Immigration: International Child Adoption (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Sept. 9, 2005 |
| Report Number |
RL31769 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Alison Siskin, Domestic Social Policy Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
United States citizens adopt more children from abroad than the citizens of all other countries
combined, and the number of foreign children adopted annually by U.S. citizens has more than
doubled in the last decade from 8,333 to 22,884. Over the previous five years, the largest number
of children adopted have come from China (28,690), followed by Russia (24,561), and Guatemala
(10,938).
Under statute, international adoption is a two-step process. First, the parents' eligibility
to
adopt must be verified, and then once the child is identified and the parents have complied with the
laws of the sending country, the adoptive parents apply for a visa for the child so that the child can
legally immigrate to the United States. The application for the visa triggers an investigation into the
child's background to confirm that the child has not been bought or stolen, and meets the
definition
of orphan under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The Department of Homeland
Security's Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) verifies the eligibility
to adopt
while the Department of State (DOS) processes the visa application for the child. Once the
prospective parents have been deemed eligible to adopt, USCIS policy states they have 18 months
to complete the adoption. If the adoption is not completed in that time, the prospective parents must
restart the application process.
In 2000, the Senate approved the ratification of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children
and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Convention) and Congress enacted the
International Adoption Act of 2000 (IAA), which is the implementing legislation for the Convention.
The purpose of the Convention is to establish uniformity in the standards and procedures for
international adoption, and to achieve this goal, the legislation mandates the establishment of a
central adoption authority in DOS and an adoption accreditation program. The IAA requires that the
child's eligibility to immigrate be determined before adoption or placement for adoption in
countries
party to the Convention. This is important as there are instances when a child has been adopted in
the home country by U.S. citizen parents and yet is unable to immigrate to the United States because
the child does not meet the definition of an orphan under the INA.
The Convention seeks to alleviate some of the perceived abuses of the international adoption
system. Abuses range from charging exorbitant fees by "facilitators" in some
countries to cases of
kidnaping and baby selling. There have also been cases where deception is used to get parents to
relinquish their children. For example, parents may turn over their children to an orphanage for what
they assume is a limited time period, and when they return to claim their child, the child has been
adopted internationally. Proposed regulations to implement the IAA were released on September
15, 2003, but DOS has not released the final regulations.
Due to questions about the integrity of adoptions in Cambodia, in December 2001, a
moratorium was issued by USCIS on processing adoptions from that country.
In addition, Romania has suspended international adoptions except for those by the
child's grandparents. This report will be updated to reflect legislative changes.
