Musings on Immigration

It’s every adoptive parent’s nightmare.  They have obtained legal custody of a much longed for baby; filed the immigration work and are eagerly awaiting their little one’s arrival only to receive a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) on their I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative. Here are some things you should consider if you have received a NOID. USCIS uses boiler plate NOIDs. Even if the NOID you received is pages long, chances are, it has been copied and pasted by the adjudicating officer from another NOID that the officer previously issued. Most NOIDs comprise of legal jargon that has nothing to do with your case. Even if the NOID seems insurmountable, there is a good chance that you can overcome the NOID and still have your child’s visa approved. Read the NOID carefully and determine what exactly it is that USCIS is looking for. In my experience, USCIS almost always wants proof that the child is really an orphan.   Do not respond to the N...

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 ...