Adoption in the Philippines

Rules seem to change, depending who is handling your case.   We though about adopting a child from the Philippines ourselves.   Please let me know how the process is going for you.

Robert

@Robertcounselor

It is going slowly as expected. Everyone we talk to tells a different story which is par of the course in the Philippines. The lawyers and other adoption agents are on their phone looking up answers to our questions. One lawyer said it takes 5 years, another says differently. The local agent (forget her title) said under the new rules we can only adopt one child but when we read the adoption laws it says every effort will be make to keep siblings together so who are you going to believe? We will probably have to grease some palms with pesos to get the ball rolling. If my wife is able to process both of us here that would be great but I told her it is most important for her to adopt and get the kids back to the US. I'm sure it would be a simple process back home for a husband to adopt his wife's children.

That is a problem in the Philippines, nobody knows what they're talking about. I was eating lunch with the ex-mayor and we were talking about my wife's dual citizenship. He was saying that she could never run for any office or own property. The truth is she could have owned up to 5,000 sq. meters of land before she regained her Philippine citizenship and now she can own as much as she likes. She can run any office in the Philippines but she has to denounce her foreign citizenship to run for the higher offices. Misinformation run amok in the Philippines.

Another example, we were told we had to go to Caibiran to get the court clearance for adoption. When we got there we were told to go to several different offices. Then we were told to come back on a different day. As we were leaving a guy on a motorcycle stopped us and told us something different, not sure what that was since I don't speak the language. So we are leaving again and a woman on a motorcycle with 4 kids stopped us and finally gave us some accurate information, we were in the wrong municipality, we had to go to Biliran municipality. So the person who told us to go to Caibiran was wrong, the person who directed us to different offices was wrong, the person who told us to come back a different day was wrong and the first person who chased us down on a motorcycle was wrong.

Sound like the Philippines.  You will go crazy if you have any sort of expectations.  If you accomplish one item for the day, consider it a successful day.   You are building memories to share as you age.  You will never forget that woman on the motorcycle with 4 kids.  😃

I saw a guy carrying several 10-12 feet 2x4s balanced on his shoulder as he rode his motor bike in traffic.  I won't ever forget the "skill" of that guy. 

I wouldn't want to be too close to him as he turned corners.  😃

@Robertee I will remember the really cute little girl riding on the gas tank. She was so pretty until she smiled and all her teeth were black as coal.

Ya, many Filipina's don't take care of there teeth.  They can't afford toothpaste and chew too much beetle nut.   They are friendly even with their hardships. 

I remember my niece had funky teeth when she was 2 or 3 years old. She went around asking for a peso so she could buy a piece of candy at the nearby sari sari store. She is 16 now and her adult teeth are very nice.

The adoption process is moving along and hopefully will be complete in about 3 months from now. Does anyone know what kind of visa the kids will need to travel to the US? My wife is a US citizen so is their citizenship automatic? Will we have to get them a Philippine or US passport?

          Sorry, cannot help with the adoption citizenship questions.  Was thinking of you last week they had a party in the barangay, one of the songs they played was Country Roads, Reggae style, but with the original John Denver lyrics.  Heard Toots and the Maytals do a reggae version 40 years ago, but they sang about West Jamaica.  Good luck.

@Moon Dog

The single best source is the American Citizenship & Immigration Services at https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/apply-for-citizenship

@Skip Scott Thanks!

The adoption process is grinding on, slowly. Every time I complete an apostilled document the social worker says something like "oh yeah, you need this one also" and so it goes. I had to get my ex-wife's death certificate from Maryland and since my name wasn't on it I had to get my divorce decree from Delaware, and Delaware couldn't find it. I had to involve the governor's office and the chief justice of family court and the divorce decree finally turned up after a few wasted precious weeks. That document is on in route to the secretary of state for apostille. That leaves one final document, I'm hoping anyway, and that is #5 on my to-do list which reads as follows:

"#5 Duly Authenticated copy of the foreign domestic law on adoption or a certification from the relevant central authority that the order of Adoption issued by NACC is Hague Compliant – must be apostilled"

I have spoken to international adoption agencies and attorneys. They will cite the relevant laws and codes but refuse to issue a statement on the issue since it is basically the law of the land.  According to the USCIS:

"Certificate of Citizenship Issued Without an Application

Generally, USCIS automatically issues a Certificate of Citizenship to adopted children who are admitted to the United States with an IR-3 visa[12] or IH-3 visa,[13] if the child meets all INA 320 requirements.[14]"

"[^ 12] Visa category for an immediate relative under INA 201(b) and INA 204(a)(1), as a child adopted abroad by a U.S. citizen."

"[^ 13] Visa category for an immediate relative under INA 201(b) and INA 204(a)(1), as the adopted child from a Hague Adoption Convention country adopted outside the United States by a U.S. citizen."

We do meet all INA 320 requirements in that at least one of us is a US citizen. Both in our case.

Has anyone gone through this process and if so what did you do about #5 above? Thanks

    @Moon Dog
The single best source is the American Citizenship & Immigration Services at https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/apply-for-citizenship-@Skip Scott

That link is useless. I've written 4 emails over the past month without a single reply. There is no way to contact by phone or email.

@Moon Dog  hi how was you adoption journey did you able to bring the kid to the US.?how long does it take?

@Moon Dog hi how was you adoption journey did you able to bring the kid to the US.?how long does it take? -@efredily

It is going slow. My wife had a face to face interview in September and the social worker visited the house a couple weeks later. Since we live 3 hours from Tacloban the social worker spent the night and was well fed and received a nice bonus.

So far I've sent apostilled copies of my birth certificate, divorce decree from my first wife, death certificate from my first wife, letters of character references from old friends, letter of acceptance of the child from my daughter, physical exam, state police clearance, bank account, income and few more.

I still have to send apostilled copies of my passport, deed to my house and an affidavit that is supposed to be provided by the NACC which they have been promising to send for months but I'm still waiting for that one. It has to do with Hague compliance. See below:

"4.    AFFIDAVIT OF DAVID RELATIVE TO FOREIGN DOMESTIC LAW IS HAUGE COMPLIANT"

Above is the updated request, below is the original request:

"Duly Authenticated copy of the foreign domestic law on adoption or a certification from the relevant central authority that the order of Adoption issued by NACC is Haugue Compliant – must be apostilled"

I was not able to do the original. I spoke with foreign adoption attorneys here in the US and they had no idea what was being asked for. It apparently caused so much confusion that they changed it to #4 above with the below footnote from our lawyer:

"This is good news. The office of National Authority for Child Care recently decided to provide options regarding the requirement on foreign law. Almost all their clients faced difficulty in securing this document."

How the US handles adoption from other Hague countries is settled law and nothing that needs to be certified. Like I said, I'm still waiting for this affidavit in lieu of the original request, but they never send it. I'm on a first name basis with the Secretary of State here in West Virginia and she has apostilled every document I've sent her so that wouldn't be a problem if they would just send it.

The social worker was in the hospital recently and she is backed up so the next step, whatever that is, will not occur until December or January. I don't see how I could have accomplished what I need to do from the Philippines. It costs $111.65 to send the documents by Global Express Guaranteed and the last bunch I sent was 3 weeks late arriving so at least I was fully refunded for that package. They ask for a set of documents, I gather everything, have it all apostilled, and send it, then they say something like "oh yeah, I forgot to mention, you need to send these other documents also". Very disorganized!

The child will turn 4 next month, we've had him since he was 8 months old. We are hopeful it will be completed in time for him to enter kindergarten here in the US. We talk every day and sometimes he cries because he misses his daddy, and I miss him too, but I'm stuck here until the final papers are completed then I'll travel back to the Philippines for hopefully the final interview.