Adoption Nightmare (FReeper Help Requested)

Sept 17, 2005 | TankerKC

[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?

[Westbrook]

Call BOTH of your U.S. Senators and your Congressman!

I am almost certain that they can expedite this process.

[longtermmemmory]

seems this is a no brainer.

you seem to have two needs.

1. show the child IS a us citizen
2. THEN deal with the adoption issue.

the http://www.uscis.gov should have a step by step of what you need to prove US citizenship.

[Past Your Eyes]

Congressmen and senators have constituent services people for just this kind of situation. If yours won't help you out, they should be ashamed of themselves and exposed for what they really are.
Oh, wait. Some people are too stupid to be ashamed. (My sometimes tag line). Maybe yours fall into that category. Certainly Feinstein and Boxer do.

[TankerKC]

But first, tell me more about the certificate of foreign birth. Parental names on it?

It is from the Alabama Center for Health Statistics and is an "Alabama Certificate of Foreign Birth" date April 2004 (just after the adoption final decree). It has her first and middle name with our last name in the "name" block. My wife's name in in the "mother's name" block. My name is in the "father's name" block.

On the bottom half it has a section entitled "Abstract of court decree" with adoption details and date.

Just above the signature, it says, "This certificate of foreign birth has been established in accordance with the laws of this state and the regulation of the Alabama Dept of Public health."

I can scan a copy and email it to you....

[CurlyDave]

Can you have a DNA test done to prove that she is your sister's biological child?

I just saw an ad on the internet for a "home" DNA paternity test. You take the swabs and then send them in, and they send you the results.

You might want to think about doing this before you get an "official" DNA test somewhere where the state will get the results. While I doubt the state will recognize a home test, it would be a very good idea to know what the result of that test will be before having it done.

Somehow I think that if you truly have adopted the baby she can get citizenship. I would try an immigration lawyer before I went anywhere. There may be things you can say which would make this much harder than it has to be, and there may be an easy way. If you do not know the law, do not make any irrevocable statements you don't have to. She may have to become a naturalized citizen instead of a native-born citizen. The practical implication of that is that she can never become President. Big whoop.

[TankerKC]

2. THEN deal with the adoption issue.

See post 44. We have an adoption decree already.

[TankerKC]

Get her a driver's license? < /sarcasm >

That is exactly why this is so frustrating. If we had gone illegal all the way, we'd probably be better off!

[Larry Lucido]

You've got my prayers and better practical advice than I could ever offer.

Just one comment, though: Your refusal to accept government assistance is commendable. Nevertheless, it would have been completely understandable and forgivable in this circumstance. Ayn Rand (widely rumored to be against government handouts) once posited criteria under which an honest person could properly accept government money. They were 1) the person was philosophically opposed to government aid, 2) the person had involuntarily contributed to the government and, 3) the situation giving rise to the need for assistance was government-created (for example, the government had usurped the private arena of remedies or actions).

There may have been other good reasons to reject government aid, of course, such as interference with the ability to adopt. But I think you could have accepted and remained true to your conservative principals.

[TankerKC]

It will be cheaper than all the funds you spent and time wasted to create something stateside..

Well, my real concern is that they will not let us return with her. We are all that she knows. Besides, we are strapped from all of the fees so far.

I suppose it may come to this.

[TankerKC]

I think you could have accepted and remained true to your conservative principals.

Probably true. But, you know, it wasn't even a conscious decision. It is just the way we operate. Now we can't turn back the clock.

[sweetliberty]

What you're seeing is bureaucratic incompetence at work failing to work. It is THE most frustrating aspect of my job. You see the simple way of getting from point A to point B, but you have to navigate the entire alphabet to end up right back where you started from with only about a 20% chance of having accomplished what you set out to do.

When common sense is outlawed, only outlaws will have common sense.

[TAdams8591]

"Call BOTH of your U.S. Senators and your Congressman!"

Agreed. Maybe someone on FR knowssomeone in governemnt who would be able and willing to help.

Prayers for you, your family and your little one. There must be a way to fix this mess. How good and kind of you to sacrifice so much for your sister's child. What loving and wonderful people you are!

[longtermmemmory]

The USCIS does have hardship provisions if all else fails.

It is not as dire as you think. really. You can deal with this. deep breath.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

I suspect that you should be able to get some disposition from the congresscritter to allow "reentry" without the child being denied and held in Mexico.

I would CLEARLY arrange for that PRIOR to going into Mexico, and working with the BORDER STATION you leave from and ensure that they see the child before you leave, and then go through that same station when the Supervisor is still there.

[MarMema]

Wow. That sounds like a walking talking piece of paper there.

No, don't send me anything yet...I am at work and would have to make a few calls from home.

Is there a translation attached to it?

[MarMema]

But technically any child adopted by US parents is already, automatically, a US citizen. They did that awhile back...between our adoptions, as I recall.

[TankerKC]

Is there a translation attached to it?

?? No. It is in English...well, as close as it gets in Alabama. No Spanish on it.

[MarMema]

Well, my real concern is that they will not let us return with her

Once you take her over that border, you lose a great deal of control over the situation.

[TankerKC]

But technically any child adopted by US parents is already, automatically, a US citizen.

The letter we got today says that is true, as long as the child entered the US legally. They say she did not...well, she really didn't. But, it is a done deal.

She has been with us for 4 1/2 years, speaks English, goes to school, has three bother's, a sister, two dogs, a cat...and they are all U.S. citizens!

[longtermmemmory]

http://uscis.gov/graphics/publicaffairs/factsheets/chowto.htm

February 27, 2001

Child Citizenship Act

How to Get a Certificate of Citizenship for Your Child

The Child Citizenship Act (CCA) which becomes effective on February 27, 2001, amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to provide U.S. citizenship to certain foreign-born children—including adopted children—of U.S. citizens. In general, children who are less than 18 years of age and have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen whether by birth or naturalization-will benefit from this new law. Under the law, qualifying children who immigrate to the United States with a U.S. citizen parent automatically acquire U.S. citizenship; children who live abroad acquire citizenship by application.

INS will work with Congress, the adoption community and other stakeholders to re-engineer and streamline the current process for obtaining a Certificate of Citizenship for a child. However, if you wish to obtain a Certificate of Citizenship for your child at this time, the process is explained below. In addition, you may obtain a passport for your child from the Department of State.

What forms do I file and what are the fees?

• If you are want a Certificate of Citizenship for a biological child, you file Form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship with a $160 fee ; or
• If you want a Certificate of Citizenship for an adopted child, you file Form N-643, Application for Certificate of Citizenship in Behalf of an Adopted Child with a $125 fee; or
• If you are applying for a Certificate of Citizenship for a biological or adopted child who currently lives outside the United States, you may also need to file Form N-600/N-643, Supplement A, Application for Acquisition of Citizenship Through a Grandparent, with the Form N-600 or Form N-643. There is no additional fee for this supplement.

I am filing for a foreign born biological child who lives in the United States. What documents do I have to submit with the form?

For children who have immigrated to the United States, parents will not be required to submit any evidence that is already contained in the INS file, including translations of documents.

If your child has immigrated to the United States (has a "green card"), you should submit:

• Photographs of your child
• Fee

I am filing for a foreign born adopted child who lives in the United States. What documents do I have to submit with the form?

For children who have immigrated to the United States, parents will not be required to submit any evidence that is already contained in the INS file, including translations of documents.

If your child has immigrated to the United States (has a "green card") after a full and final adoption abroad, you should submit:

• Photographs of your child
• Fee

If your child has immigrated to the United States (has a "green card") to be adopted or re-adopted, you must submit:

• Photographs of your child
• Fee
• Evidence of a full final adoption
• Evidence of all legal name changes (if applicable)

I am filing for a child who lives abroad. What documents do I have to submit with the form?

If your child has not immigrated to the United States (does not have a "green card"), you should submit:

• Photographs of your child,
• Fee,
• Your child’s birth certificate,
• Your birth certificate or naturalization certificate,
• Your marriage certificate (if applicable),
• Evidence of termination of previous marriages (if applicable),
• Evidence of a full and final adoption (if applicable),
• Evidence of all legal name changes (if applicable), and
• Form N-600/N643 Supplement A (if applicable).

I am filing for a child who lives abroad. How do I know if I need to file the Form N-600/N-643, Supplement A?

Under the Child Citizenship Act, the U.S. citizen parent of a child living abroad must have five years of physical presence in the United States or its outlying possessions with at least two years occurring after age 14, in order to apply for citizenship on behalf of the child. If you cannot meet this requirement, the law allows you to rely on the physical presence of your citizen parent to apply for citizenship. If you are relying on the physical presence of your U.S. citizen parent, you must file the Form N-600/N-643, Supplement A.

Where Should I File the Forms?

If you are filing for a child who lives in the United States, file the Form N-600 or N-643 at the INS district office or suboffice in the United States with jurisdiction over your place of residence.

If filing for a child, who lives abroad, you may file the Form N-600 or N-643 at any INS district office or suboffice in the United States. You and your child will need to travel to the United States to complete this application process.

What Resources Are Available to Answer Questions About the New Law?

For more information about the CCA application procedures and forms, you may go to the INS Web site at www.ins.usdoj.gov or contact our National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283. INS has also made available field guidance and public materials to all information officers and other front line staff to aid them in answering questions.

– INS –

Last Modified 03/18/2005