FACE Act: Why Needed?

Internationally adopted children of American citizens face many hurdles before they can join their forever families. First the adoptive family has to be approved to adopt and complete all the paper work necessary to adopt including home studies, finger printing and criminal checks. This process can take many months to a year to complete. Then the family has to wait for the adoption process to be completed in the child’s country of origin. The time it takes to complete an adoption varies widely from country to country but it is usually an 18 month to 36 month process. Then after the adoption is completed, the child must be approved for a U.S. immigrant visa to be able to come home to their American families.

The United States is one of the few developed countries in the world that make adopted children of their citizens, immigrate in order to join their new forever families. Most countries recognize internationally adopted children of their citizens as citizens upon finalization of their adoption. The Foreign Adopted Children Equality Act (FACE Act) will finally recognize that internationally adopted children of American citizens deserve to be treated as children of American citizens, not as immigrants, and accorded the same citizenship process as that accorded children born abroad to American citizens.

The FACE Act has been introduced to address needed changes to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) which was enacted to provide automatic U.S. citizenship to internationally adopted children of American citizens. Under the CCA, an internationally adopted child of a U.S. citizen receives U.S. citizenship once the child enters the U.S. to reside permanently. Prior to the passage of the CCA, internationally adopted children of U.S. citizens had to go through the naturalization process. When the CCA was passed by Congress in 2000, it was intended to provide all internationally adopted children of U.S. citizens with automatic citizenship, however, since citizenship did not attach until the child physically entered the U.S., adoptive parents were still left to go through a paperwork intensive and costly process to get an immigrant visa for their legally adopted child in order to bring them home. Families have to go through all this extra time, effort, paperwork and expense simply to get a visa for their child to fly home. Once the plane lands on U.S. soil the child becomes a U.S. citizen (with some exceptions).

The FACE Act is intended to improve upon the CCA in several ways. First, it is intended to eliminate the need for an immigrant visa for an internationally adopted child of an American citizen to enter the U.S. Instead of having U.S. citizenship attach upon the child’s entry into the United States, the FACE Act would move back the point that citizenship attaches to the time that a final adoption of a child under the age of 18 is completed by an American citizen and when the child is determined to be an orphan and eligible for adoption by the United States government. Therefore, once an international adoption is completed by an American citizen and the adopted child is determined to be adoptable under U.S. law, citizenship would attach.

Because citizenship would attach once the above findings were made by the U.S. government, instead of applying for an immigration visa, the adoptive parents would apply for a U.S. passport and Consular Report of Birth for their newly adopted child. This is the same process that American citizen parents go through to get U.S. citizenship for any biological children born abroad. These documents provide adoptive parents with immediate proof of citizenship for their newly adopted child. The paperwork and fees for a U.S. passport are much less than that for an immigrant visa plus a U.S. passport is proof of U.S. citizenship. Both the Consular Report of Birth and a U.S. passport act as definitive proof of U.S. citizenship and having these documents before adoptive parents even leave the child’s country of origin is extremely helpful to the family. It will facilitate the process of applying and receiving a social security number, having a social security number allows for parents to file for the adoption tax credit, it will provide immediate proof of citizenship for enrollment in school programs or sporting activities as well as eliminate additional paperwork burdens for the adoptive family.

In essence, what this amendment to the CCA does is treat an adopted child of an American citizen in the same way as a biological child of the same citizen would be treated if born abroad. American citizens, who give birth to a child while overseas, simply take their proof of citizenship and the child’s birth certificate to the U.S. Embassy and apply for and receive a U.S. passport and a Consular Report of Birth. There is no reason why a child adopted by the same American citizen should be treated any differently. In fact, under adoption law, an adopted child is entitled to the same rights, duties and responsibilities of a biological child. This amendment provides equal treatment of internationally adopted children with foreign born biological children of American citizens.

In addition to moving back the point of when citizenship attaches, this amendment allows for internationally adopted children who are now over the age of 18 and who were not naturalized by their adoptive parents, to apply for and receive citizenship without going through a naturalization process, if they so desire. Unfortunately, more and more cases have cropped up where adoptive parents failed to naturalize their internationally adopted children prior to their 18th birthdays and prior to the passage of the CCA in 2000. Many of these children grow up believing they are U.S. citizens and don’t even find out that they aren’t until they apply to college, apply for financial aid, apply for a passport, try to register to vote, or try to enlist in the military. It is at this time that they discover that they are not U.S. citizens and if they are over the age of 18 it is difficult for them to attain American citizenship even though they were raised by American citizens as American citizens. There are even cases where adult adopted children have been deported for misdemeanors to their country of origin even though they were adopted as infants, do not speak the language and know nothing of the culture. This situation needs to be rectified. These internationally adopted children are suffering due to negligence or ignorance on the part of their adoptive parent and through no fault of their own. This Act seeks to remedy this situation.

Finally, the Act also amends Section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1401) which defines who is considered an American citizen from birth. This is the section of law that provides automatic U.S. citizenship from birth to biological children born to American citizens abroad. The amendment would add internationally adopted children of American citizens to this section, therefore, providing them with U.S. citizenship from birth. Thus, internationally adopted children of American citizens would have the privilege of two heritages – the heritage of their country of origin and the heritage of their new country and all the benefits that come with being a U.S. citizen from birth including the same opportunity to run for President of the United States as biological children born abroad to American parents.

To summarize, the FACE Act seeks to treat internationally adopted children of American citizens equally with biological children of American citizens born abroad. Instead of having to get an immigration visa to enter the U.S., the parents of an internationally adopted child would apply for a U.S. passport and would receive a Consular Report of Birth for their adopted child just the same as parents of a biological child born abroad. In addition, the internationally adopted child would be considered a “citizen from birth” under Section 301 of the INA and be accorded all the benefits and privileges there of. And as importantly, adult adoptees whose American parents failed to naturalize them prior to their 18th birthdays would be able to apply for citizenship the same as if they were still under the age of 18 without having to go through a naturalization process, including those who may have been deported. Together, these changes would finally treat internationally adopted children of American citizens as children of American citizens instead of as immigrants and would provide them equality with biological children born abroad to American citizens.