My last blog talked about the importance of ensuring your adopted child’s US citizenship. This blog talks about the importance of being able to prove it.
When our daughters’ adoptions were finalized, we immediately obtained passports for them. A passport, I had always been told, was the ultimate proof of citizenship—better than a birth certificate, better than a social security card, better than just about anything.
Our older daughter’s adoption was finalized in 2001, just after the Child Citizenship Act took effect. We were told we could apply for a Certificate of Citizenship. None of us really knew what that was, and it cost four times as much as a passport. We wondered why on earth some adoptive parents would pay for what we assumed was a congratulatory ceremonial document instead of a passport.
Now most adoption workers advise parents to rethink that decision. Passports are issued by the Department of State. The Certificate of Citizenship is issued by the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS, formerly known as the INS or Immigration and Naturalization Service).
Passports expire (children’s expire every five years, as opposed to every ten years for an adult) and people have sometimes tried to forge them. They can also be lost during travel. The Certificate of Citizenship does not expire.
All children being adopted from overseas go through immigration upon landing in the U.S. They are then—right there at the airport—issued a resident alien number, popularly known as a “green card”. Although children whose adoptions were finalized in other countries since 2001 have become citizens upon entering the U.S., they too are still issued a green card at entry. As of 2004, those who enter on an IR-3 visa are supposed to have their Certificate of Citizenship mailed to them within 45 days after arrival. Those who come on IR-4 visas will still need to apply separately for the Certificate of Citizenship once they have papers demonstrating that the adoption has been finalized.
It should be noted that some states require that even adoptions finalized abroad be re-finalized in a state court. Many adoption agencies recommend that parents “re-finalize” in a U.S. court even if they are not required to. This provides the child with an American-issued birth certificate.
One of the great things about America is the system of checks and balances whereby tasks are divided so no agency or branch of government becomes all-powerful. Unfortunately, an unwanted side effect is that it’s sometimes hard for government agencies to talk to each other.
Our daughters received their citizenship when their adoptions were finalized, but they received no specific proof of citizenship. Neither was the BCIS notified that the adoption as finalized and she was now a citizen.
Even when a passport is obtained, proving that the State Department acknowledges a child as a US citizen, no notice is sent to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, which goes on assuming he or she is a permanent resident alien here on a green card.
We naively assumed that federal government workers would know the federal law and realize that proof of adoption was proof of citizenship, although our state adoption documents do not mention citizenship specifically. While I still think that would hold up in a court of law, it could cause a lot of problems for our children in the meantime.
As one parent said, “If our child applies to adopt one day, do you think the BCIS will acknowledge her passport as proof of citizenship when their own records insist she’s a resident alien?”
When our first daughter was adopted, we had to have a social security number for her to claim her as a dependent on tax forms before the adoption was finalized. The social security card was issued in her birth name. After the adoption we went back to change the name on the card. We had a hard time convincing our local Social Security Office to change my daughter’s status from permanent resident to citizen. They hadn’t heard of this new Child Citizenship law.
Our daughter’s name and status were changed and she received a new social security card but not a new number, just as I did when I changed my name upon marriage. Note that parents adopting from the U.S. child welfare system may be advised to obtain new numbers for the children to prevent a birth parent from locating them.
For our second daughter we decided to forgo applying for a SS card until the adoption was finalized and she could apply in her new name as a U.S. citizen.
Please see these related blogs:
“To Ensure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and Our Posterity”
Citizenship for Your Internationally Adopted Child
Passport: Why Not Sufficient for Proof of Citizenship
A Maze of Paperwork: An American Passport for my Daughter