Fostering and US Citizenship

[Amatullah0]

Can you foster if one spouse does not have US citizenship? I am American, but my husband only has his greencard, we heard a rumor that you have to be a citizen to foster. We really want to be foster parents. If this is true, do you think it would be possible for me to be a single foster parent, and my DH is named as "other adult in home?"

[luv-my-boys]

our county allows it but the non US citizen must show proof that they are in the US legally. Also there are stipulations about traveling with the foster child. The only downside I have heard from other FP in this situation in our area is that often the background checks take longer or there are tons of paperwork (agian it would depend on where they were from)

[Polliwog]

I don't think it would be an issue in my state. I don't think that citizenship ever came up (although it's been years since my initial licensing.) And I think that both parents would have to be on the license, and have all the training, since they would both be parenting the child(ren.)

[queenjane]

I have a friend who will be fostering (right now they are adopting from foster care), they are Canadian and its not an issue at all.

[Amatullah0]

The person who told me this is the coordinator for the agency. She isn't employed by the agency, but works for another org that is trying to get licensed as an agency, and in the meantime, is trying to get people from our religious community licensed as foster parents. On another note, she also told us that co-sleeping is illegal(and when asked for clarification as to whether she meant illegal for foster kids or bio kids, she said it was illegal for us to even sleep with our own kids. So, this will be an interesting journey into the foster care system