Getting US Visa for teenage daughters

[SalishSea 17,803]

1 hour ago, Mike E said:

For I-130 F4 purposes, is the link to an unadopted bio-sibling broken after the other siblings are adopted?

Good Q.   No idea.

[Lemonslice 4,831]

Not immigration related, but congratulations on your success as an author.  You must be somewhat famous in your field to be able to consider sending your three nieces/daughters to college as international students.  Best of luck to you five!

 

[vscampbell 11]

2 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

Not immigration related, but congratulations on your success as an author.  You must be somewhat famous in your field to be able to consider sending your three nieces/daughters to college as international students.  Best of luck to you five!

 

Thanks! I've self published 6 novels and have many more in development. Some interest from the movie side but I'm holding off. I am only recently published, but the beta readers are very enthusiastic, my editor tells me she can't get enough, and a great publisher is nosing around,  a good sign. I write adventure romance novels about a team of mercenaries that fight human trafficking. Subject matter is largely based on real characters and events; fictionalized, of course. I have had a good career in farming, construction, and business consulting and we have been operating a farming operation on leased land in the Philippines. Now we are in the process of buying farm land there. This is a complicated and I have only shared some basics to get my questions answered. I think this is a unique situation where these girls are family, known to us, have lived in the family for years already. They only have lived with their mom for a couple of years, before that she was overseas and now she's headed back to Hong Kong. Due to these circumstances they need someone to step forward and adopt them so they can stop being passed from home to home there. They are great kids, very smart and good students. 

[Boiler 45,449]

4 minutes ago, vscampbell said:

I think this is a unique situation where these girls are family, known to us, have lived in the family for years already. They only have lived with their mom for a couple of years, before that she was overseas and now she's headed back to Hong Kong. Due to these circumstances they need someone to step forward and adopt them so they can stop being passed from home to home there. They are great kids, very smart and good students. 

No two cases are identical but the general situation is very common. You probably gathered that none of those participating in this thread was that surprised.

[vscampbell 11]

21 hours ago, Boiler said:

Adoption kills the mothers ties so would be a waste of effort.

That is the whole idea, we want them protected from her. She doesn't really mind and is cooperating, she has only lived with them for two years out of their whole life.. Before that, they lived with their dead father's family and my wife helped raise them. The girls want more opportunity to go to school so they are excited and we have already relocated them back to their father's sister, who lives in Laguna, near Manila. Their mom has six older kids, all by different men. These girls were raised differently and we want to get them out of there. The mom is willing, it means she doesn't have to send support money and the girls will be taken care of. 

[vscampbell 11]

Just now, Boiler said:

No two cases are identical but the general situation is very common. You probably gathered that none of those participating in this thread was that surprised.

There are kids wandering all over the Philippines, abandoned. We haven't been back for three years but our friends tell us they are all over the place in the major cities, and the ministers we know in the provinces have dozens of kids that they take care of. One of them sent me a video yesterday of a mealtime situation and there must have been 50 little kids in this one village. Many of them are 10 - 12 years old and never been to school, or just barely. I don't know the numbers, but they are huge and the government has changed the regulations to allow a rapid adoption schedule as a result. We contacted an attorney in the Philippines for adoption help and he told us that it's not needed anymore and attorneys don't even handle adoption cases. If a family qualifies, the paper work is pushed through in about three months and there is no longer even a court appearance required. Sad times to be a kid. Not so different here in the USA. One of my best friends operates a street mission in St Louis, USA, and she has 1,000+ kids eating there that are living on the streets in her inner city neighborhood. Another friend tells me that in their county in Idaho there are an estimtaed 20,000 kids in the school districts that are homeless, and I see those similar statistics elsewhere in the USA. At least we can step in and make sure these girls are kept out of that situation.

[vscampbell 11]

20 hours ago, Timona said:

Why your wife and not other relatives who have no connection to US? 

And your young wife is willing to take care of 3 nieces? What about your own kids later? Was she taking care of them before you met her? 

 

Anyway, think deep. I would suggest you support them through schooling in Philippines than immigration. There's a game going on here. Your choice. 

 

Update us later whatever the outcome. 

 

Very perceptive! My wife is the youngest of 10 kids from a poor mountain village. Some of them have moved to the cities, Manila and Laguna mostly, but other's remain in the provinces. My wife is the most educated and worked as a realestate agent in manila when I met her. She is the leader of the family, oddly enough, and the entire clan looks to her when there is any problem. She's young, but she is a powerful personality and her skills at getting the rest of the family in line are amazing. She really is her mother's daughter, and even her mom and dad now bow to her leadership. I love this family and have gladly filled the role of being her husband and taking on whatever needs must be met to change the course of the next generation there. I've raised one family, my kids are all up and making babies of their own, so I have the time, resources, and enough energy left to take on another family project. I've turned around about twenty corporations of reluctant employees in my career, how hard can one family be? (Joke)

 

Regarding my original question, I had hopes that the USA had some kind of expedited process to get adopted kids here whlie the permanent paperwork was being completed but, alas, now I think not. As a result, we will shift our plans and move there sooner than we might have otherwise. It's not a big deal, I've planned on moving out of the USA anyway, so it's a matter of when, not if.

[Mike E 11,739]

20 minutes ago, vscampbell said:

I had hopes that the USA had some kind of expedited process to get adopted kids here whlie the permanent paperwork was being completed but, alas, now I think not.

For every well intentioned case like yours there are some number of cases involving fraud or human trafficking. Too many times petitioners   or beneficiaries have been burned.  So a slow process is a good thing.  

20 minutes ago, vscampbell said:

 

As a result, we will shift our plans and move there sooner than we might have otherwise

So you should instead look at N-600K to secure their US citizenship. Since you will be raising  them, once the adoptions are complete and they have been in your custody long enough, you can file N-600K for each girl. The process  needs to complete before they reach age 18. I would start this no later than age 15.  The process requires them to get a B visa to take oath of citizenship in the U.S.  

[confusedshoes 193]

It's great that you and your wife are taking on the loving task of raising 3 children and giving them love, opportunities and you're willing to move to where the children are to be able to do that. You have a lot of good things going for you, specially the support system of a large family back in the Philippines. I wish you well on your journey.

 

I must say all this talk about expedited this and that for adoption due to the surplus of 'children wandering the countryside' worries me in many ways. From how you've put it, they're basically pushing these kids to anyone coming forward to 'take them off the streets', skipping crucial steps like interviews and such. I worry that this has caused some kids to end up with dangerous people. It's probably for the best that the US doesn't have the same 'expedites' you're looking for, as things done in a hurry mean more kids ending up being trafficked or in other unthinkable abusive situations. There are things about adoption that should not be hurried and must run its course. 

Edited February 25, 2023 by confusedshoes

[Pinkrlion 2,715]

What you have described is not abandonment, unable to care for the children in the eyes of immigration. Living parent is working in another country. Fathers family was taking care of them. Now you want your wife’s family to take them. You will be living in PI. They will not get citizenship as they will look into their adoption process and see just because parent is working in another country does not justify adoption.