Do we know that, really? It would not come as a surprise to me to learn if the DOJ ordered the immigration judges to expedite the cases by stamping them all “NO!” That would speed things up, eh?
You can’t have it both ways. If she was adopted as a Peruvian citizen by a Peruvian citizen she wasn’t automatically entitled to American citizenship. If she was adopted by Americans the family needed to follow US adoption procedures.
ETA: This is a sad case and I hope the family can be granted an exemption to at least let her stay in the country while it works its way out but I also wish the couple had done a bit of research before proceeding with the Peruvian adoption. There’s plenty of information on the internet that should have given them pause.
This statement makes no sense to me. She was adopted by a Peruvian who is also an American. She’s the young minor child of an American. OF COURSE she should be an American citizen. There is no doubt in my mind about this. If there were some substantive problem with the adoption-- for example if this child should not have been placed for adoption-- that would be a different story, and the little girl would deserve to be returned to her bio-family. But we don’t know of any such issue.
One would think that, but the backlog has been around for many years, so there doesn’t seem to have been much political will to hire more immigration officials (judges?) to process the cases.
hahahaha (There is no political will for this.)
Then one has to get in line, (with strong legal counsel). Perhaps an accelerated line, but a line none the less.
If you were living in Italy or France and decided to adopt a child (or were asked to adopt one), would you think you could just bring a person who isn’t a US citizen back to the US? Why would you think that? If you birthed a child, you’d have to get paperwork completed in order to bring that child back to the US and make that person a citizen. Really, you can’t just jump on a plane and enter the US with a foreign born child, even if it is your birth child. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.
If they didn’t know the law, they should have looked into what is required. It doesn’t mean they can just do it their way because they were being good people to adopt a child. And they had some time. They had the child since she was 11 days old and brought her to the US when she was 4.
The adoption is perfectly legal in Peru and if they wanted to remain in Peru, no problems. It just may not be eligible for an international adoption under the Hague convention. There are a lot of things people can do in other countries that are legal there, but that doesn’t mean the US will recognize the action. Marrying someone? The marriage is recognized but that doesn’t mean the new spouse gets to come to the US to work or as a citizen. You have to take more steps to have the person enter the US and even more to become a citizen. A friend married a Mexican woman and there was one set of paperwork for her to enter the US as a spouse and an entirely different set (and much more complicated) to bring her 4 year old son.
Why? She isn’t a natural US citizen, so has to follow the procedure to become a naturalized citizen. And she can never become president. Is that fair?
Yes of course. Same as if I gave birth to a baby while I was in France or Italy or any other country. I’d think I’d have to file some paperwork to allow my baby to become naturalized, but I’d think I’d do it while I was in the US.
No. That’s not the law as written. She was not born to US citizens.
People can’t just enter the US (including you and me) without proper documents. A child born of US citizens would have the birth properly recorded in the US.
This child is now their legal child per Peruvuan law, but is not via US law, not a citizen because she wasnt born to them. Thus she needs the paperwork/approval by the US. That’s not a tourist visa.
Uh, no. You’d file the paperwork at the Embassy in Paris or Rome where you would obtain a US passport (and SSN) for lil Fang to return to the States.
Aren’t children born to US citizens already citizens? They don’t have to be ”naturalized” citizens.
Babies still need passports to travel internationally. And you only get a passport by first proving you’re a citizen.
IIRC passports for babies have a short expiration date. I think D went through 2-3 passports before she even became a teen.
@sylvan8798 Doesn’t mean that the parents don’t have to fill out the correct paper work! DH was born at a US military hospital on a tiny island missel range in the middle of the Pacific. Both of his parents were born in the US (one in NJ and one in WI and his grandparents were born in the US too, I think his great grandparents were born in the US as well) he still had to get “citizenship papers” that he needed to show to get a marriage license and when got his passport. To make things more complicated, when he was born the island was a US territory but now it’s and independent country. His parents managed to figure out what needed to be done as non-military civilian service contractors, without lawyers and even without the internet and google, and knew that their children needed more than a tourist visa to come to the states with them.
And did his parents have to wait four years to get those papers?
Ok, suppose I live in Buffalo and I’m seven months pregnant. I drive to Toronto to see the Leafs play the Sharks. In the excitement of seeing Joe Pavelski get the overtime goal, I go into premature labor, and give birth to baby Fang. Despite her premature birth, she is a strong baby and future left-winger who is soon released from the hospital.
Like the little girl in Aurora, like 3scoutsmom’s husband, she’s the child of American citizens and she should be able to come home soon. Some minor paperwork at the embassy, OK, but she shouldn’t have to be ready for kindergarten before she can come to the US.
All children under the age of 16 have 5 year passports, Age 16 and over get 10 year passports. This is at least in part because after 5 years they don’t resemble the picture. When I was a child, many children traveled on their parents’ passport, they didn’t have their own, unless the were traveling without their parents.
If this child’s father was only a Peruvian citizen, her visa application and eventual green card would most likely be linked to her father’s. But he doesn’t have a green card or visa, because as a dual citizen he doesn’t need one. Therein lies the problem. I don’t think the authorities quite know what to do with him.
The problem is that the parents didn’t do the “minor work at the embassy” instead they just filed for a tourist visa instead of getting things straightened out from the beginning. Tourists visas expire I have no idea who would think that would be a permanent solution. The father worked for the US government it’s not like he doesn’t have a clue about buracrocy. The girl wasn’t legally adopted in Peru until March of 2017 so is not like she’s been in limbo for years on end.
And yes, even with the right paper work DH had a long stay in Hawaii (closest location to apply for a US passport and he was required to go in person with both parents) this was after all the paperwork had been sent in and it was very time consuming and expensive for his parents but they did what needed to be done to make sure their US citizen son was in the country legally.
If the parents are going to claim citizenship based on being the child of an American parent, then the adoption has to be recognized under US law, not Peruvian law. I don’t think we should make it easy for people to circumvent the law, especially when it deals with children.
We don’t know of any issues with the adoption because the family didn’t file go through proper procedures. Isn’t that the point of our international adoption laws? To prevent “substantive problems” (child trafficking)?
Fang, you’re a US citizen. Your example is you giving birth in another country. That’s not this case. There are US laws for genetic mothers giving birth in foreign lands, plus rules re: genetic fathers, who’s what and more.
And there are rules governing adopting a child born as a citizen of another country. Both countries are involved.
But this adoption was legalized in the foreign country only. Half the process. Though legal in Peru, it didn’t follow international conventions, by which the US confirms and makes her a citizen. That’s what this is about: citizenship.
It was not four years. The Peruvian a govt approved the adoption in April 2017. The child was then about 3 years old. Then in March 2018, 11 months later, they brought her here with a tourist visa. Not the papers US foreign adoptions expect, for eventual US citizenship.
They seem to have jumped the process. We don’t know what happened in the interim. But thousands of US citizens adopt internationally every year and are able to get the right US documents for their child. CC is full of parents who did this.
Yes that is the difference. This is a Peruvian child by birth of Peruvian birth parents in Peru being adopted by Peruvian citizen albeit dual citizenship with an American wife. That is the difference between the example of us birth parents giving birth in a foreign country. The reason the US laws are in place is an international agreement to vet foreign children to ensure that the birth parents rights have not been violated or the child stolen or being trafficked into the country. There are very good reasons for the vetting and obligations on the adoptive parents for due diligence. On surface it might feel like “what is the problem” but it is the same for all US parents adopting foreign born children whether or not they use an adoption agency that guides the path to the necessary visas and paperwork. It is also fairly acknowledged that countries have a moral obligation for the due diligence…in this case both Peru and the US and I agree with that.
This is a law school exam question. It’s one of those uncommon events. Many twists and turns. Somebody had to give them the bad advice. If you ever dealt with th government you know you get many different answers to the same question.
Thank you, @momofthreeboys , for a concise, reasoned, and comprehensible explanation of some of the rules at play here.
On the other hand:
pretty much proves my point above.