Adopting from Russia - Entry, Post-Adoptive Evaluation, Re-adoption, Naturalization
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Here are the various things you'll have to do after you return to the US. They are in rough chronological order:
Entry into the US
Take your child to your pediatrician
Notify your (homestudy and) adoption agency
Post-Adoptive Evaluation
Add your child to your benefits plan
Enroll in school
Social Security Number
Naturalization / Passport
Registration with Russian consulate
or embassy
Baptism or other ceremony
Post-placement reports
Estate planning and re-adoption in US court
Do Your Income Tax
When you go through immigration at your port of entry, you will be taken to a booth where you will meet with a BCIS agent. The child's immigrant visa will be opened. The child's passport will be stamped with a "Temporary Permanent Resident" stamp. The process for getting a green card is started automatically. The green card takes about a month to come in the mail. We have one report [12/97] of the INS agent [at O'Hare] insisting that you surrender the copy of the dossier you take with you. You do not need to and should not surrender your copy of the dossier.
Take your child to your pediatrician
You will probably call your pediatrician's office the day after your return and (s)he will see you as soon as possible. You will need to start the innoculation schedule you agreed to as a condition of the visa that was issued in Moscow.
Your pediatrician may do a tuberculosis skin test. Don't be surprised if it is positive. Many kids are innoculated in Russia and will test positive. Our son's welt was so big everybody in the department came to see it. If your child tests positive, (s)he will have an X-ray that will probably be negative and will then start a 6 or 9 month course of once-a-day medicine (INH).
If you adopted an infant or toddler, your pediatrician will start all the standard test, such as stool samples and lead and other blood tests.
Notify your (homestudy and) adoption agency
Visit the agency with your child or if they aren't nearby, send pictures.
You will have to coordinate post-placement visits with your homestudy agency.
After you return to the US, you should have your child examined, probably by the same doctor who did the pre-adoptive evaluation.
Add your child to your benefits plan
Usually when you have a 'qualifying event' such as an adoption, you have 30 days to notify your benefits administrator and make changes to your options that are normally only possible during the enrollment period.
If your 10 day waiting period wasn't waived and you stayed in Russia, you might have only two weeks left in that 30 days after you return to the US.
As a practical matter, you will probably notify your health insurance provider the next business day so that you can take your child to your pediatrician.
This qualifying change of status will let you establish or change any pre-tax witholding programs such as dependent care reimbursement or medical expense reimbursement witholding.
You will need a social security number for your child for your federal income tax form. You will need to bring these documents with you to the nearest Social Security office:
If the documents you were asked to show are different, please email me!
To receive the SS card in the mail, the SS office says your names must be on your mailbox, but it depends on how well you know your letter carrier.
The Social security website has a locator for the nearest office and instructions on how to obtain a Certificate of Citizenship and passport.
As of July 2001, adopted immigrants are automatically US citizens. If you want to take your child out of the country, you still need a US passport. The State Department has issued guidelines for obtaining a passport. You will have to surrender your child's green card.
Registration with Russian Consulate or Embassy
When you adopted, you agreed to register your child with the Russian government when you returned to the US. The registration instructions are provided by the San Francisco Consulate. Answers to some commonly asked questions:
When you adopted, you agreed to send post placement reports to the Ministry of Education in Russia 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after your adoption in Russia. <More about contents.>
Your state may also require post placement reports, written by your social worker.
[2002] Until recently and maybe depending on the region in Russia, the Ministry of Education accepted unapostilled reports written by you. Now, in at least some regions, the post placement reports must be written by a social worker and apostilled.
Estate planning and re-adoption in US court
After 6 months, when the post placement period is over, the child can be readopted in the US. It is this act that gives the child the same legal rights as a naturally born child.
You must still update life insurance and retirement beneficiaries, designate a guardian and create or update a trust.
Federal tax law allows a $10,000 tax credit for adoption expenses. Between that and any employer adoption benefit, adoption can now be very inexpensive. You need to document agency-related expenses (air fare and hotels don't count, for example) on form 8839 and add that form to your federal tax return. Make sure to see if your state has any adoption credit, too. Your child will need a social security number before you can file. If you came home near the end of the year, you can file for an extension & receive the SSN during the extension period.
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