Prospective adoptive parents who are interested in adopting a child from a foreign country should understand the visa process. This international adoption article will review the two primary types of visas for bringing an adopted child into the United States- the IR-3 and the IR-4 visas. We will explain the main differences between the IR-3 visa and the IR-4 visa and the legal processes involved for each visa. This is a topic that we frequently explain to our clients who are in the international adoption process.
If your family is considering adopting a child, you will require the assistance of an adoption attorney. This is particularly true if you want to adopt a child from a foreign country. Hiring our experienced Kansas adoption attorney will help you avoid issues that can cause tremendous heartache later. Call McDowell Chartered at (316)-269-0746 to get the international adoption advice that you need.
The Two Adoption Visas Available
As previously mentioned, the United States government offers two types of visas when adopting a child internationally, the IR-3 visa and the IR-4 visa.
The IR-3 Visa
With an IR-3 visa, your adopted child will automatically become a U.S. citizen as they enter the United States. These IR-3 visas are typically issued during the adoption process when the adoptive parent(s) go to the child’s home country and undergo the adoption process there. A Certificate of Citizenship will then be issued after the child enters the United States. This is mailed to the parents a few months after the child is in the U.S. One advantage that the IR-3 visa offers is that there is no legal requirement to undergo the adoption/registration/re-adoption process in order to obtain citizenship. That said, we advise our clients to go through this process so that their child can receive a Kansas birth certificate, attain a legal name change, obtain a Social Security Card with the child’s American name and a U.S. designation. Obtaining an IR-3 visa will help to make your child a U.S. citizen.
The IR-4 Visa
The primary difference between the IR-3 and IR-4 visa is that IR-4 visas do not automatically grant citizenship to your foreign-born child when they enter the U.S. IR-4 visas are typically used when either one parent goes to the child’s foreign country or when neither parent go to the foreign country, and the adoption transpires through a proxy or a power of attorney.
With IR-4 visas, after the child enters the United States for the first time, the adoptive parents must register/adopt/re-adopt the child according to Kansas’s adoption laws so the child to attain U.S. citizenship. As mentioned above, this legal process can be quickly handled after everyone is home in the U.S. Once the registration/adoption/re-adoption process has been completed, the adoptive parents will need to apply for their child’s Certificate of Citizenship.
Retaining an experienced Kansas International Adoption attorney will help you successfully navigate the international adoption process. Our firm has helped families bring children home from foreign countries, and we can do the same for you. Speaking with an experienced Kansas adoption attorney is the first step to bringing a child ace into your home through the adoption process.
Call us today at (316)-269-0746 to schedule an appointment to discuss any one of many types of adoption with a full-service adoption firm.
