Posted on 09/17/2005 12:26:39 PM PDT by TankerKC
This is a long read which is an update from a thread I wrote in January 2004. Please read, if you can help.
Family Adoption: Did We Do the Right Thing? (Freeper Advice Requested)
Being a Conservative goes beyond posting to FreeRepublic. Or, it should. So, when a family member got into some legal trouble and couldn’t care for her child, my wife and I stepped in.
Not the first time.
When you come from a family with six kids, chances are that one may not turn out to be a productive member of society. My mom raised six of us on her own. She now has grown children, five of whom are functioning members of society including a military officer, three cops and a homemaker (and former cop).
The sixth, and youngest, has been in and out of trouble since she was in the sixth grade—incidentally the last year she regularly attended school. She had her first child when she was 15 and her second when she was 19.
Over the years the level of trouble she got into escalated. She started with truancy, fighting, and drinking. Soon it was drugs along with prostitution to pay for it. She finally developed a heroin habit and resorted to armed robbery for funds.
She was caught and arrested during a robbery of a diner. Her two children, who had accompanied her during her heroin binges and crime sprees, were taken into state custody. Of course, with 5 aunts and uncles, the kids had a home to go to. My brother took the kids into his home. Since the kids were wards of the state, my brother was essentially taking care of the kids for the State of California—it seems that is one way to work the situation. Because he was taking care of the “state’s kids”, he was given $600 a month and Medi-Cal health insurance.
A Third Child
Meanwhile, the children’s mom was in and out of prison, rehab, and parole, finally ending up with several warrants out for her arrest and strung out on heroin yet again. In February of 2000 she gave birth to a daughter. Since she was high and wanted, she slipped across the border to Tijuana, Mexico to have the baby. She was afraid that if she gave birth in a US hospital that she would be turned in. Once the baby was born, she slipped back across the border, never documenting the birth of her new child..
She spent the next eleven months living in cheap motels and scoring drugs anyway that she could. The gig was up when she got caught shop lifting and she was off to prison again.
My brother still had her older kids and had since had a child of his own with Down’s Syndrome, so he couldn’t take another child—particularly one born hooked on heroin.
Poor Timing
My wife and I already had four children. All were of school age. I was in the second month of a 1 year deployment to Honduras and my wife worked in the cash office at a local discount store. The timing was all wrong, but when she asked our four older kids about bringing the child to live with us, the just asked how soon we could get her to Alabama.
In order to take the child, my wife would need to quit her job. Due to my deployment, she was already functioning as single parent, and now her hands would really be full. We needed the money from her job, but our new baby would need some special help.
Even though our family income was going to go down, we did not want to take money from the state to care for a family member. We could have easily let the child be a ward of the state and taken cash and health insurance. But, we didn’t think is was a state responsibility. It was a family responsibility. Besides, we’d get her on our insurance and claim her as a dependent on our taxes. It would all work out—or so we thought.
She has no Birth Certificate?
Our new baby was born under less that perfect circumstances. She was born sick, in a foreign country, to a mother who was wanted by the law. Her birth was not registered or documented in anyway. We immediately got (and paid) an adoption lawyer so that we could get legal custody and progress through the adoption process. We thought that having legal custody would streamline the process.
Nothing could make this messy process smooth. It took months just to get a custody hearing. Meanwhile we paid for her doctor visits. Once we had legal custody, we thought we could claim her on our taxes and add her to our health plan. But Mr. Bureaucracy says, “Not so fast there!”
Without a birth certificate, there will be no Social Security Number. We found this to be true no matter how many other acceptable forms of identification are listed on the SS website. How about a form from the INS attesting to her citizenship? No! Can we get a individual taxpayer id number (ITIN), you know the number that illegal aliens can get so that they can pay there taxes? No!
Without a SSN or ITIN, you can’t claim a child on your taxes.
Or, get the $600 “Bush” child tax rebate.
Or, claim your adoption credit.
Or, get your DoD adoption allowance.
Three Years (It has been 4 1/2 years now)
So, we have been trying to get some documentation for this child for nearly three years. My wife has spent hours waiting in Social Security, Internal Revenue, and INS offices only to run into road blocks at every turn. We have, called, mailed, and emailed asking for and proving information to no avail.
That was all written in Jan of 2004. You can read the original thread here.
We finally did get an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) for child early in 2005!
We still couldn’t get a SSN without proof of citizenship. We sent in a Form N-600 as advised by the INS. My wife was told that the form would get us an interview with INS (now the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, or USCIS). We filled out the form and paid the fee as listed on the form. The form was eventually retuned, because, apparently, the prescribed fee listed on the form was changed and we owed even more ($240 in total). After we paid the fee (Oct 2004), we got back a form letter saying that they had received the N-600 and that we could not contact them for a minimum of one year while they processed it.
Well, we got back the form today (after 11 months) and it says, “NAME is not a legal permanent resident, and there are no petitions pending on her behalf; therefore your Application for Certificate of Citizenship is hereby denied.”
We are at a loss, and have been financially drained. No one in the federal bureaucracy can tell us what we should do next. We have a child, that we have legally adopted, but she is an illegal alien. Does that make any sense? Is there anyone out there who knows what to do?
It may not have been a good idea to berate your Congresscritter in the same call where you ask for his/her assistance.
Save the complaints for another call. ;)
We have taken her to Mexico before. They didn't look twice ate her when we came back across the border.
Of course, if we went to the consulate and told them our story, they might clue in and suddenly decide that she can't come back.
It's going to be expensive, but at this point with all the decisions already made by the agency, I don't see any alternative. They are going to be even more reluctant to undo what they have done and confess that they were wrong. They will probably have to be forced into it, either by a lawsuit or by serious influence from a senator or congressman.
You also need to make a total pest of yourself in your congressman's office. Just sending one letter is not going to get their attention - they get hundreds. (Don't contact the media until you have exhausted that avenue.)
EXPEDITIOUS NATURALIZATION FOR CHILDREN BORN OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES
EXPEDITIOUS NATURALIZATION
CHILDREN BORN ABROAD TO A U.S. CITIZEN PARENT
USING GRANDPARENTS' PHYSICAL PRESENCE IN THE UNITED STATES
TO HELP THE CHILD BECOME A U.S. CITIZEN
Q. IF MY CHILD IS BORN ABROAD, IS THE CHILD A U.S. CITIZEN?
A. YOUR CHILD MAY BE A U.S. CITIZEN IF YOU MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT TO TRANSMIT CITIZENSHIP.
Q. WHAT ARE THOSE REQUIREMENTS?
A. IF YOU AND YOUR SPOUSE ARE BOTH U.S. CITIZENS, AND ONE OF YOU RESIDED IN THE UNITED STATES OR AN OUTLYING POSSESSION PRIOR TO THE CHILD'S BIRTH, AND THE CHILD WAS BORN IN WEDLOCK, YOUR CHILD BORN ABROAD ACQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP UNDER SECTION 301(c) INA IF YOUR SPOUSE IS AN ALIEN, YOU MUST HAVE LIVED IN THE UNITED STATES FOR A SPECIFIC PERIOD OF TIME BEFORE THE CHILD WAS BORN TO TRANSMIT CITIZENSHIP. FOR CHILDREN BORN ON OR AFTER NOVEMBER 14, 1986, THE U.S. CITIZEN PARENT MUST HAVE LIVED IN THE UNITED STATES OR AN OUTLYING POSSESSION FOR 5 YEARS, 2 AFTER THE AGE OF 14, PRIOR TO THE BIRTH OF THE CHILD.
SEE OUR INFORMATION REGARDING ACQUISITION OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND PHYSICAL PRESENCE REQUIREMENTS.
Q. WHAT IF I HAVEN'T LIVED IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE REQUIRED PERIOD OF TIME, HOW CAN MY CHILD BECOME A U.S. CITIZEN?
A. SECTION 322 OF THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY TECHNICAL CORRECTION ACT OF 1994 BECAME EFFECTIVE APRIL 1, 1995. IT ENABLES YOU TO APPLY FOR THE EXPEDITIOUS NATURALIZATION OF YOUR CHILD.
Q. HOW DOES THIS WORK?
THERE ARE TWO OPTIONS, AND THE ONE YOU CHOOSE MAY DEPEND ON WHERE YOU ARE RESIDING.
1. IF YOU AND YOUR CHILD ARE LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE CHILD ENTERED THE UNITED STATES WITH A U.S. IMMIGRANT VISA AS A PERMANENT RESIDENT, APPLY AT THE BCIS DISTRICT OFFICE WITH JURISDICTION OVER YOUR PLACE OF RESIDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. TO FIND OUT WHERE THOSE OFFICES ARE LOCATED, CONTACT THE BCIS INFORMATION SERVICE LINE AT 1-800-755-0777 OR SEE THE BCIS WEB SITE FOR A LIST OF BCIS FIELD OFFICES .
2. IF YOU AND THE CHILD ARE RESIDING ABROAD, THE CHILD MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR EXPEDITIOUS NATURALIZATION IF YOUR PARENT, THE CHILD'S U.S. CITIZEN GRANDPARENT, WAS PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES FOR A PERIOD TOTALING 5 YEARS, 2 AFTER THE AGE OF 14. THE GRANDPARENT CAN BE LIVING OR DECEASED AT THE TIME OF THE APPLICATION. IF DECEASED, THE GRANDPARENT MUST HAVE BEEN A CITIZEN PRIOR TO THE CHILD'S BIRTH AND AT THE TIME OF THE GRANDPARENT'S DEATH.
Q. I WILL BE LIVING ABROAD WITH MY FAMILY FOR SOME TIME. HOW DO I APPLY FOR EXPEDITIOUS NATURALIZATION FOR MY CHILD USING THE "GRANDPARENT" PROCEDURE?
A. COMPLETE AND FILE BCIS FORMS N-600 - APPLICATION FOR CERTIFICATE OF CITIZENSHIP AND N-600/N-643 SUPPLEMENT A - APPLICATION FOR TRANSMISSION OF CITIZENSHIP THROUGH A GRANDPARENT. SEND FORM N-600, N-600/N-643 SUPPLEMENT A, SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS AND THE REQUIRED FEE TO ONE OF THE 51 BCIS FIELD OFFICES IN THE UNITED STATES . FOR INFORMATION ABOUT HOW TO OBTAIN BCIS FORMS CLICK HERE OR CALL 1-800-870-3676.
BCIS WILL DETERMINE WHETHER YOUR CHILD IS ELIGIBLE AND APPROVE THE APPLICATION, THEN FORWARD YOU A LETTER AND NATURALIZATION APPOINTMENT DATE. YOU PRESENT THE BCIS APPROVAL AND APPOINTMENT LETTER TO THE U.S. EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.
THE U.S. EMBASSY OR CONSULATE WILL ISSUE THE CHILD A B-2 VISA. THIS PROCEDURE ALLOWS PARENTS TO MAKE A ONE STOP VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES FOR THE PURPOSES OF NATURALIZING THEIR CHILD AS A U.S. CITIZEN.
Q. CAN I USE MY PARENTS' (THE CHILD'S U.S. CITIZEN GRANDPARENTS') PHYSICAL PRESENCE IN THE UNITED STATES TO JUST APPLY FOR A U.S. PASSPORT AND FOREIGN SERVICE REPORT OF BIRTH OF THE U.S. CITIZEN ABROAD AND AVOID THE VISA AND NATURALIZATION PROCESS?
A. NO. THE TECHNICAL CORRECTION ACT OF 1994 DID NOT AMEND SECTION 301(G) OF THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT REGARDING ACQUISITION OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP OF CHILDREN BORN ABROAD. SECTION 322 INA CREATED A PROCEDURE FOR EXPEDITIOUS NATURALIZATION OF AN ALIEN CHILD BORN TO A U.S. CITIZEN PARENT.
Q. ARE THERE ANY TIME LIMITS FOR THE APPLICATION?
FOR THE NATURALIZATION BENEFIT TO BE GRANTED, THE APPLICATION MUST BE FILED, ADJUDICATED AND APPROVED BY BCIS, WITH THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE ADMINISTERED BEFORE THE CHILD'S 18 TH BIRTHDAY.
Q. HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS PROCESS?
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ON THE APPLICATION PROCESS OR NEED ADDITIONAL APPLICATION FORMS, PLEASE CONTACT THE BRANCH CHIEF, CUSTOMER SERVICE, BCIS HEADQUARTERS BENEFITS, 425 I STREET N.W., ROOM 3214, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20536; TEL: (202) 307-3587 OR SEE THE BCIS WEB SITE AT http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm .
01/2000
American Citizens Services
That's unbelievable!
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