Requirements that Must be Satisfied for International Adoption

If you're ready to begin working on an international adoption, but can't quite remember where you put that sharp pair of scissors you will need to cut through the thick red tape, do not despair. There are a number of important criteria you must satisfy if you want to complete an international adoption, but ultimately, it is achievable; and ultimately, you will know that everything you did was worth it.

So what criteria must you satisfy? To begin with, you must become the legal guardian of the child you wish to adopt. You can start by finding a child through an international adoption agency. Once you have found your child, you will have to complete the paperwork and file it through a local government adoption agency or a court. This means you will have to get all of the paperwork translated into the language of whichever country you are working with.

Once you have begun the process of filing paperwork for the adoption, you should start working on the second part: getting citizenship for your adopted child in the country in which you live. If you live in the United States, the State Department gives you two options. The first option is to actually live with your child overseas for two years as a legal guardian and then return to the United States. If you're working in that country presently, that might sound like a decent option for you; if not, it probably isn't even a possibility. Your other option is to bypass that altogether; and to instead try to obtain citizenship for your child immediately. This can be done by contacting the Department of Immigration and requesting the proper paperwork for an international adoption without foreign residency.

Once you have completed all of the paperwork—and satisfied both criteria—it will ultimately be up to the courts in the United States and in the country of the international adoption to decide whether or not the adoption will be completed.