immigrant visa/legal guardianship?

[mamaLHK]

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with obtaining a U.S. immigrant visa for a chilld for whom you are the permanent legal guardian? I am considering pursuing legal guardianship of a child from an African country and I would love to hear anything I can about this process. Thanks.

[ariahsmum]

I'm not sure I can help directly... I would think Tiffani would know this, as I recall that is what has to happen in U>>>nda, right?

I went thru immigrations, but after the adoption was completed so I am no help. What does your local USCIS office tell you about the process? Have you written the Embassy in the country you are considering? I found the Embassy helpful in the three countries I contacted during our adoption. Maybe they will be in your country as well?

[tiffani]

yes, you should start by visiting the US citizenship and immigration website's adoption page for the specific country you're wanting to adopt from. If you tell me the country, I might be able to help. It will depend on whether or not legal guardianships are legally granted to foreigners or not, and whether or not the US state department will issue you a visa to enter the US.

do you have a specific child in mind? sometimes there aren't official adoption programs in smaller countries, but if you are granted legal guardianship by the court in that country, and everything is legal (the US embassy in that country will do their own investigation of your child's background and the validity of the process in general) then you're usually fine. eventually. this process can take many months.

[mamaLHK]

The country is Tanzania. They have recently changed the adoption laws there, so to adopt you first have to be a resident for three years. However, foreigners can become legal guardians, and this is a private matter between the court and the living relatives if there are any. (If not, then it is under the jurisdiction of social services.) It is also legal for children under legal guardianship to leave the country. But the woman at the U.S. Embassy in TZ kept telling me I would have to adopt, or the dept. of social services would have to ok it for me to get a visa for the child. But this shouldnt be, since visas are granted to children under legal guardianship (in general) and she said first that as long as the laws of TZ are being followed then I should be able to get a visa. Then afterwards she spoke to the dept of social services, and when they said that they wouldnt give my case approval, then she said I couldnt get a visa. But it is not under their jurisdiction, so it doesnt make sense. I know that department has said in the past 'we won't give such and such a case our approval' (in that case it was an adoption), but in the end they did. But I dont want to get the child's hopes up (or mine, or my bio child) if I am not going to be able to get a visa. Should I get an immigration attorney? The legal guardianship attorney I have is great (everything she says is logical), but this woman at the U.S. embassy who is supposed to be helping u.s. citizens is not. Help!

[Albertom]

Hi...i have a similar issue...actually i'm getting into the process of becoming a permanent resident and my 14 yo daughter is supposed to have to wait 4 years to get the permanent residency as well.

But her older sister is an US citizen and i'm trying to understand if having her sister guardianship would make the trick...

Hope you'[ll get this message and thanks!

[Mom31]

http://www.indiaamericatoday.com/article/indian-adopted-3-months-faces-deportation-30

This is a very sad story.  For those of you who internationally adopted please make sure all of the paperwork is correct.  I just read this today and it is related to this thread.

[tiffani]

Albertom, I'm not exactly sure what you're asking... is your daughter's older sister an adult?  are you wondering if you give guardianship of your daughter to her older sister, will she have an easier time getting permanent residency or citizenship?  That's a tough one, have you talked to an immigration attorney?  I think I would just wait the 4 years, rather than deal with the risk of giving legal guardianship of my child to their sibling.... I'm not 100% sure if that's what you are asking... :-)

 

[SpottedFoxx]

I would call US Immigration to get the correct answer.  We weren't able to obtain our son's COC (certificate of citizenship) until AFTER we had completed his adoption.  I would imagine there are exceptions to that rule but the only way to be sure is to either check with USI or an immigration attorney.

[tiffani]

sorry, it probably seemed rude that I didn't reply to the OP, but it's a really old thread, she has since had a baby -- I checked because I am pretty sure you can't adopt from Tanzania at this point in time, so I searched for more threads from the OP to double check... since it was revived, I thought I'd try to answer the more current question, but wasn't all that successful anyway, lol...