Adopting niece from India

[minglevi 0]

I am male U.S. citizen now and married since last 4 years to a U.s. citizen who was born and brought up here in USA.

We both are 40 and we dont have child of our own and we are thinking to adpot our niece from India who is 14 years of age.

My niece's parents are alive and I have filed for my sister's I-130 in april 2012 which is a long wait and we are worried that my niece

will be 18 by the time my sister come here so my niece will not be able to come with her.

So we are wondering can we adpot my niece?

I read somewhere that we have to be married for at least 5 years before we can adpot is that true?

also do they allow to adpot a family member's child?

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

First your neice natural parents must be deceased inorder to make her an orphange. Since this is not the case, on wha bases are you adopting her?

There is more , but let start with this first.

If she was an orphange, for a true adoption you must live in her home country with the child for 2 years after the adoption.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

You could adopt her but that adoption probably would not qualify for immigration purposes. Many immigrants want to speed the process of relatives immigration and eye adoption as a means. Because this was abused in the past , immigration laws have been molded to prevent this abuse. First the child must be adoptable, as in her parents must be deceased or give the child up because they are not able to support the child to local standards ( this is the clause that will most likely stop you ) You must have the child in your custody for 2 years usually ( this would be after the child is availble to adopt ) and the adoption must be complete before the child is 16. If you are truely concerned you may want to explore helping the child get a good education, even explore student visas here in the US when she gets older.

[aaron2020 11,651]

You can adopt here. However, she will not qualify for a visa for at least three different reasons; 1) both her parents are alive so she does not meet the definition of an orphan, 2) it's a non-Hague adoption which requires you to live with her for two years in India before she could qualify for a visa, and 3) the adoption is a sham to get an immigrant benefit to a Realive you could not otherwise petition for ( you admitted the adoption is because she would be 18 by the time her mother immigrates and not because you want her to be your daughter).