Medical Visa Turns into Adoption-South America Edition

• You Are a U.S. citizen.
  • If you are married, your spouse must also sign Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative and must also adopt the child
  • If you are not married, you must be at least 25 years old when you file your Form I-600 petition
• You establish that you will provide proper parental care to the child
• You establish that the child whom you have adopted or plan to adopt is an “orphan” as defined in U.S. immigration law
• You establish that either:
  • You (and your spouse, if married) have adopted the child abroad, and that at least 1 of you personally saw and observed the child before or during the adoption proceedingsOR
  • You will adopt the child in the United States after the child arrives in the United States (you must have permission to bring the child out of his or her own country and to the United States for adoption)”

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So, in this case it is after the child arrives in the US on a medical visa.

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“Who is an orphan?” you might ask.

Well, according to the US process, it is as follows:

“Under U.S. immigration law, an orphan is a foreign-born child who:

• does not have any parents because of the death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parentsOR
• has a sole or surviving parent who is unable to care for the child, consistent with the local standards of the foreign sending country, and who has, in writing, irrevocably released the child for emigration and adoption

You must file an orphan petition before the child’s 16th birthday, or before the child’s 18th birthday if the child is a birth sibling of another child whom you have also adopted and who immigrated (or will immigrate) as:

• an orphan based on a Form I-600 petition filed before the sibling’s 16th birthdayOR
• an “adopted child” as defined in Section 101(b)(1)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provided the actual adoption took place before that sibling’s 16th birthday.””

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From the article, “Over the next several years, Michael underwent a grinding series of more than a dozen surgeries to repair the venous malformation and damage to his lower face. He stayed in touch with his biological parents in South America, but hasn’t been able to visit them since 2016 due to his tenuous immigration status, and they couldn’t afford to visit him in the United States. Both families agreed that given Michael’s ongoing medical needs, it would be best for his U.S. parents to adopt him.

Sorry,  since he has two parents that are still living, he does not qualify as an orphan. Plus, when they brought him into the US, he was to go back to the south American country, so that is a double-whammy-does not qualify as an orphan whatsoever!

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From the article, “Though Michael was adopted as a teenager, that process didn’t grant him citizenship. [Duh!]Now, more than two decades after arriving in the U.S., his chief concern is being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As a non-citizen, he can’t legally drive or work in his home state. Michael and his parents have been actively fighting to obtain his U.S. citizenship for fifteen years. They’re now on their fifth attorney: The previous lawyers each have been tripped up by obscure details of the case, or overlooked documents required by the complicated foreign adoption and citizenship laws. [It seems pretty clear to me, that once again, he is NOT AN ORPHAN!]

The article continues, “When foreign children are adopted by U.S. citizens, they’re supposed to enter the country on an IR-3 or IR-4 visa, or the more recently implemented IH-3 or IH-4 visa via the Hague Convention. But that pathway is riddled with potholes.[Not really…] In many cases, parents fail to properly finalize the adoption paperwork. They may have inadvertently brought the  children into the country on the wrong visa, such as a tourist, visitor, or medical visa. [Inadvertently? ]Others may fail to secure any entry visa, assuming that their adopted child would automatically become a U.S. citizen, just as biological children do at birth. ”

The article concludes with, “In Michael’s case, his mother says his birth country has failed repeatedly to provide required documentation for him to obtain U.S. citizenship.” [Wow! Blame the foreign government!]