Child Citizenship Act

The Basics

The Child Citizenship Act provides that any child who is adopted abroad by a U.S. citizen will automatically receive citizenship upon entering the country without a separate naturalization process. The act is retroactive for all children under the age of 18.

For a child who is about to be adopted:
• if the adoption is finalized overseas, the child will become a U.S. citizen automatically upon entering the U.S., or
• if the child comes to the U.S. for the purposes of adoption, the child will become a citizen automatically when finalization occurs in the U.S.

For a child who has already been adopted and brought to the U.S.:
• if the child is under 18, he or she is automatically considered to be a citizen as of the date of the finalization of the adoption, whether that occured abroad or in the U.S., or
• if the adoptee is now 18 or over, he or she must apply for citizenship in the traditional way.

Most families will want to obtain documentation of the child's citizenship by getting a certificate of citizenship or a passport.

Passports

Families will be able to obtain a U.S. passport for their child and will not need a citizenship certificate to apply. They will need evidence of the child's relationship to a parent who is a U.S. citizen (a certified copy of the adoption decree), the child's foreign passport with Citizenship and Immigration Service's I-55 stamp of the child's resident alien card, and the parent's valid identification.

Certificates of Citizenship

To obtain a Certificate of Citizenship for an adopted child, families must file Form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship in Behalf of an Adopted Child and submit with a fee to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service district office or suboffice in the United States with jurisdiction over their place of residence. For more information about the CCA application procedures and forms, you may go to the Citizenship and Immigration Service Web site at http://www.uscis.gov/ or contact the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283.

To keep posted on this development and find out more, check back here and on the Web site of the Joint Council on International Children's Services at www.jcics.org.

The State Department provides facts on the Child Citizenship Act at http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/info/info_457.html.

Changing a Child's Status from Resident Alien to Citizen at the Social Security Office

Sharon Kaufman, executive director of the Joint Council on International Children's Services, reports the following information about the process of changing a child's status from resident alien to citizen at the Social Security office, now that the Child Citizenship Act has been implemented.

For an adoptee meeting the requirements for automatic citizenship, whose parent has already obtained a Social Security number for him/her:
• Parent MUST go back to a Social Security (S.S.) office. Status will NOT be changed from resident alien to citizen automatically.
• Parent MUST bring proof of citizenship. A citizenship certificate is NOT necessary. A U.S. passport is fine. (Reminder: parents can easily get a passport for a new citizen without a certificate and Joint Council recommends that they do so.)

For a newly adopted child who meets the requirements for automatic citizenship, but who does not yet have a Social Security number, the parent has two options:
• If he/she needs a number right away for tax purposes, he/she should go to the S.S. office and get one. If the parent has not yet applied for the child's passport or citizenship certificate, the child will still be listed as a resident alien. The parent will need to return to the S.S. office once he/she has a passport or citizenship certificate for the child.
• If the parent doesn't need a number right away, he/she should first get a passport or certificate for the child and then bring it to the S.S. office. That way, the number will be issued and the status of the child will be listed as "citizen" without the necessity for two trips.