Green Card Through Adoption

A U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident who wants to adopt a child abroad has to comply with certain laws both in the U.S. and in the country of the child.

U.S. immigration laws require that the child must be adopted by the U.S. citizen or permanent resident before the child’s sixteenth birthday. Evidence of a full and final adoption is required.

If the child is the brother or sister of another child who was adopted by the same parent, said child may be adopted even before the sixteenth birthday but before he turned twenty-one.

The adopting parent must demonstrate that he had legal and physical custody of the child for at least two (2) years while the child was a minor.

Legal custody means that there was a final adoption decree or a custody award by a court or a government entity. Sworn statements attesting to custody are not sufficient to prove legal custody.

The legal custody and the two-year residence may be waived if the child had been battered or abused by the adopting parent or by a family member of the adopting parent residing in the same household.

If the adopting parent is a relative of the natural parents, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may require proof of the bona fides of the adoption. And if the child resides with his natural parents even after the adoption, the adoptive parent must submit adequate proof that he has parental custody.

An adoptive child cannot petition his natural parents for immigration benefits. But if the child did not obtain immigration benefits through the adoptive parent and the adoption had been terminated, the natural parent-child relationship is re-established and the natural parent may petition for the child. An adopted child cannot obtain immigration benefits for his siblings even if the child did not obtain immigration benefit from his adopted parents.

A U.S. citizen may file a relative petition for an adopted child if the child is unmarried and under 21 years old, or is an unmarried son or daughter over the age of 21, or is a married son or daughter.

A permanent resident may file a petition for an adopted child who is unmarried and under 21 or is an unmarried son or daughter over the age of 21.

An adopted child may enter the U.S. as a derivative beneficiary of a parent who is applying for an immigrant visa.

The child’s priority date for purposes of obtaining a visa number will be same as the parent.