Interesting Question

[cosmiclobster]

O.K. Here's the situation. My wifes brother has a five year old son, Tian. Tian's parents would like us to have and raise their son in the USA. Tian would also like to come to the US. The question is: How can we bring him here? What kind of petition can we use to bring him here?

I see on the USCIS website that one of the visa categories is an I-130 for spouse, parent or child under 21. Is there a way for his parents to transfer legal custody of Tian to us and would that satisfy the criteria for this visa?

If not, would we have to adopt him in China first and is it even possible to adopt a child who has 2 parents?

 

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated!

[Guest Gene]

I asked a while back about my wifes niece, she is a little older but about the only way I could figure short of adoption was for my wife to file and bring her sister and then when her sister got her green card she could file to bring her daughter here.........soooo a long time

[HanLi]

we have a similar thought, hopefully some of the old timers here have some advice........

[frank1538]

This is certainly an area where consulatation with a good immigration lawyer might be called for.

 

Typically, a US citizen can file for a "child" or an "orphan". The definition of a "child" does include an adopted child if the child was legally adopted prior to age 16 AND has been in the legal custody and resided with the adoptive parent. Based on the limited information, it doesn't sound like Tian would meet this definition of a "child" since he hasn't been in your legal custody and resided with you for two years. Wanna take a two year trip to China?

 

An "orphan" is generally defined as a person under the age of sixteen who will be adopted by U.S. citizens, but both parents must have died or disappeared, or abandoned, deserted, etc. the child. However, if one parent is still alive, and you can prove that the parent can't support the child and has released the child for adoption, then the child might be classified as an "orphan". Based on what you said, it sounds like Tian has two parents, so he might not meet the definition of an "orphan".

 

Maybe there are other categories (immigrant or non immigrant), but I'm not optimistic about an "immediate relative"/orphan petition (I-600) for Tian unles he parents immigrate first.

[cosmiclobster]

Thanks Gene and Frank.

I sent a PM to King and his advice is for us to formally adopt the child in China, not the international adoption route. Amy has lived with her sister for 2 years so we will have met that requirement, but we will still have to wait for 2 years after the adoption is final before we can file the I-130 for our adopted child.

 

Now we got to figure out how to adopt a siblings child in China!!!