Us Adoption

Pursuing US Adoption from Other Countries

With international adoption becoming increasingly common, few people are surprised when Americans adopt a child from another country. But the tide goes both ways, and it is possible for those living outside to pursue a US adoption - one in which a child born in the United States is adopted into another country.

NAIC (the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse) reports that they have heard of increasing numbers of private adoption agencies and attorneys who are placing US born children with families in Canada and Europe. Usually it is infants who are placed. There is little data to provide solid numbers when it comes to US adoption, because no agency tracks the issuance of US passports to infants. Nor does any agency track the visa applications for US infants being adopted abroad. However, Immigration Canada reports that from 1994 to 1998, there were 399 American children aged 0 to 21 adopted by Canadian citizens.

NAIC also reports receiving an increasing number of inquiries about US adoption from European families. The families making contact have completed home studies which approve them for adoption, and seek information on agencies willing to place American children with non-US citizens.

Most states do not have laws that require prospective adoptive parents to be US residents, making US adoption possible for families from other countries. In fact, non-US citizens living in the United States as resident aliens may adopt only an American child rather than one from their home country. This is because US immigration law requires that at least one parent be an American citizen in order to adopt from abroad.

A clearer picture of US adoption by non-American citizens should become available once the United States ratifies the Hague Convention on International Adoption. The Convention - designed to protect the children, birth parents and adoptive parents involved in intercountry adoptions and to prevent child-trafficking and other abuses - would require the State Department to track these placements. Until that time, most information will remain anecdotal.