[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 81 (Monday, June 14, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCTION OF AGE-OUT FIX FOR ADOPTED FOREIGN CHILDREN

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                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 14, 2004

  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, many American families bring new children 
into their lives through foreign adoption. Some do so to help orphans 
in countries unable to meet the needs of abandoned children while 
others adopt for more personal reasons.
  Families spend years of effort, thousands of dollars, and more 
importantly, become emotionally attached to the child they adopt. 
Unfortunately, because of odd provisions in the immigration code, in 
rare cases adoptive parents find there is no way to gain legal 
immigration status for the child they have adopted from overseas.
  Current law allows foreign children adopted by American citizens to 
attain legal immigration status and citizenship through their adoptive 
parents. To do so, the adoptions must be finalized by the age of 16 for 
immigration purposes. However, some adoptions can be very long and 
difficult processes, especially international adoptions. An adoption 
initiated at age 14 or even earlier can sometimes only be finalized 
after age 16. In that case, the child who has been adopted will be 
denied legal immigration status to stay with their adoptive family, 
unlike children whose adoptions were finalized sooner.
  Often, American parents seek help by approaching their Member of 
Congress to seek a private relief bill so their child can stay with the 
family. But there is a better way than dealing with these tragic cases 
on such a haphazard basis.
  Today I am introducing a bill to straighten out this problem. By 
simply changing the current requirement that adoptions be finalized 
before the adoptee's 16th birthday, to requiring that adoptions by 
initiated before the 16th birthday, these terrible cases will be 
avoided. In this way, children whose adoptions have been time-consuming 
may still obtain U.S. immigration status through their adoptive parents 
like other adoptees. Bureaucratic delay should not be the reason 
parents are separated from their adopted children.
  Congress has considered and granted private relief for some children 
in these difficult situations whose parents are lucky enough to get a 
private relief bill introduced and passed in Congress. Rather than 
approach this problem in a piecemeal fashion through private relief 
bills, I hope this Congress will work together to quickly pass this 
important bill and provide relief to many American families who only 
want the chance to begin their new life with an adopted child.

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