Musings on Immigration

As a follow up to yesterday’s post, I thought it would be interesting to see which celebrities adopted from where and what they had to do to emigrate their child to the United States. This may also help you if you are trying to decide which country to adopt from: Madonna and Malawi : See yesterday’s post. The country of Malawi will not finalize an adoption unless you have been evaluated by a social worker there for two years. The US will not grant a visa to your adopted Malawian child unless you are willing to live in Malawi for two years or like Madonna, you can afford to fly the social worker to your place of residence multiple times over an 18 month period. Angelina Jolie , Julie Andrews and Jim Caviezel have all adopted from Vietnam : The United States has granted over 1500 immigrant visas to adopted Vietnamese children over the past two years. However; due to the high incidence of fraud, adopting from Vietnam can be a complicated process. Prospective adoptive parents submit their ...

Many couples choose to adopt from outside of the United States because of the excessive time and expense involved with domestic adoptions. Other factors such as the availability of infants and the health and/ or functionality of domestic birth mothers also play a significant role. Here are the answers to the most common questions asked by those about to embark on an international adoption. Do I have a better chance of adopting a young baby if I adopt internationally? Yes. It is easier to find an infant to adopt. Unless you are lucky enough to be picked by a birth mother in the United States , infants are more readily available in other countries. In a number of countries, it is possible to be matched with or locate an infant shortly after birth and to bring that child home to the United States before he or she reaches one year old. This of course reduces the risk of Reactive Attachment Disorder and intellectual delays caused by malnutrition in infancy. Older children are also more re...