Intercountry adoptees born on or before Feb. 28th, 1983 (41 years or older as of 2024) were not granted automatic citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 due to a loophole that excluded adoptees who have reached or past the age of 18.  In many cases, these non-U.S. citizen adoptees do not find out about their citizenship status until much later in life when they go to apply for a U.S. passport for international travel or undergo a secure background check.  If the adoptee had already reached adulthood at the time of the discovery, they are forced to undergo the complex and lengthy process of naturalization despite having permanently residing in America under U.S. citizen parent(s). 

Despite being adopted by U.S. citizen parent(s), there are instances where although the overseas adoptees arrived on an immigrant visa, their adoption may not have been finalized upon arrival or the naturalization process has never started—whether due to misinformation, ill-advice, or negligence on the part of the adoptive parent(s). Currently, only those who arrive on either IR-3 or IH-3 visa are granted automatic citizenship, as long as the child is under 18 years of age and lives in the U.S. with their parents. Those who arrive on either IR-4 or IH-4 visa are granted automatic citizenship, only after their adoption is finalized after arriving in the U.S.

The Adoptee Rights Campaign (ARC) estimates that there are between 25,000 and 49,000 intercountry adoptees who reach adulthood without U.S. citizenship after being adopted between 1945 and 1998.

The impacted adoptees—intercountry adoptees who lack U.S. citizenship as an adult—are at least 41 years old, having reached adulthood before the day of the Child Citizenship Act's enactment on February 27, 2001.

The journey of each and every person is different, but many impacted adoptees had not been made aware about their need for naturalization until after they had reached adulthood. Examples of stories that have been courageously shared include one by an affected adoptee who found out that she wasn't a U.S. citizen just days before her unit's deployment to Iraq, and another adoptee who discovered the fact when applying for a passport.

Foreign-born adoptees who lack of U.S. citizenship face numerous economic, social and psychological challenges on a constant basis: 

• Risk of family separation and deportation

• Renewal of drivers' license and other forms of government ID 

• Receiving social security, medical care, and legal justice 

• Disenfranchisement from voting in U.S. elections 

• Applying for federal loans for education and housing 

• Applying for jobs

• Prohibition from international travel 

The timeline for naturalization varies for every individual but intercountry adoptees may face additional hurdles due to their immigration status.  For some foreign-born adoptees, the naturalization process have taken several years and multiple attorneys to obtain the documentation necessary to prove legal residency in the United States, under the physical and legal custody of a U.S. citizen parent. 

• Individuals must first meet certain requirements to apply for naturalization, such as being at least 18 years old, having a green card for at least five years (3-5 years if living with a U.S. citizen spouse), and residing in the state or USCIS district of where they are applying for three months 

• Complete and submit Form N-400

• Biometrics Appointment

• Interview

• Naturalization Test 

• Oath of Allegiance

The Adoptee Citizenship Act, if enacted, would provide automatic U.S. citizenship to foreign-born children lawfully adopted by U.S. families who turned 18 years old before the effective date of the Child Citizenship Act on February 27th, 2001.  Automatic U.S. citizenship applies when these individuals are physically present in the United States based on a lawful admission. For those residing abroad at the time of enactment, they must receive a background check and have any crimes be resolved by the appropriate law enforcement agencies. 

Families who adopted children from abroad were previously required to go through a lengthy process to naturalize and gain U.S. citizenship for their adopted children, in addition to the long, costly, and burdensome adoption process. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 eliminated the need for adoptive families to apply to naturalize their newly-adopted children. This law grants automatic citizenship to all foreign-born children brought to the U.S. under the age of 18 and have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen. It applies to all future adoptees as well as those under the age of 18 who were adopted prior to the law's effective date, February 27th, 2001.

Yes, the most common instances are children adoptees who were either victims of human trafficking, brought into the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa, or adopted on the IR-4/IH-4 visa of which their U.S. citizen parents have not finalized the adoption process in their state upon arrival.

IH-3 visas are issued for children with full and final adoptions from a Hague Convention country, whereas IH-4 visas are issued when a child is coming to the U.S. from a Hague Convention country to be adopted.

IR-3 and IR-4 visas are issued for adoptions from Non-Hague countries. IR-3 visas are issued when a full and final adoption is completed abroad, and thus, requires that at least one parent (if married) physically see the child prior to or during the adoption proceedings.

Children with IR-3 or IH-3 visas automatically acquire citizenship if they enter the U.S. prior to their 18th birthday and reside in the U.S. with their parents. IR-4 and IH-4 visas, however, do not grant automatic citizenship upon entry to the U.S. but on the date of their adoption in the U.S., if the adoption occurs before the child's 18th birthday.

The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2024, if enacted in its current version, would provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship for eligible adoptees lawfully adopted by U.S. families who currently reside outside of the United States. However, those who have been deported account for less than one-tenth of one percent of the all those born overseas and adopted by American families (512,627 between 1945 and 2016).

No. Both the current requirements around intercountry adoption by American families and the purposes of the Adoptee Citizenship Act require that the adoptees have been lawfully admitted to the U.S. at the time of their arrival as children.

It is virtually impossible to exploit this law for immigration purposes unrelated to adoption. Rather, due to the lack of adequate information among and from adoption agencies and the legal community, as well as incongruency between the state and federal laws, there are several cases in which adoptees struggle for equal legal recognition as children that still pose a great challenge to many families today.

According to the Adoptee Rights Campaign, those who have reached adulthood without U.S. citizenship were adopted from Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Panama, the Philippines, Russia, Samoa, South Korea, St. Kitts, Thailand, United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

Led by the Korean American Grassroots Conference, Adoptee Rights Campaign, and Holt International, NAAE is a consortium of community organizations, faith-based groups, and adoptee advocates who came together to further raise awareness of the issue and advocate for a permanent, legislative solution on the national level.