Adoption Uncovered

When some adoptees discover they aren’t US citizens, it can already be too late.

Paperwork memories stapled to my brain

Even though my experience finalizing our international adoption took place about 20 years ago the pile of paperwork we sifted through will not leave my memory. At one point, we went through dozens of individual pieces of paper, each with different possible signatures or initial lines. Some required a full signature and date, some nothing at all, while some had a tiny initial line perpendicular to all of the fuzzy print surrounding it.  Our social worker received a regular trickle of calls from me, double-checking not only signatures but also notaries. I even drove an hour and a half to our state capitol because the state was required to authenticate via Apostille the documents we already had notarized. 

Most of this whirlwind happened before I went overseas and brought my son back to live with us, but that was by no means the end. As our whole family was adjusting to our new member, social workers visited us to provide accountability and support. During this time, the paperwork continued. I completed progress updates that I submitted to our adoption agency so they could forward them to the country our son was adopted from. Those updates took my time and thought on a regular basis for two years after my son entered our home. I read years later that there had been countries that ended their adoption programs because parents hadn’t submitted post-adoption reports. (1). It is hard for countries to part with children in adoption. The loss might insinuate they can’t care for their own future generation. Countries want to show that the children they are allowing to leave the country are going to a nurturing family home. Post-adoptive reports check the box for them that children are being cared for, and provide proof that shows they are trying to do the right thing. (2)

Citizenship is part of the Paperwork

Post-adoption reports are important, but so is continuing the process to finish the paperwork to allow your adopted child to become a citizen. I was fortunate because the adoption agency I was working with offered me step-by-step instructions. Every entry on every line of our N-600 form to finalize my son’s citizenship was printed for me in black and white to copy verbatim. (3) Not every adoptive parent is so lucky. Some agencies leave you on your own once your child enters the country. Other parents just get caught up in the day-to-day work of getting to know their new child and returning to routine. The added paperwork is forgotten. There are parents who just assumed the adoption agency had the rest of their paperwork covered, and they were done. (4)

When the papers are missing

What has happened due to all of these different scenarios is that some adoptees have gone to file routine paperwork as an adult to get a passport, only to discover they were not a citizen of the country they grew up in. (5) Maybe their issue was losing a social security card as an adult. They might add a task to their to-do list that reads, run by the social security office. Once they finally reached the desk to obtain a new Social Security card, they were required to prove their citizenship, only to realize in the end that they couldn’t. (6) In some cases, the consequences are severe, like in the scenarios described by adoptee, organizer, and worldwide advocate for adoptee rights Lynelle Long. 

“In the world, you have over six hundred thousand documented inter-country adoptees, and of those, there is a good portion, 20 or 30 percent, who have actually not got citizenship and right now are living in fear every day from these ICE agents who are going around collecting people whose name doesn’t match their looks and threatening to deport them. This is a real, active fear right now in the adoptee community in America. It’s devastating to see because America has failed to give automatic citizenship to all its intercountry adoptees. Every other country that is part of the Hague Convention has ensured that this legislation is in place, but America still fails in this massive way. And so, I know at least 20 inter-country adoptees who’ve been deported back to their countries after 50 years being raised in America. It’s a crime that this even happens.”(7)

adoptees and the state of the law

When we talk about adoptee issues, we often focus on matters of identity and belonging. We want to have access to information about their first family. Having citizenship feels so fundamental that it seems assumed. (8) Citizenship for adoptees has changed over time, so that can be confusing as well.  

It is estimated that between 30,000 and 70,000 adoptees in America don’t have US citizenship. (9) There has been legislation introduced as recently as 2025 to try to close this gap. (10) The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2025 would automatically grant US citizenship to Adoptees provided their adoption was finalized before they were 18, they were lawfully admitted into the US, and they were in the custody of a US citizen parent. This would relieve the pressure on a lot of adoptees, but not all. Some adoptive families don’t even meet those requirements. 

As wonderful as the bill sounds, we need to keep in mind that this bill has been introduced; that’s all. There is a long road to this becoming law. Not only that, but this isn’t the first time a bill with the exact same wording was introduced. A similar bill was introduced in 2015, and five other times since then. (11) None of them has passed. We have been in a holding pattern over adoptee citizenship for that long. 

The law we currently have went into effect on February 27, 2001. (12)  If adoptees were over 18 on that date, they fall into this limbo that we are still trying to rescue them from. The current law says that adoptees can automatically obtain citizenship if their adoption by a US citizen was finalized before they turned 18. They must also have come into the country legally and be physically present in the custody of their us citizen parent. All of this is true only for those adoptees who were under 18 in 2001 when this legislation was passed.  

Adoptive parents need to do better

These children, or adults, never asked for all this red tape. Every child gets saddled with their parents’ issues in some way. They may feel pressure to over-perform because their parent is an angry perfectionist, maybe they hoard food or money because they never had enough growing up. But raising a child in a country they have no legal standing in shouldn’t be something adoptive parents can do. 

I know from personal experience how confusing and time-intensive the adoption process can be. When I went into it, I knew there would be time and effort invested on my part. I was taking a boy from his people and culture, and that wouldn’t be easy for him. I wanted to do whatever was required to give him a good, healthy, permanent life in this country. We, adoptive parents, have the responsibility to allow children we bring over to anticipate a life where this country can be their home forever, even if that task seems confusing. That should be part of the deal when we take a child from everything they know. 

What everyone can do

While the current law is far better than the hole that was left before it, we have a long way to go to ensure that adoptees feel safe in the place they are forced to call home. If you want to let your representative know how important this bill is, you can find more about the bill here.  If you don’t know who to contact about it, you can look up your senator and representative at this link (13)

Sources

1. Vance, Angela K. “The Importance of the Post Adoption Report.” Rainbow Kids, 15 May 2017, http://www.rainbowkids.com/adoption-stories/the-importance-of-the-post-adoption-report-1991#:~:text=In%20these%20meetings%2C%20three%20main,the%20importance%20post%2Dadoption%20reporting.
2. “Post-Adoption Reporting Overview.” travel.state.gov, 31 Jan. 2025, travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption/post-adoption/post-adoption-reporting.html#:~:text=Many%20countries%20require%20adoptive%20parents,to%20adopt%20in%20the%20future.
3. “U.S. Citizenship for an Adopted Child.” USCIS, 1 Apr. 2024, http://www.uscis.gov/adoption/after-your-child-enters-the-united-states/us-citizenship-for-an-adopted-child.
4. “Claiming Citizenship Through Adoption.” immigration.com, 31 July 2012, forums.immigration.com/threads/claiming-citizenship-through-adoption.309522/.
5. Kim, Juliana. “She grew up believing she was a U.S. citizen. Then she applied for a passport.” NPR, 19 Apr. 2025, http://www.npr.org/2025/04/19/g-s1-60166/trump-immigration-citizenship-deportation-adoptee-south-korea.
6. Wright, George. “The American adoptees who fear deportation to a country they can’t remember.” BBC, 30 Oct. 2025, http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy1n438dk4o.
7. Spiering, Charlyn. “Lynelle Long Leads Adoptees to Help Each Other and Educate the Rest of Us.” Adoption Uncovered, 13 Dec. 2025, adoptionuncovered.com/2025/12/13/lynelle-long-leads-adoptees-to-help-each-other-and-educate-the-rest-of-us/.
8. Galofaro, Claire. “Thousands of Children Adopted by Americans Are Without Citizenship. Congress Is Unwilling To Act.” PBS, 25 Oct. 2024, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/children-adopted-by-americans-without-citizenship/.
9. Solis, Gustavo. “Thousands of adoptees were never given US citizenship. Now they risk deportation.” KPBS, 18 July 2025, http://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/07/18/thousands-of-adoptees-were-never-given-us-citizenship-now-they-risk-deportation.
10. ” Congress Introduces the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act.” Adoptees United, 21 Sept. 2025, adopteesunited.org/congress-introduces-protect-adoptees-american-families-act/.
11. Luce, Gregory D. “Federal Legislation: 119th Congress.” Adoptees United, 13 Oct. 2025, adopteesunited.org/legislation/federal/#aca-2024.
12. congress.gov, 25 Mar. 2021, http://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/967#:~:text=Shown%20Here:&text=Currently%2C%20adoptees%20who%20were%20over,taken%20to%20resolve%20the%20issue
13. https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member