Colombian citizens. Good luck...it has been such a roller coaster so far with all the changes in the process and stuff in the news...we orignially we applying to Los Pisingos for a boy 0-4....targeting 2 years old. Now our agency recommends we go through ICBF...and open our options to across the country...my husbands family is not from Bogota anyway so we are open to any region. Good luck with everything...have patience with the process and follow your heart. All the best! Val

Hi there, can you post an update? How did it go? It seems like it should go much faster.

We had our home study approved in August....Dossier sent to translation in November, submitted to ICBF in December...we changed from Pisingos to ICBF after all the changes were happening in Colombia in order to go faster...got request for two other documents in January...had to get them apostilled here, sent there, then translated again so all information in as of a couple of weeks ago and now we wait...seen approvals anywhere from 3 weeks to three months after submission....to havent heard a thing in 4 months... Orignially told start to finish would take us 12-18 months...officially on month 13 and still not approved...