Adopting Nephew Across Seas

[waiting150 0]

Hello Everyone,

 

My wife immigrated from the Philippines 8 years ago and it now a US citizen. We have been in talks with some of our family in the Philippines about adopting one of our nephews. His parents are on board with having us go forward with the adoption.  My question is how do we go forward with this? Do we need to work with an adoption agency who then will help us get a visa for our nephew or can we have the adoption done in the Philippines and bring him here to the USA. If so what visa do we need? I am just trying to get the ball rolling. Any help will be much appreciated.

 

Thank you.

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

18 minutes ago, waiting150 said:

Hello Everyone,

 

My wife immigrated from the Philippines 8 years ago and it now a US citizen. We have been in talks with some of our family in the Philippines about adopting one of our nephews. His parents are on board with having us go forward with the adoption.  My question is how do we go forward with this? Do we need to work with an adoption agency who then will help us get a visa for our nephew or can we have the adoption done in the Philippines and bring him here to the USA. If so what visa do we need? I am just trying to get the ball rolling. Any help will be much appreciated.

 

Thank you.

Adoption and immigration are separate issues, and one does not guarantee the other.  This is a complex legal issue......which requires expert legal help.....it is not in the scope of a public forum.

[Illiria 980]

Whilst you might be able to adopt according to Philippines law immigration law is different and much more restrictive. You mention parents so the child isn’t an orphan? Have the parents been declared legally incompetent of caring for th child, I don’t mean they can’t afford to look after the child, I mean have they been stripped of parental rights because they are unfit?

 

Lots of people try to get around immigration by adopting a child who would be unable to be sponsored directly or because sibling petitions take so long. It isn’t possible a lot of the time. 

 

Maybe you could support the child’s schooling then pay for them to go to university?

 

Edited January 31, 2018 by Illiria

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

6 minutes ago, missileman said:

Adoption and immigration are separate issues, and one does not guarantee the other.  This is a complex legal issue......which requires expert legal help.....it is not in the scope of a public forum.

It is indeed, OP may want to think about this bit to start with - the 2 years physical custody is normally the problem with cases like this - I believe there are further complications when the child still has living parents too. 

 

Who is an Adopted Child Under the Immediate Relative Process?

Under this process, an adopted child is considered, for immigration purposes, to be the child (or adult son or daughter) of the adopting parent if:

• The parent adopted the child before his or her 16th birthday (or before the 18th birthday under certain circumstances as described below). You submit evidence of a full and final adoption
  AND
• The parent had legal and physical custody of the child for at least two years while the child was a minor
  • The legal custody must have been the result of a formal grant of custody from a court or other governmental entity
  • The custody and residence requirement may be met by custody and residence that preceded the adoption
  • The two years custody and residence requirements are waived for certain abused children

   

  https://www.uscis.gov/adoption/immigration-through-adoption/other-adoption-related-immigration

[Unlockable 7,314]

This is a common strategy that many foreigners believe will work. But like said, if you adopt it may not result in your nephew being immigrated. USCIS put strict rules on this because in the past families would do this type of strategy to bring in more people than they are permitted.

 

Some of the restriction that are in place to be able to bring over an adopted child are that the child must be orphaned (if the parents are still alive and capable of caring for the child then you are not eligible to bring him). You must also have lived with the child for 2 years in their home country. The adoption also must take place before the child turns 16.

 

Honestly, it will be better to help the child out by sending money for school and clothes.

 

There is a member on here that adopted a child from Vietnam (I think) and attempted to immigrate the child. They eventually exhausted all options and are now paying for the child's schooling and such. They also make frequent trips to see her.

 

We are just giving you a heads up that this is not an easy (or possibly not a doable) option.

[Illiria 980]

Plus once adopted they wouldn’t be able to immigrate through their biological parents either, seem to remember a case where that happened. Kid was adopted hoping to circumvent the waiting time, immigration denied, bio parents immigrated, weren’t able to petition child as no longer legal parents. 

[waiting150 0]

Thank you for all of your replies. My nephew has autism and the parents are not able to provide either financially or physical for him. My wife and I thought that we might be able to help out by adopting. There was no underlying thing about trying to get him here quicker or being sneaky like that. Both my wife and I are unable to have children and we thought this might be something we can do to grow our family, however it seems it might not be possible. Thank you everyone for all you help and letting us know we really appreciate it.

[Illiria 980]

3 minutes ago, waiting150 said:

My wife and I thought that we might be able to help out by adopting. There was no underlying thing about trying to get him here quicker or being sneaky like that. Both my wife and I are unable to have children and we thought this might be something we can do to grow our family, however it seems it might not be possible. Thank you everyone for all you help and letting us know we really appreciate it.

Apologies, I wasn’t trying to imply you were. It’s just that this is why they are super strict with international adoption especially when one of the adoptees is biologically related to the child.

 

I suffer from infertility and it sucks. I was lucky enough to have IVF work for us after only a couple of tries. 

[Unlockable 7,314]

38 minutes ago, Illiria said:

Plus once adopted they wouldn’t be able to immigrate through their biological parents either, seem to remember a case where that happened. Kid was adopted hoping to circumvent the waiting time, immigration denied, bio parents immigrated, weren’t able to petition child as no longer legal parents. 

This is correct, but the most common belief if the other way around. Where the child comes of age and wants to petition for bio parents.

 

 

15 minutes ago, waiting150 said:

Thank you for all of your replies. My nephew has autism and the parents are not able to provide either financially or physical for him. My wife and I thought that we might be able to help out by adopting. There was no underlying thing about trying to get him here quicker or being sneaky like that. Both my wife and I are unable to have children and we thought this might be something we can do to grow our family, however it seems it might not be possible. Thank you everyone for all you help and letting us know we really appreciate it.

This is something you certainly can investigate. But again, the process may not be as seemless. 

Definitely not 100% impossible.

[Boiler 45,525]

6 hours ago, waiting150 said:

Thank you for all of your replies. My nephew has autism and the parents are not able to provide either financially or physical for him. My wife and I thought that we might be able to help out by adopting. There was no underlying thing about trying to get him here quicker or being sneaky like that. Both my wife and I are unable to have children and we thought this might be something we can do to grow our family, however it seems it might not be possible. Thank you everyone for all you help and letting us know we really appreciate it.

Adopt him and pay for his care, going to be a lot cheaper to do so locally.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

Adopt him and pay for his care, going to be a lot cheaper to do so locally.

Depends, I have friends (one spouse was USC) who immigrated from our home country despite healthcare costs in general being much cheaper there, because care in the US for autistic children is just so much better, and many other countries don’t mainstream autistic children in public schools. They get a lot of breaks from the state too in terms of help with childcare and support, i guess that would depend what state OP is in.  

 

It’s a sad situation for OP, with big obstacles due to immigration law. Unless there are exceptions, of which I am not aware, if they want to be a nuclear family looks like it will have to be in Philippines. Another case where a bunch of people who had previously abused the law have made it more difficult for a genuinely deserving case.

[Boiler 45,525]

10 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Depends, I have friends (one spouse was USC) who immigrated from our home country despite healthcare costs in general being much cheaper there, because care in the US for autistic children is just so much better, and many other countries don’t mainstream autistic children in public schools. They get a lot of breaks from the state too in terms of help with childcare and support, i guess that would depend what state OP is in.  

 

It’s a sad situation for OP, with big obstacles due to immigration law. Unless there are exceptions, of which I am not aware, if they want to be a nuclear family looks like it will have to be in Philippines. Another case where a bunch of people who had previously abused the law have made it more difficult for a genuinely deserving case.

Why is this case deserving?

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

Why is this case deserving?

Maybe that’s not quite the right term, but I meant in terms of this seeming to be a genuinely motivated caring adoption rather than a “green card adoption”.

[Boiler 45,525]

I would imagine they can still adopt.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

41 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I would imagine they can still adopt.

Yes, as i said before but probably would have to leave the US if they wanted to live as a nuclear family.