Foreign Child Adoptions Expedited

Children adopted overseas will receive citizenship papers within 45 days of their arrival in America, rather than waiting as long as 18 months, under new rules announced Tuesday that will remove a major bureaucratic hurdle for parents.

Although the 2000 Child Citizenship Act made all foreign-born children U.S. citizens at the time of their adoptions, parents still had to submit an application for citizenship documents and wait many months for it to be processed.

Proof of citizenship is required for a Social Security number, which the child needs to be claimed as a dependent for income tax purposes, to obtain government medical benefits, enroll in school and be issued a U.S. passport.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency announced the change, which takes effect in January.

“Adoptive parents are always concerned about having evidence that the child is a citizen,” said Joseph Cuddihy, director of international affairs for the citizenship agency, part of the new Homeland Security Department. “What this process will do is get that document in the hands of the parents more quickly.”

Advocates praised the new program.

“It’s a much needed improvement,” said Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption.

Americans adopted 21,100 children from other countries during the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2002, government statistics show. The birth countries of most of the children were China (6,062), Russia (4,904), Guatemala (2,361), South Korea (1,713) and Ukraine (1,093).