Are you a legal U.S. citizen who adopted an international child into your family? If you are, then you can rest assured that your child is most likely a naturalized citizen. In 2000, the Child Citizenship Act became a federal standard that helps men and women who have adopted to bypass the complicated citizenship process. Instead, if the child is under the age of 18, and living with a legal American citizen, then he or she is typically naturalized at the time of his or her official American adoption in the court. You may still need to apply to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security and go through a naturalization process to get the necessary documents to prove that your child is an American. Once you finish that process, your state can issue you a certificate of citizenship for your child if you would like to have tangible proof that your child is a legal citizen. You don’t have to apply for this certificate if you don’t want one, but it may be helpful to have in the future.

When your child first enters the United States, chances are that he or she will be on an IH-4 or IR-4 immigrant visa. This visa will essentially declare that your child is entering the country with lawful permission to become a permanent resident. This is sometimes issued in the form of a green card, and other times by an I-551 stamp on your child’s passport. If you want your child to become a naturalized citizen, he or she has to have at least one American citizen parent by birth or naturalization. He or she also needs to be a dependent minor under the age of 18, and live in the legal and physical custody of the American parent.

For example, if a child is adopted by a husband and wife, and then court grants custody of the child to the non-American parent, this could create complications. The child must have received the I-551 stamp on his or her passport, or issued a green card in order to apply for citizenship. After your child has been welcomed as a citizen, he or she can get a U.S. passport. This will be convenient if you ever want to travel internationally with your new child. You will need to provide proof if your relationship to your child in order to get him or her a passport. Normally, this means a certificate of adoption. If the adoption certificate is not in English, then you will want to get it translated before presenting it. You will need to bring proof of your identity as the parent as well.

You will also want to bring the child’s original foreign passport to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and show that there is a I-551 stamp in the passport. If you don’t have a passport with an I-551 stamp, then you can also provide your child’s green card as proof. After this, you need to apply for the passport, and get your child’s photograph taken so that he or she will have a picture that meets the standards. You may also need to pay processing and application fees in order to secure the passport. In addition to a passport, you may hope that you can obtain your child’s birth certificate. Unfortunately, because he or she was not born in the U.S. you cannot get this document. Instead, you can use your child’s adoption certificate for any legal concerns. If you have more questions about citizenship and how this Act affects your international adoption, talk to an immigration attorney today!