U.S. Citizenship for your internationally adopted child

After internationally adopting, it is important to ensure that your adopted child becomes a U.S. citizen.  Postponing this process may affect your child as he or she becomes older in terms of voting, college scholarships, working, and other rights and privileges.  The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 was designed to make acquisition of U.S. citizenship easier and to eliminate extra steps and costs.  Under the Child Citizenship Act, children adopted internationally automatically acquire U.S. citizenship if:

• At least one of the child’s parents is a U.S. citizen
• The child is under 18
• The child lives in the legal and physical custody of the American citizen parent
• The child is admitted into the U.S. as an immigrant for lawful permanent residence
• The adoption is final
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If your adoption does not meet these requirements, you may have to take additional steps to secure your child’s U.S. citizenship.  Assuming the child is under 18, children who enter the United States on IH-4 or IR-4 visas automatically acquire U.S. citizenship as of the date of their full and final adoption in the United States. 

To obtain a Certificate of Citizenship once the adoption is finalized, beneficiaries file Form N-600 with U.S. Citizenship and ImmigrationServices.