Adopted Overseas Children Will Become Instant U.S. Citizens
By Bill Douthat, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Originally published in The Palm Beach Post, February 22, 2001
Children adopted overseas will be given instant citizenship beginning next week when they step foot or arrive cradled in arms onto U.S. soil.
The new law, which takes effect Tuesday, will help 50,000 children already here and an estimated 10,000 new arrivals each year, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said Wednesday.
"I think it's great," said Amy Garvin-Liddell, adoption supervisor at Children's Home Society in West Palm Beach. "Adoptive families have so much to go through and if one step can be made easier, I'm for it."
Before, applying for citizenship meant a $225 fee and a wait of months or sometimes years for naturalization papers.
"This takes away the need to do that," said Eyleen Schmidt, an INS spokeswoman.
Adoption agencies advise parents to get their foreign-born, adopted children sworn in as U.S. citizens as soon as possible.
"Without American citizenship, some countries could conscript the child to come back and fight a war," said Gwen Baldwin, a social worker for Suncoast International Adoptions in Largo, near Tampa.
Baldwin also said she's heard of some older adopted children being sent back to their birth countries for breaking laws the INS considers deportable offenses, including drug arrests.
The instant citizenship law grew out of concerns in Congress that many lawbreakers faced deportation because they failed to become citizens.
"Parents never got around to naturalizing them," Schmidt said.
Parents whose kids gain their citizenship on Tuesday will not receive any notice or certificates. If the parents need proof, they can apply for a certificate of citizenship from the INS for a $125 fee or apply for a passport.
Passport offices should accept the child's adoption papers, his foreign passport with a visa stamp and proof of a parent's citizenship to issue a passport, a U.S. Department of State official said. Passports are accepted as proof of U.S. citizenship.
The law granting instant citizenship requires that the child be under 18 years old, live in the United States and have at least one parent who is a naturalized or U.S.-born citizen.
Parents who have already filed a citizenship application on behalf of an adopted child will receive a certificate of citizenship in the mail, the INS said.
