The Child Citizenship Act of 2000: International Adoptions and Automatic U.S. Citizenship

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On October 30, 2000, Former President Bill Clinton signed into law the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, which contains provisions that allow foreign-born, biological and adopted children of U.S. citizens to acquire U.S. citizenship automatically, if they satisfy certain requirements before the age of 18.

According to the legislative history of the Act, a major driving force behind this law was the extremely complicated process of procuring citizenship for the foreign born child after they returned to the United States. The House Committee Report [H. Rept. 106-852], in support of the legislation, stated,

“Automatic citizenship for the foreign-born children will spare parents the delays and expense of the process they must currently follow to procure citizenship for their children. This is a particular hardship for parents of adopted children, who have already gone through the costly and cumbersome adoption process with the INS and the State Department.” Furthermore, “[a]utomatic citizenship would also ensure that children are not deprived of U.S. citizenship because their parents did not realize they had to go through the certificate of citizenship process after bringing the children to the United States.”

Since the laws passing, children born outside the U.S. after February 26, 2001, that meet the eligibility requirements, automatically become U.S. citizens. Unlike the former procedures for obtaining U.S. citizenship for the foreign-born child, the Certificate of Citizenship process today is quite different. Previously, the process was similar to filing for naturalization and required lengthy applications. U.S. citizenship for the child was not established until these applications were approved. Today, since U.S. citizenship is now automatic for the children that meet the requirements, the parent is only required to file for a Certificate of Citizenship as documentary proof of that automatic citizenship. The document itself does not confer citizenship, but merely validates that it exists.

According to the Immigration & Nationality Act (“INA”) Section 320, which was amended by the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, the eligibility requirements for automatic U.S. citizenship are as follows:

Child must have at least one U.S. citizen parent by birth or naturalization
Child must be admitted to the United States as an immigrant for lawful permanent residence
After admission to the United States, the child must reside in the U.S. in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent; and finally
If the child is adopted, his or her adoption must be full and final so that the adoption process is legally complete and fully recognized by the U.S. state where the child is residing.

Since this post is about international adoptions, it’s important to pay special attention to that last requirement. If the adoption was finalized under the laws of the foreign country and the U.S. Immigration laws, the child will have entered the U.S. with an IR-3 immigration visa, which comes with the added benefit of having the Certificate of Citizenship mailed to the U.S. citizen parent automatically. One major component of the U.S. immigration laws is that in order for an adoption to be “finalized” under our laws, the U.S. citizen parent must have visited the child prior to the completion of the adoption proceedings in the foreign country.

If the U.S. citizen parent did not visit the child before the adoption was finalized, then the child will enter the U.S. with an IR-4 immigration visa and the process must be completed in the U.S., through a “re-adoption” proceeding with the Surrogates Court in New York. Once that process is finalized, the child will acquire U.S. citizenship. However, unlike the circumstances above, the Certificate of Citizenship will not be automatically issued, but may be requested by the U.S. citizen parent through an application process. Fortunately, having to secure the certificate after the fact does not affect the child’s acquisition of U.S. citizenship.

The filing fee for the Certificate of Citizenship is currently $1,170 and requires the submission of a lengthy list of evidence in support of the application as well as an interview before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) can make a decision on the application. However, an affordable alternative is simply requesting a U.S. passport for your adopted child. By filling out the passport application form and bringing it to a local passport office, along with the following proofs of automatic U.S. citizenship: (1) evidence of permanent residence status, (2) full and final adoption paperwork, (3) proof of legal and physical custody of the child and (4) proof of parent’s U.S. citizenship, you can obtain a U.S. passport for your adopted child, which is valid proof of U.S. citizenship. In fact, USCIS has stated that when applying for a job, “[y]our U.S. passport is your best proof of U.S. citizenship.”

The only major difference between the Certificate of Citizenship and a passport is that the Certificate of Citizenship never expires. However, even if your child’s passport expires, they can simply submit an application for a new one. Ultimately, applying for the Certificate of Citizenship is not a mandatory requirement to prove your child’s citizenship; however, for those that are seeking a “peace of mind,” it is a certainly still an option.

Disclaimer: This blog post and similar posts are not to be considered as providing legal advice. The discussion here is meant for educational and informational purposes only and shall not create an attorney-client relationship with the readers of this content.