Procedures for International Adoptions

International adoptions occur when prospective parents from the United States want to adopt a child from another country. International adoptions are complex and require a thorough understanding of both U.S. laws and foreign laws.
Once the adoption has been completed in the foreign country, the parents must apply for a visa for the child to enter the United States. Once the paperwork is approved, the child will be granted U.S. citizenship.

What Laws Apply to International Adoption?

Potential adoptive parents need to adhere to the laws of the country from which the child is being adopted and the laws of the state in which the adoptive parents live. In addition, the parents must comply with U.S. immigration law.

Apart from the laws of the individual country where the child lives, international adoptions must also comply with the “Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation.” The Hague Convention governs intercountry adoptions between the U.S. and other Convention member countries. The treaty regulates the federal adoption agencies here and oversees adoption policies abroad.

One of the main goals of the Hague Convention is to protect children, birth parents, and adoptive families from unethical adoption practices, including bribery and other forms of corruption, child abduction, and hidden fees.

The Hague Convention mandates a procedure to be followed when adopting a child internationally. In addition, U.S. adoption agencies must be certified by the State Department.

Below are some factors to consider:

• Parents planning an international adoption must prove to the State Department that the foreign country’s agencies have provided adoption counseling for the birth parents
• Legal consent must be obtained from the birth parents, and they must indicate that local placement has been considered
• Proof of the relationship between the birth mother and the child must be made, usually by DNA testing
• The child must be legally cleared for adoption in the U.S.

The Hague Convention’s purpose is to protect children from being sold, kidnapped, or trafficked. Historically, many countries have not had safeguards against child trafficking. Parents seeking to adopt internationally tend to have much greater financial resources than the birth parents do, and at times, it has been difficult to tell if the line between voluntary termination of parental rights and economic coercion has been crossed.

These provisions may cause international adoptions to take longer than domestic ones, but they will protect parents from predatory or corrupt agencies and protect children from being kidnapped and placed for adoption by a person who is not their birth mother.

Other interesting facts about international adoption:

• You can adopt a foreign child through an American agency specializing in international adoptions. Direct private adoption is also possible, but it is quite complex, so most people use an agency.
• In international adoptions, children are typically adopted from developing countries and placed into wealthier and more developed countries like the United States, though this is not always true.
• The U.S. is home to more internationally adopted children than any other country. International adoptions became more common here after World War II left a lot of orphaned children.

What Are Complications That Can Arise in International Adoption?

For birth parents, international adoption can provide an opportunity for their children to be brought up in a more economically secure setting than what the birth parents can offer. Additionally, it can help children escape potentially dangerous political or religious situations in their country of birth. However, costs can create many hurdles for birth parents.

Once the adopted child reaches maturity, they sometimes express feelings of not belonging in either their country of birth or the country where they grew up. Adoptive parents need to support connections between the adopted child and the culture of their birth parents when possible. But this can sometimes be quite difficult to implement.

Moreover, international adoptions are usually expensive, and travel costs can add significantly to the costs connected with the adoption procedures. It is important to note that other countries may not provide the same degree of regulation and oversight of adoption agencies that the U.S. does. Potential adoptive parents need to thoroughly vet the international adoption agency they are utilizing to ensure it is a legitimate organization. That can be very hard to do in the U.S.

Parents looking to adopt internationally are subject to changing diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and the child’s country. For political reasons, the sending country may change their laws mid-adoption and bar outside adoptions or adoptions to specific countries. Adoptive parents may be in the process of adopting when these changes happen and may need to begin from scratch in a different country.

If something goes wrong, a U.S. court cannot intervene on behalf of prospective parents with the courts in the country where the adoption occurs. However, the Department of State (DOS) does give extensive information about the adoption processes in various countries, including the stability of the adoption process. The DOS also provides prospective parents with the legal requirements for bringing a child to the U.S.

What Is the Overview of the International Adoption Laws and Requirements?

There are typically three general processes for adopting a child across international boundaries. One of the most important considerations of the international adoption process is whether the child’s country of residence has signed on to the Hague Adoption Convention.

Below are the three sets of procedures for international adoption:

• Hague Process – If you are adopting a child residing in a country party to the Hague Adoption Convention, you must use the “Hague process.” Each member nation has a designated central authority (DOS in the United States) responsible for overseeing the process
• Orphan Process – If you adopt a child from a “non-Hague” country, you will go through the “orphan process.” This process does not include many of the safeguards that a Hague adoption provides; for example, preparation and verification of the child’s medical records may not be done
• Immediate Relative Petition – The “Immediate Relative Process” is available to some individuals who do not qualify for a Hague or non-Hague adoption. In this process, an adopted child is considered the child of the adopting parent for immigration purposes after certain requirements are met.

Creating and providing many documents must be done to complete any form of international adoption. You should make several copies of each document; they must meet the regulations of various U.S. and foreign government branches. The process is lengthy and repetitive but is meant to protect the child, the adoptive parents, and the birth parents.

Some of the documents commonly required for an international adoption are the following:

• Birth certificate of a child being adopted
• Birth certificate of prospective adoptive parents
• Birth certificate of the birth mother
• Results of DNA testing
• Wedding certificate of the prospective adoptive parents
• Death certificates of the orphan’s parents, if applicable
• Foreign custody decree
• Applications for a U.S. visa for the child, which will lead to the availability of a U.S. passport for the child

When Do I Need to Contact a Lawyer?

If you are considering international adoption, it is important to contact an attorney to determine your legal options. International adoptions are time-consuming and require hefty paperwork – the ones listed above are just a small slice. Having an experienced adoption lawyer to assist with the process will be useful.