Help/advice needed on bringing our child to the U.S.

[gonzo 0]

I have a situation that doesn't quite fit into the guidelines that I have read on the USCIS site. Any advice/input/ideas are welcome.

My spouse is a U.S. permanent resident. She has a child that she adopted back in her country of citizenship (not sure if this matters but the child is a relative of hers. Father ran off. Mother couldn't take care of the child and kind of ran off too). She has legal custody of the child in the country of residence.

We want to bring the child to the U.S. but we dont seem to fit into the guidelines. It seems its only set up for genetic or legal gestational parents. Other than that you have to have had legal custody of the child for 2 years. The child barely turned 2 and the adoption only went through recently. We have been financially supporting the child since it was born. The child has been bouncing around between us, when we're there, and other relatives when we're not there but this situation is not ideal for the child if we have to keep doing it for almost more 2 years. Its no way a child should have to live. nor is it ideal in any other sense. For the sake of the child and everyone involved, we'd like to just bring him to the states so he can be properly taken care of.

Are there any other options or exemptions we can get?

Any ideas or advice?

Thanks!

[Penguin_ie 5,984]

Has your wife had legal and physical custody since birth?

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

Not every adopted child is eligible for immigration benefits http://www.uscis.gov/adoption/immigration-through-adoption explains this. Your child is not an orphan which will make it harder

[gonzo 0]

That is where the problems lie. Because we live in the U.S. we haven't had physical custody for two years. No one has had physical custody for 2 years because the child has no one to take care of it. We return frequently to help take care of the child, when we're not there he bounces between other visiting relatives and some relatives that do live there. This is not the way a child should have to live.

Considering the it has taken a while to not only track down the mother for her to sign off on the custody but the whole legal process of that country, and that the child is barely 2 years old, we, nor anyone else has had legal custody for 2 years (not even the mother)

It seems since the country is a party of the Hague Convention you cant use the Orphan Process which looked like it might have worked.

It seems there are two processes here. The adoption method and the relative method. The adoption method seems to be geared more towards U.S. people making adoptions from countries and families they have no connection with (ala Brad and Angelina). The relative method seems to be only for people with genetic children. It doesn't seem like the USCIS very accommodating for a citizen of another country to bring their legal, non-genetic child to the U.S., at least not for our situation in which the child has nowhere to go.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

There used to be a lot of abuse of adoption of close relatives to circumvent the long waits for sibling or other visas. If my husband traveled home today and said he would adopt any niece / nephew that the parents wanted to be raised in the US , I would instanstly have more children that my husband ( who had over 20 siblings ) So they tighten up on the ways a child could be brought to the US. You originally used both the words adoption and having legal custody, they have different meaning , has the child been formally adopted through the laws of her country or is your wife just the legal guardian ?

[gonzo 0]

Yea, I understand the need to stem abuse. Its just sad it needs to be that way and there is not a method for exemptions for legitimate cases.

I just got off the phone with the people who handle the Hague Convention adoption process. They were extremely helpful. We can get the child over via this process (I-800A and I-800 forms). If the child is in the process of being adopted in the foreign country, the completion of the process must be postponed as the Hague Convention adoption requires the child to not already be adopted. If the child is already adopted you can have the foreign adoption agency nullify or reverse the adoption. They said it was also a big help that the birth mother has officially signed off on giving up custody.

In regards to your question about adoption vs legal custody, I cant say I'm 100% sure about the current status. I will have to check to see when legal custody started. Doing the math it doesn't seem like it would be long enough to meet the 2 year requirement given the child is just over 2 years old now. It seems to be a moot point though since that revolves around trying to use the I-130 petition for alien relatives. That method would mean the child has to keep living in limbo for probably at least another year or so. According to the office I just spoke with, we could potentially have the child here in a few months.