My last blog concerned last month’s news about the adopted boy flown back to Russia alone. Some commentators have speculated whether abandonment charges would be brought in the U.S., which does allow unaccompanied minors to fly, or in Russia, where he landed. Also, the jurisdiction where the child was abandoned may be Tennessee, where the adoptive mother and grandmother reside, or possibly Washington D.C., since the child’s grandmother flew with him there and then put him on the nonstop flight to Russia alone.
Children adopted from Russia to the U.S. are citizens of both Russia and the United States of America. A child adopted by American citizens in countries such as Russia, where the adoption is finalized in court in the foreign country, becomes a U.S. citizen the day he arrives in the U.S.
Some other countries, such as India and Korea, have had families bring the children here under their original names and with the adoption not yet finalized. There may be a waiting period and/or post-placement visits by a social worker and reports to the foreign agency before the adoption can be finalized in a U.S. court.
This was my experience in adopting from Korea. We had physical custody of our daughters. Before we picked them up in Korea their legal custody had been transferred from the Korean agency to the American agency, which transferred complete legal custody to us at the finalization court hearing nine months later.
I am wondering if more countries will go to this sort of arrangement, where the final adoption will not take place until the child has been in the home for 6-12 months. I think this is a good idea, but I think it would only work if the foreign agency transfers custody to the American agency, as in our case. I would not have been comfortable bonding with a child for nine months if a foreign agency and/or government still had legal custody.
Please see these related blogs:
Ensuring Our Children’s Proof of Citizenship, and, A Little Ceremony Could Have Been a Good Thing
To Secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and Our Posterity”