International Adoption Finalization and Re-Adoption

If you are interested in adopting a child from outside of the United States, you will need to meet both the legal requirements of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and those of the child’s country of origin. The majority of international adoptions are facilitated by adoption agencies.

Countries vary with regard to the characteristics of the children waiting to be adopted (such as age, sex and health conditions) as well as the required characteristics of the adopting parents (such as age, marital status, and health status).

The United States is a signatory to the Hague Adoption Convention (“the Convention”). This means that if you are adopting a child from another country that is a signatory to the Convention (a “Convention Country”), you must comply with Convention adoption requirements. These requirements are intended to provide a uniform process to safeguard international adoptions. The Convention requires, among other things, that adoption service providers (agencies or attorneys) must be accredited or approved by the Department of State’s accrediting entity in order to provide adoption services in Convention cases. The list of countries that have signed the Convention can be found at the US Department of State’s website at travel.state.gov. Prospective parents seeking to adopt from a Convention Country may receive greater protections than those seeking to adopt from a country that is not a party to the Convention.

If you are adopting from a country that is not a party to the Convention, the requirements you must meet vary from country to country. In addition, under recently enacted law, adoption service providers in non-Convention international adoptions involving orphan children must comply with the same accreditation standards that apply in Convention adoption cases. Therefore, before embarking on an international adoption, it is important to consult with an experienced adoption attorney who can refer you to appropriate adoption service providers for a particular country.

Re-adoption refers to an adoption in a state court of the United States of a child who was previously adopted in his or her country of birth. In some cases, re-adoption is required, and the child will not become a citizen unless the adoption is completed before the child’s 18^th birthday. This is the case where the child entered the United States on an IR-4 Visa (for non-Convention Countries) or IH-4 Visa (for Convention Countries).

Where re-adoption is not required (if the child entered the United States on an IR-3 or IR-4 visa), it is recommended for the important benefits it confers. Re-adoption ensures that the foreign born child will not be treated differently from his or her biological siblings in matters such as inheritance rights.

Re-adoption also ensures that all states will recognize the validity of the foreign adoption. This will be important should you someday move to a state that does not recognize the adoption’s validity as a matter of law. In addition, you will always have an easily comprehensible adoption decree in English, rather than a foreign decree and translation. The terminology and phrasing used in a foreign decree may be more difficult for those unfamiliar with adoption law to understand, leaving them uncertain as to the decree’s validity. Re-adoption also guarantees that you can acquire another adoption decree in the future should your foreign decree be lost or destroyed. 



Re-adoption may also be beneficial where a change of the child’s name is sought, since the name change can be requested as part of the adoption proceeding, and/or where the adopting parents wish to obtain a US birth certificate for their child. Finally, re-adoption affords the adoptive parents peace of mind that no one can ever challenge the validity of their parentage, in the US or abroad, even if adoption laws subsequently change in the future. And while no parent wants to think about their child committing any wrongdoing, if this does occur, re-adoption and acquisition of U.S. Citizenship prevents the child from being deported to his or her country of origin.