Not telling you all of this to be contentious, but to bring awareness to the situation. Youd be shocked at how much an adoptee is denied and has no legitimate means of proving their citizenship because of legalities.
I would also add : ANY adoptee is already grieviously hurt, simply by the fact that they have been torn away, for one reason or another, from the only person they have ever known and gotten any sustenance from: their mother. Breaking that tie is injurious enough. I would offer a plea that those seeking to heal adoptees start with that Torn Hole first.
State Dept. procedure in the last few year results in a certificate of citizenship. Kids who fell under the Act who did not receive that cert should get a US passport.
Don’t wait until they need it. It can take a while.
The main key to t his will be the INS stamp on their foreign passport when they first came into the US. This is the proof of legal permanent entry.
The main place to look for information is the STATE DEPARTMENT not the INS / ICE.
Everything for our daughter looks to be in order and we have a birth certificate for her from MA. We have had to use it for registering for school and Pop Warner with no problems.
When we brought our daughter home,we were told she became an American citizen when we touched down in JFK. We had quite a bit of paper work from the American Embassy in Moscow that eased this process. This was not always the case. During Pres. Bush’s administration, there were some changes to overseas adoptions that allowed for a more streamlined processing. A LOT of paperwork, reviews, court appearances, etc before hand...but all worth it.