International Adoption

International adoption, or “intercountry” adoption as it it called by the US Department of State is defined by them as, “the process by which you adopt a child from a country other than your own through permanent legal means and then bring that child to your country of residence to live with you permanently.” (Intercountry Adoption, US Department of State). On their website The US Department of State goes one to explain that intercountry adoption is one of their highest priorities. They frame their statements with the child’s interest in mind when they go on to write, “We believe it should be an option for children in need of permanent homes when it is in the best interest of the child and domestic solutions have been given due consideration.  Each year, thousands of U.S. citizens adopt children from abroad, and families habitually resident in other countries also adopt children from the United States.” (Intercountry Adoption, US Department of State). Statements such as these from authoritative bodies within the US government reinforces prevailing ideas that the United States should provide aid to countries in need. In fact, the United States of America is the receiving country for about 50% of all international adoptions, followed by Spain, France, Italy and Canada. For countries like the US, adoption is seen favorably as an act of selflessness and often demonstrates the wealth of the receiving country. (International Adoption, CNN).

International adoptions reached their apparent peak in mid 2000s following the highly publicized adoption of chinese children as well as high profile adoptions from celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Madonna. Although international adoptions have come to the forefront of the public’s mind rather recently, these kind of adoptions have been going on for quite some time. Wide spread of international adoption started in 1955, when Henry and Bertha Holt, an evangelical couple from rural Oregon, were able to adopt Korean “war orphans” through a special provision by congress. Their efforts were supported because, “These children of Korean women and American GIs had been stigmatized or abandoned because of their visible ethnic differences and the presumption of infidelity or illegitimacy.” (The Schuster Institute of Investigative Journalism). The Holts turned their personal experience into a mission, founding the first organization dedicated to large-scale international adoption, Holt International Children’s Services, which still exists today. CNN elaborates this point in their article when they write, “Transnational adoptions grew in popularity following the World War II — at least 50,000 took place from 1948 to 1969. With the opening of China and Russia in the 1990s, international adoption exploded — 410,000 children were adopted by citizens of 27 countries between 2000 and 2010, according to Peter Selman, an international adoption expert from Newcastle University and statistical adviser to the U.N. Hague Convention on international adoption.” (International Adoption, CNN). US involvement in both world wars put an end to the isolationist notions of the time, leading to a legacy of the United States providing aid to other countries.

Adoption from different countries often follows large, traumatic events. Adoption from China gained popularity as the effects of the one-child policy were realized while adoption from Russia was popularized after the fall of the Soviet Union. In recent years, there has been a sharp decline in the number of international adoptions. This decline is attributed to the efforts from “origin” countries such as China, Russia, and Guatemala to tighten regulations around adoption as sentiments against adoption grow. These countries which were formerly known for their high rates of international adoption have begun to focus their efforts on finding suitable homes for children in need, domestically. Chinese officials have instituted new, more stringent rules for foreign adoptions, “The new rules at first prohibited single people and those over the age of 50 from adopting a child. In 2011, single women were again allowed to adopt but only children with special needs, such as those with a physical disability. Single women must sign an affidavit that they are not homosexual. China also now prohibits adoptions to foreigners who are morbidly obese or have facial deformities. People who have taken antidepressants for serious mental disorders in the past two years are also not eligible, as are applicants who are blind, have schizophrenia or a terminal disease. Couples must be married at least two years, unless either person has been previously divorced — in which case they aren’t eligible to adopt until five years after their wedding. China also now requires prospective families to have an annual income equal to $10,000 per family member and at least $80,000 in assets.” (International Adoption, CNN).

All of these new regulations in the adoption process comes as demand for children outpaces supply. The increase of demand was followed by a shift in motivation for international adoption. Rather than a mechanism for humanitarian aid through non-profits, international adoption rapidly came under the control of private businesses with their own motives. Brandeis University reports, “American or Italian or Austrian or Spanish adoption agencies have too often been “finding” children for their consumers by contracting directly with Vietnamese orphanages or Ethiopian maternity homes or Cambodian hospitals or Guatemalan lawyers, unsupervised by their respective governments.” (The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism). This shift in focus for adoptions caused origin countries to become distrustful of the adoption process and in cases like Ethiopia, close international adoption all together. The new more stringent laws cause us to ask why some people still choose to go through this process. International adoption is motivated by a variety of reasons that act either individually or jointly to justify enduring this long process. The most important reason someone might adopt internationally is because they feel a strong sense of connection to that child or country. In the end, the purpose of adoption is to find children nurturing, permanent homes for them to grow up in. Finding someone who genuinely cares about the wellbeing of the child they are taking in is the best way to ensure that children adopted internationally go to good homes. Adults may also choose to adopt internationally if they know other families who have adopted successfully and/or if the adoption process in another country is easier than that of their home country.

 

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) outline three different processes for adopting children internationally. The first two processes are for US citizens while the last is for non-citizens wishing to adopt. USCIS defines the first two processes as Hauge and Orphan  (Non-Hauge). “The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) is an international treaty that provides important safeguards to protect the best interests of children, birth parents, and adoptive parents who are involved in intercountry adoptions. The Hague Adoption Convention entered into force in the United States on April 1, 2008. All cases filed on or after April 1, 2008, seeking to adopt a child who habitually resides in any country outside of the United States that is a party to the Convention must follow the Hague process. A country that is a party to the Convention must have an officially designated Central Authority to ensure that the adoption process is safeguarded.  The U.S. Central Authority is the Department of State (DOS).” (Adoption, USCIS). The cost of an international adoption can range anywhere from $20,000 to over $50,000. The least expensive international adoptions occur in countries where the adoptive parents are not required to travel or reside in the child’s country of origin for some portion of the process.

Steps of the Process

1. Choose a Hague Accredited ASP (and perhaps also an immigration attorney).
2. Obtain a home study from someone authorized to complete a Hague adoption home study.
3. Apply to USCIS before adopting a child or accepting a placement for a determination that one is suitable for intercountry adoption.
4. Once USCIS approves the application, work with the adoption service provider to obtain a proposed adoption placement.
5. File a “petition” with USCIS, before adopting the child, to have the child to be found eligible to immigrate to the United States based on the proposed adoption.
6. Adopt the child, or obtain custody of the child in order to adopt the child in the United States.
7. Obtain an immigrant visa for the child.
8. Bring the child to the United States for admission with the visa.

Once you have obtained a favorable home study, file Form I-800A with USCIS. To be eligible to file Form I-800A, you must meet the following requirements:

• Be a U.S. citizen
• Habitually reside in the United States
• If you are married, your spouse must also sign your Form I-800A and must also intend to adopt any child whom you adopt
• If you are not married, you must be at least 24 years of age when you file your Form I-800A, and you must be 25 years of age when you file your Form I-800

Petitioning for Your Child

After we have approved your Form I-800A, you may apply to the Central Authority of the other country for a specific adoption placement.  Once the Central Authority has proposed placing a child with you for adoption, but before you actually adopt the child, you must file Form I-800 on behalf of the child to be adopted.  For a child to be classified as a Hague Convention Adoptee, the child must meet the following criteria:

• Be under the age of 16 at the time of filing Form I-800
• Habitually reside in a Convention Country
• Determined to be eligible for intercountry adoption by the Central Authority of that country and have obtained all necessary consents for adoption
• If you are married, your spouse must also sign the Form I-800 and adopt the child
• If you are not married, you must be at least 25 when you file the Form I-800

You May Immigrate an Adopted Child Through the Orphan Process if:

• 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 proceedings
  • OR
  • 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)

Under U.S. immigration law, an orphan is a defined to be, “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 parents OR 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” (Adoption, USCIS).

Relationship to politics of health

When a child is adopted internationally, part of the process includes filing paperwork to naturalize the adopted child as a citizen of the receiving country. As a naturalized citizen, we would expect an adopted child to have all of the rights of any other citizen, both legally and biologically. The biological rights of adopted children come into question as we consider countries where citizenship can be established by “birthright” through DNA testing. In cases where DNA testing is used to determine citizenship, the burden falls on the adopted children and their parents to prove that they are a family, putting scientific parameters on a construct that has long preceded science. Family can be understood as a group of people related by blood or as a group related by affinity. This is a more broad definition of family that includes adopted children even as legislature in various countries does not account for them. Moving forward it will be important to see if and how countries work to include non-traditional families as we move toward a more biologically based definition of citizenship. In Petryna’s Biological Citzenship: The Science and Politics of Chernobyl biological citizenship is defined to be, “—a massive demand for, but selective access to, a form of social welfare based on scientific and legal criteria that both acknowledges injury and compensates for it.” (Petryna, In the case of the adopted children, their families would likely not meet the scientific requirements to receive the “compensation” of citizenship. The case of adopted children also brings up the concepts of sympathy and exclusion which dictate who is “deserving” of resources and who is not. For birthright countries with a strong sense of community such as Israel, exclusion of adopted children may be justified by their strong nationalism that is also tied to religion. As a result, more attention may be placed on domestic adoptions to ensure that current citizens are cared for first. If justification for exclusion grows stronger it is possible that this narrative will become the norm, possibly leading to further oversight by governments down the road.

References:

Petryna, Adriana. “Biological Citizenship: The Science and Politics of Chernobyl-Exposed Populations.” Osiris, vol. 19, 2004, pp. 250–265., doi:10.1086/649405.

Hoffman, Beatrix. “Sympathy and Exclusion.” A Death Retold, 2006, pp. 237–254., doi:10.5149/9780807877524_wailoo.14.

“Intercountry Adoption.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption.html.

Voigt, Kevin, and Sophie Brown. “International Adoptions in Decline as Number of Orphans Grows.” CNN, Cable News Network, 17 Sept. 2013, www.cnn.com/2013/09/16/world/international-adoption-main-story-decline/index.html.

“Adoption.” USCIS, www.uscis.gov/adoption.

“The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism.” History of International Adoption | Adoption | Gender & Justice Project | Schuster Institute | Brandeis University, www.brandeis.edu/investigate/adoption/history.html.

“International Adoption Facts: What You Need to Know.” Adoptive Families, 24 Oct. 2016, www.adoptivefamilies.com/how-to-adopt/international-adoption-facts-need-know/.

 

 

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