Filing for adopted daughter

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sbr2007

Registered Users (C)
My father ( US Citizen ) adopted my step sister ( her father passed away ) before she turned 16 back in 2004. I have few questions about immigration process of step child.

1. Can my father apply for my step sister to bring her in the United States?

2. How long the process will take?

3. Does two years living with adopted parents rule applied to her immigration process?

4. What form my father need to fill to apply for her?

5. Is she automatically a US citzen because she was adopted before she turned 16?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
1. Yes, if your father married her mother before your stepsister turned 18.

2. If she is 21 or older now, it will take a few years. Otherwise, about 6 months.

3. Not for stepchildren of a US citizen, provided the step-relationship began (i.e. marriage to the stepchild's parent) before the stepchild's 18th birthday.

4. I-130, I-864

5. No. That is automatic only if she was also brought to the US as a permanent resident before age 18 to live with the adoptive parent. Adoption alone does not confer citizenship status.
 
3) even if there were no step-relationship, she is legally adopted by a US citizen before her 16th birthday.
 
Thank you all for your responses:

So my question now is can my father apply for my stepsister or not?
 
LucyMO said:
3) even if there were no step-relationship, she is legally adopted by a US citizen before her 16th birthday.
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Provided that the adoption is recognized by the US government. Many foreign adoptions aren't, unless they follow additional procedures governed by the Hague Convention, or other applicable laws and treaties if the other country hasn't agreed to the Hague Convention.

Due to those complexities, it is generally safer and simpler to use the stepparent route if the marriage that created the stepparent relationship began before age 18.
 
sbr2007 said:
Thank you all for your responses:

So my question now is can my father apply for my stepsister or not?
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The answer should be yes, if your father married her mother before your stepsister turned 18, and your father lives in the US and has sufficient income. That would enable her to be sponsored as a stepchild.

Otherwise, if he did not marry her in that time frame and needs to use the adoption to qualify her for a green card, it is a legally complicated situation that needs to be evaluated by a qualified professional to determine whether she can immigrate based on the adoption. But generally, if the adoption was handled by a licensed agency that knew about the intention to bring her to the US, they would have followed the appropriate procedures so the adoption would be recognized by the US government.
 
That means adoptions done in Inida through the courts are not recognized in the united States? Is that right?

Thks
 
sbr2007 said:
That means adoptions done in Inida through the courts are not recognized in the united States? Is that right?
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Not automatically recognized. It depends on whether the relevant internationally acceptable procedures were followed in the adoption process.
 
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