International kinship adoption/guardianship question

[egoldber]

I am posting this for a friend. They learned yesterday that her DH's older brother died by falling off a balcony (whether he jumped or was pushed is unclear and probably not relevant to this question). He had custody of his 5 year old daughter, J. This all happened in Thailand, where J and her father were living.

J's parents divorced many years ago and J's mother gave up custody to my friend's BIL a couple years after that. The mother is a Cambodian citizen. J and her father are U.S. citizens. J has visited the U.S. before so I assume she has a U.S. passport already.

The US embassy in Thailand has been in contact with my friend's ILs (J's grandparents, her BIL's parents). My friend and her DH would like for J to come and live with them and ultimately adopt her or become her permanent legal guardian (whichever makes the most sense). They have a little girl J's age and they actually had her stay with them for several weeks a year or so ago.

My friend lives in Utah and is unsure how to make all this happen. She is also worried that J's mother may use this as an opportunity to extort money from the family.

Does anyone have an idea how to make this type of kinship adoption/guardianship situation work? Thanks!!

[RedOakMomma]

I think your friend needs to hire a lawyer that specializes in immigration and international adoption. One or the other isn't going to cut it, I suspect. Depending on how clear-cut the case is, it may not be that expensive to hire a lawyer. Some lawyers will ask for a set fee, some will ask to be paid hourly.

Whatever they decide to do, I would act quickly. Red tape seems to accumulate with time.

[egoldber]

Thanks. My friend actually is a lawyer, but her area of expertise is real estate. She talked to an immigration lawyer at her (large) firm and he suggested the same thing, getting an adoption attorney ASAP. Her MIL has already left for Thailand, so hopefully she will be able to bring J back with her.

I was hoping that someone might have gone through something similar, but this is such a unique situation, perhaps not. That poor little girl.