The Child Citizenship act of 2000 provides that children adopted by U.S. citizens automatically achieve citizenship, either when they enter the U.S. if the adoption was finalized in a foreign court, or when the adoption is finalized if there is a waiting period before the adoption is finalized in U.S. court.
NOTE: Although under this relatively recent act, children are automatically citizens, it is still advisable to get a Certificate of Citizenship . Children who enter the U.S. on an IR-3 visa are now supposed to be sent one automatically upon entering the U.S. , but if you adopted before 2005 you likely weren’t sent one. Those whose kids entered on IR-4 visas still have to apply for Certificate of Citizenship by filling out INS Form N-600.
If your child was adopted before March of 2001, you must verify your child’s citizenship. You will likely need to apply for naturalization.
I am glad that the new laws make things easier on parents and on adoptees. Nevertheless, I had actually kind of looked forward to my daughters’ naturalization ceremonies, whether in a courtroom or in the grand swearing-in in which scores of new citizens are sworn in at our city’s central plaza each Independence Day.
Prior to 2001, adoptive parents needed to apply for naturalization for their children in a separate ceremony. Usually this involved going before a judge and either having the child take, or having the parent take on behalf of a child too young, the Oath of Citizenship.
The Oath of Citizenship
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God. In acknowledgement whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature.”
Actually, I’ve often thought that perhaps all of us who were born citizens should have to take the Oath of Citizenship, although some of us wouldn’t need the part about renouncing a prior national allegiance. (I also wonder how many Americans know enough to pass the Citizenship exam that immigrants take before they can be naturalized as citizens.) In contrast to the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, I never knew there was such an oath. Although I had heard the phrase “being sworn in as a citizen”, I somehow never wondered what exactly new citizens swore to.
My Guide to Government states that in some cases, the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) can exempt oath-takers from the clauses about bearing arms and/or performing national service. Although I haven’t had time to read Part 337 of Chapter One of the Code of Federal Regulations that the site referred me to, my guess is that those exemptions have to do either with people who are too old or infirm to serve, and/or perhaps a provision for a “conscientious objector”-type exemption for those of certain religions or beliefs.
It is important to note that the act applies only to minor children. There have been cases of young adult adoptees whose parents apparently never realized that they had to apply for their child’s naturalization separately from the finalization of the adoption. There have been a few occasions on which young adults who were convicted of a felony, such as selling marijuana, have been deported. At least one of these young men, deported back to his native Brazil knowing no one and no longer knowing any Portuguese, was found shot to death in a slum. While I recognize that his actions led to this, if my birth child sold a joint while he was in college he would not receive a life sentence. I want my two children by adoption to have the same protections that U.S. citizens have.
So, enjoy yourselves this Fourth of July, but if you are an adult adoptee or an adoptive parent, double-check your or your child’s citizenship status as well.
Please see these related blogs:
“To Secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and Our Posterity”
Disney’s Special Fourth of July