Orphan Nieces - Are they eleigible to be filed I-600?

[iluvfl 0]

Hi:

My wife is a US Citizen. Her family lives in India. Her younger sister died tragically on April 2004. She had two young children. A legal adoption decree in India was executed between the children’s father and my wife’s father (father-in-law). The legal decree states that the father of the children could not care for the children due to his physical and economical conditions. This decree was made official in August 2005. Last weekend, my wife’s father died because of massive heart attack.

Now the children are left out as orphans. Do they qualify as orphans? My wife’s mother has medical problems and also she is not physically capable of raising the children. From looking at all technical angles, the children are termed as orphans. My wife is in India attending her father’s funeral. I have reviewed the Department of State guidelines for adoption orphan children from India. Can she adopt those two children under her name? She can start the paper work based on Hindu Adoption law. First of all, she is the aunt for the orphan children and then she is a US citizen as well. The children are from India, We can consult the attorneys back in India and see if she is qualified to adopt the two children. If we can legally adopt them in India, can we bring the children to USA? I understand that there is a two year residency requirement for the children to be in our custody. It appears that, the two year-requirement for physical custody of the children could be waived under INA, Section 101(B)(1). Can we file I-600 (orphan as immediate relative) directly to bring the kids to USA? How can we accomplish this? Should we get hold of the US Consulate or Embassy in India?

Please let me know what can be accomplished while my wife is in India. Please call me @ 321-436-8294.

Thanks

Mahesh

[YuAndDan 153]

I would assume your wife can adopt the children, and then bring them over as CR-2 "Step Children".

This is a good question for an immigrations attorney.