Documenting USA Citizenship for Adoptees
Is your adopted child a citizen? Can you prove it? Can your adult child prove it when you are gone? (Adoptees - read this and replace “your child” with “you”). In order to have citizenship on record with each of these agencies, you must have 3 things:
- a Certificate of Citizenship or Certificate of Naturalization (for USCIS),
- a US Passport (for DoS), and
- a proof of citizenship status update at Social Security Administration or using a proof of citizenship document (the CoC/CoN or Passport) simply having a SS number is not enough. Non-US citizens also have SSN in order to work and pay taxes.
This could be vitally important to your child in the future, especially if they are ever arrested (and it does happen) even for something very minor. There are many examples for instance see: http://fpif.org/deporting_adult_adoptees/
Deportations of Adoptees began due to amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) which were contained in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
Here is what to do:
1) Check the original country passport (e.g. Russia, Vietnam, Romania, China, etc.) to see if they entered on an IR-3 or IR-4 visa. If the passport says IR-4 (or IH-4), and if you have not readopted in the US, you need to do so immediately. Your child is not a citizen until the adoption is finalized in the USA.
If it is an IR-3 and your child was under 18 on Feb 27,2001, you child is an automatic citizen, but will not have proof of citizenship without the steps below.
2) Do you have a CoC (Certificate of Citizenship)? If you arrived home with an IR-3 but before automatic issuance of the CoC (Jan 1, 2004) you should apply for a CoC for your child. It is expensive, but so was the adoption, and it will prevent many future issues. Form N-600
4) Verify with SSA (Social Security Administration) that they have your child correctly listed as a citizen and not an alien. If they show as an alien, provide SSA the proper documentation to update their records. SSA will update their status listing with a US passport or a CoC. Non-citizens do not qualify for many SS benefits. NOTE: If you checked the box on the visa application and received your SSN card automatically then your child will be listed with permanent resident status and not as a citizen. Here is information from SSA. You can check the status by phone SSA 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778), or you may go to your local office in person (bring the Social Security Card and Proof of Citizenship) and wait for a turn to speak with someone.
5) Make sure your will or estate plan is up-to-date. Do you know that in some states inheritance laws are different for adopted children and they do not share equally with your biological children? You may be living here now, but changes happen and people move.
So why do we need CoC, Passport, and SSA updates? Due to the Privacy Act, USCIS, DOS, and SSA do not share information on immigrant status (with the exception of Hague adoptions, in which USCIS and DOS share information on status, but SSA is still out of the loop).
In order to have citizenship on record with each of these agencies, you must have 3 things:
Here is what to do:
1) Check the original country passport (e.g. Russia, Vietnam, Romania, China, etc.) to see if they entered on an IR-3 or IR-4 visa. If the passport says IR-4 (or IH-4), and if you have not readopted in the US, you need to do so immediately. Your child is not a citizen until the adoption is finalized in the USA.
If it is an IR-3 and your child was under 18 on Feb 27,2001, you child is an automatic citizen, but will not have proof of citizenship without the steps below.
2) Do you have a CoC (Certificate of Citizenship)? If you arrived home with an IR-3 but before automatic issuance of the CoC (Jan 1, 2004) you should apply for a CoC for your child. It is expensive, but so was the adoption, and it will prevent many future issues. Form N-600
- For those who qualify, there is a fee waiver form. See Income levels for the fee waiver
- Apply for several Certified True Copy of the Certificate of Citizenship (this is free, the instructions are in Adoptive Family CARE group)
- If your child was Naturalized after the adoption (typically before Feb 27, 2001) then the Certificate of Naturalization is the equivalent of the CoC in this document.
4) Verify with SSA (Social Security Administration) that they have your child correctly listed as a citizen and not an alien. If they show as an alien, provide SSA the proper documentation to update their records. SSA will update their status listing with a US passport or a CoC. Non-citizens do not qualify for many SS benefits. NOTE: If you checked the box on the visa application and received your SSN card automatically then your child will be listed with permanent resident status and not as a citizen. Here is information from SSA. You can check the status by phone SSA 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778), or you may go to your local office in person (bring the Social Security Card and Proof of Citizenship) and wait for a turn to speak with someone.
5) Make sure your will or estate plan is up-to-date. Do you know that in some states inheritance laws are different for adopted children and they do not share equally with your biological children? You may be living here now, but changes happen and people move.
So why do we need CoC, Passport, and SSA updates? Due to the Privacy Act, USCIS, DOS, and SSA do not share information on immigrant status (with the exception of Hague adoptions, in which USCIS and DOS share information on status, but SSA is still out of the loop).
In order to have citizenship on record with each of these agencies, you must have 3 things:
- a Certificate of Citizenship or Certificate of Naturalization (for USCIS),
- a US Passport (for DoS), and
- a proof of citizenship status update at SSA or using a proof of citizenship document (the CoC or Passport) simply having a SS number is not enough. Non-US citizens also have SSN in order to work and pay taxes.
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