The Issue Facing Adoptee Citizenship
Many intercountry adoptees lack citizenship despite having been adopted as children by American citizens.
The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 automated the citizenship process and granted citizenship retroactively to adoptees who were affected—except for those who had reached 18 years before the enactment date.
The abrupt transition of responsibility for naturalization placed many adoptees in legal limbo.
The Importance in Addressing This Issue
Citizenship and nationality are the fundamental human rights of all individuals.
Families who come together through adoption deserve the same rights, privileges, and security as biological families. Adoptees should receive equal legal inheritances, including insurance benefits, family name, and other assumed family rights. Adoptees who were not naturalized by their parents deserve citizenship as they legally immigrated to the U.S. as children.
The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2024
The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2024 was introduced in the 118th Congress in June of 2024. H.R.8617 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Don Bacon (R-NE), and S.4448 was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Mazie Hirono(D-HI). If enacted with inclusive language, the Adoptee Citizenship Act will grant U.S. citizenship to all individuals internationally adopted before the age of 18, regardless of current age, interactions with criminal legal systems, or deportation status.
This bipartisan legislation is a simple, common sense fix to a problem that has existed for far too long. It recognizes and counts those who were legally adopted by U.S. citizens as children raised in the United States. It upholds the fundamental legal principle that attributes the rights of a child naturally born to a U.S. couple to a child adopted by a U.S. couple. Furthermore, it protects the rights of these adoptees against deportation that breaks up families and returns adoptees to places where they do not know the language, culture, or have any known family members or supports.
Source: Adoptees for Justice (June 2024)
Stay In The Loop
House Bill - H.R.8617
Senate Bill - S.967
Sen. Mazie Hirono
June 6, 2024
Press Release
Rep Adam. Smith
June 4, 2024
Press Release
ABOUT THE ADOPTEE CITIZENSHIP ACT OF 2024
Provided by Adoptees United
ADOPTEE LEGISLATION TRACKER
Curated and Mainained by Adoptees United
Adoptees for Justice
Formed in 2018, Adoptees For Justice is an intercountry adoptee-led organization. Many of its members have been working for justice in adoptee, immigrant, racial, and social justice spaces for years. Adoptees For Justice’s first project is to educate, organize and advocate for an Adoptee Citizenship Act that is inclusive of all adoptees, including those with criminal backgrounds and who have been deported. Adoptees For Justice firmly believes that ALL intercountry adoptees should have U.S. citizenship, and that no adoptee should be left behind. We view this commitment as part of the larger immigrant justice and human rights movements.
Adoptee Rights Law Center
The Adoptee Rights Law Center helps adopted people navigate legal challenges in obtaining their own original birth certificates, securing U.S. citizenship, and seeking information to which they are entitled.
Gregory Luce, attorney and founder, works to develop broader legal strategies to challenge existing legal frameworks that operate to deny adopted people basic and fundamental rights of identity.
The Adoptee Rights Law Center’s work involves four primary areas:
– Sealed original birth certificates and court records
– Citizenship for intercountry adoptees
– Legislative strategy and action
– Coalition work with other committed adoptee rights organizations.
Adoptees United
Adoptees United is led by adoptees in the United States. We are committed to a diverse board and organization that represents the interests of all adoptees, whether domestic, intercountry, transracial, or former foster youth.
Adoptees United sponsors and organizes events and projects that center the lives of adopted people and aim to change the narrative of adoption.
They also track and monitor adoptee rights legislation in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US Congress. If a pending or recently enacted bill relates to the rights of adult adopted people in the United States, we will list it.
National Alliance for Adoptee Equality
Led by the Korean American Grassroots Conference, Adoptee Rights Campaign, and Holt International, the National Alliance for Adoptee Equality is a consortium of community organizations, faith-based groups, adoptee advocates, and allies who came together to raise awareness of the inequality of citizenship among intercountry adoptees and to work towards materializing a permanent, legislative solution to end this crisis.
NAAE officially launched in November, 2019 with the support of impacted adoptees, families, and friends from across the United States, as well as members of Congress from both parties.
Adult Adoptees + U.S. Citizenship
This page provides information to foreign-born adults in the United States who were adopted as children and have questions about their U.S. citizenship. Adoptive parents can find information about obtaining and documenting citizenship for adopted children (under age 18) on the U.S. Citizenship for an Adopted Child webpage.
Adult adoptees include foreign-born individuals who are now 18 years of age or older and who, as children:
– Were adopted abroad and brought to the United States to live with their adoptive parents:
– Were brought to the United States to be adopted;
– or Entered the United States for a purpose other than adoption but were subsequently adopted in the United States. If you are an adult adoptee, you might already be a U.S. citizen.
