one US citizenship

Unfortunately, your approach will not work. India's Central Authority requires any person who has permanent residence outside India, even if he/she is an Indian citizen, to go through the international process. If you complete a domestic adoption, you will not be able to get the Indian and Hague paperwork needed to secure a visa for your child to enter the U.S. unless you live overseas with him/her for at least two years. You will have full legal, financial and moral responsibility for the child, but will not be able to bring him/her home. If one of you becomes a U.S. citizen, you would be better off to use the international/Hague process to adopt. You would have your homestudy, obtain I-800A approval from the USCIS, work with a U.S. agency that both works in India and is Hague-accredited, and submit the documents that your agency requires. There is a good description of the process on the adoption.state.gov website, which was created by the U.S. State Department. You can also find some details on the website of CARA, the Central Adoption Resource Authority in India. Sharon

Thanks Sharon. One other question, does it make in any difference at all to the visa process time frame for the kid because one of us is holding a US Citizenship?

You will not be able to get an adoption visa for your child unless at least one spouse is a U.S. citizen. There is no difference in processing time if one spouse is a U.S. citizen or if both spouses are U.S. citizens. The main issues are whether you have fulfilled all Hague requirements, whether you have met all U.S. requirements for an adoption visa, and whether your child qualifies for an adoption visa. Sharon

Thank you very much..this really helps. There is no short cut to this under HAGUE rules. If the objective is to bring back the baby to US, need to comply with the rules be it international or oversears domestic adoption. Appreciate your time and help with this.

It's really not so terrible. Both the U.S. government and the Indian government have ratified the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption, and the process is quite clear, even if it is fairly long. If you use a good U.S. agency, which is both Hague-accredited and long experienced in working with India, you will usually have a good experience. Problems can still exist -- for example, if CARA halts processing of dossiers for a while, or if CARA and local entity disagree on whether a child meets requirements for adoption, but those kinds of problems occur when adopting from both Hague and non-Hague countries. Best wishes to you. Sharon