US citizen with permanent UK residency adopting in the UK- Help!

[KeepCalmAndEatACookie]

My DH, a British citizen and myself, a US citizen have started Stage one of the UK adoption process. We live in the UK and plan on staying in the UK. I'm trying to figure out where to start in terms of making sure we can travel with our adopted child once she is placed with us. I know we can apply for a British passport for her but how do we make sure she can enter the US as a visitor without any problems? We do want to have her gain her US citizenship as well. Anyone out there that has been through this process? We are really excited about the changes that are coming to our life and can't wait to finish this journey. We are hoping we can get everything done and have her with us so we can travel in December 2014 for a 2 week holiday to the US.

[mummymamaandme]

If you are still on stage one I'm going to be honest and say if your lucky enough to even be placed by December it's probably going to be far to early to expect to take a long trip like that by then.
Even a young baby would most likely find a trip like that very unsettling and I can't imagine social services agreeing to the trip. You won't have the adoption completed by then so would have to have social services permission to go.
I maybe wrong though.

[odyssey2001]

I agree with the above poster.

1. It is highly unlikely you will have a child by December.
   
2. If you did have a child, I agree that social services would consider this to be an unnecessary disruption and will probably not agree to you taking them out of the country.
   
3. If you do have a child by then AND if social services let you go, you would be very unwise to go. You should be focusing on the needs of your child in the first six months and not your desire to (I assume) visit family.
   
4. Lastly, the child is not legally yours until after the Adoption Order. Realistically, it takes five months minimum from placement and that is only if things go very quickly, which is unlikely given the speed of UK courts. You will have no parental responsibility up until then and you have no authority to apply for a passport, that will be social services decision.
   
   Sorry to be a downer but even if everything fell into place, taking a grieving, chaotic child onto a plane full of people who won't appreciate constant outbursts would be the last thing I would want to do. Good luck with everything though.

[KeepCalmAndEatACookie]

I appreciate the honesty! This little girl is 7 and I have been her teacher for the last 2 years. Our "matching" is occurring simultaneously during the stages as well. This isn't a a trip based on my selfish needs. I still will need to have her US citizenship sorted regardless as well as her British passport. In no way I would buy tickets and plan a trip first without more permanence occurring and especially without considering her needs first. I am surprised to be met with such judgement without knowing who I am or my situation.

[mummymamaandme]

If you had explained the situation in your original post. You would have received more tailored advice.
I wasn't judging you for a second I was just answering your question.
The best person to ask for advice would be your possible child's social worker.

[redfishbluefish]

Hi KeepCalm. You might try asking on this Yahoo forum, Adoption for Americans Abroad (groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/adoptionforamericansabroad/info).

You can't get US citizenship until the adoption order is final. The child's local authority/SW can apply for a passport if your LO doesn't have one yet, but this means extra paperwork for the SW and some SWs do not see such things as being a priority, so timing might be tricky. If LO does have a British passport, you will need a letter giving permission to travel abroad from the LO's local authority. If LO is a British citizen, I think you will just need to follow the usual procedure for British citizens travelling as a visitor, but you can check with the US embassy about this.

Hope this helps and good luck!

[redfishbluefish]

Btw, to be clear, I meant your LO's SW can apply for a British passport.

[KeepCalmAndEatACookie]

Redfish, thank you for the link and advice! It sounds like a start. I know I am not looking forward to jumping through the hoops of US bureaucracy I order to get this little girl her citizenship and to make sure that she is considered legally my child from their pov! You have to start applying way before the adoption stage two is finished. Hence, why I need to start now.

Mummy, I didn't explain my situation with further detail because I simply didn't feel it was necessary to my question but again thank you.

[odyssey2001]

KeepCalm, I must again agree with my learned friend. If you had given more information, as you did in your follow-on post, then you would have got more specific advice. I'm afraid it read as if you had unrealistic expectations of the system (in regards to speed) and unrealistic expectations of what your child will be able to cope with so soon after placement.

We are five months in and we are about to go away for only two nights. Our LO has relatively few issues and I am still very worried that it is going to be a spectacular disaster for us.

I still stand by my statement that I think going away for two weeks so soon into placement is a bad idea. Also, sorry if I implied you were selfish.

[KeepCalmAndEatACookie]

I'm really upset that this isn't a supportive board as I was expecting. I thought this would be a safe place to get information and gain support. I cannot in anyway appreciate either of your cynical attitudes to this amazing time in our families life. Regardless of what you both think of our choice it had nothing to do with my travel question. Shame on you and shame on you both for ganging up on me. I think I will stick with real life and leave the internet trolls to their own misery. I pray that your are more accepting and less judgemental and cynical with your children. Ta.

[Hairylegs47]

Well that escalated quickly
KeepCalm, literally, keep calm!

[odyssey2001]

I fear by posting I am just going to make things worse, but please remember that support is sometimes about being given advice that you don't want to hear but that is in the best interests of everyone involved. We both gave advice based on the information we were presented with. We don't know you or your situation but you posted on a public forum, asking the advice of those who have more / different experience than you, instead of having a chat with friends. Friends know you, we do not. But impartial advice is sometimes much better than someone telling you what they think you want to hear.

I am not a troll and I am sorry you are upset. However, in my defence, I have a small amount of experience, being a good year ahead of you in this process, and I wanted to share my opinion. Advice and opinion is what you asked for and it is what you got.

[Kewcumber]

Good lord keepcalm that was a peculiar reaction! Why call people trolls for answering honestly a question you asked? - its a bit rude to call people names for answering a question you asked on the basis of the information you gave!

FWIW I read your OP earlier and didn't have time to reply at the time but I would have formulated a reply which says almost exactly the same as Mummymama and Odyssey had said. Because in the absence of other information, the norm would be that starting stage one now would make it almost impossible (for legal and practical reasons) to travel with any placed child at CHristmas.

AS it appears you have a very different situation to the norm, then I'm not sure that generic answers on a not very supportive forum are going to be of much help.

Talk to your childs social worker about getting a passport, apply for a proper visa through the embassy with support from the social worker (rather than relying on the visa waiver scheme) would be my advice and ask the Embassy for advice about US citizenship.

But as Uk and US are both Hague countries now, the US should consider her your child legally once an adoption order is granted.

[KristinaM]

Keep calm -there is no need to be rude to people who have kindly given up their time to answer your question politely and accurately. I'm suprised that a teacher would have such a poor attitude. You clearly have a lot to learn about both the adoption process and attachment issues and I suggest that you address this learning need ASAP.

And the other posters are correct -even if this little girl is placed with you this summer, you would be ill advised to travel abroad for 2 weeks at Christmas, it will be far too disruptive for her. The fact that you have been her teacher for two years is pretty much irreverent to this.

[mummymamaandme]

I'm disgusted at being called a troll, I'm not just adopting, I'm adopted and even now travel away from home is hard for me and I can really only manage a week.

[Velvet1973]

I think the troll was the op here, setting up a deliberately vague opening post knowing the answers she would get and then massively over reacted when given perfectly reasonable responses.
We too are in stage 1 and I have to say at the beginning of applying we too were naive in our expectations so it's not unreasonable to assume the op may have been the same.
Adopting a 7 year old that you have taught for 2 years must be a 1 in a million type of adoption so without presenting the full story she was never going to get more specific advice. Have to agree with other posters though regardless of whether or not the child has known her for 2 years it still seems to me to be an awful lot to put a newly placed child through,

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

Not really sure why I'm posting this as I suspect you won't thank me for it but friends of mine took their child home nearly a year ago and the adoption order still isn't through. (And so they can't travel abroad.)

Ironically it was the fact that their dc settled really really well with them that caused the initial hold up - our LA is incredibly underfunded and (quite rightly I guess but still difficultly) a child happily settled with his mummy and daddy is not seen as a priority.

As an aside I found this board when I was going to be a referee for my friends and I wanted to understand more about the process and how I could support my friends. I have been on loads of boards over the years and I can honestly say that this is probably the most supportive and knowledgable one I have ever found.

[FamiliesShareGerms]

DD already had a passport when she came to us as she had travelled with her FC. We haven't actually used it, as we're yet to get to the point two years in where we think she could really cope with a long journey and stay away (we've done shorter UK based holidays instead)

[FamiliesShareGerms]

Ps - what a bizarre thread

[UnderTheNameOfSanders]

Not sure if the OP is coming back, but never mind.

If you get a passport in their current name, plus a letter from SS giving permission to travel, you may be OK. But obtaining this may be difficult, and may well require the BPs permission too.

Otherwise you need to wait until the adoption order is through. Normally you can't apply to court until at least 13 weeks after placement. With an older child the SS may not support an application until some time after that (we had to wait 9 months with similar age DD). BPs may decide to contest adoption, unless you have very specific reasons where you can be sure they will not. You may nopt then get a court date for 2-3 months.
Once you have been to court, you will need to wait to obtain the long birth certificate. iirc that takes around 4 weeks or so. Once you have the long certificate you can apply for a UK passport, this again is not going to take less than 2 weeks, probably longer, unless you can go and queue for one in person.
If you have the AO and a British passport in your surname she should have no problem going to US as she should be treated like a birth child.

I think you need to talk to your SW about the likely timescales and go from there.
Personally I think you are being very optimistic if you think the AO will be made in time for you to get a UK passport for a trip this year. But you may have information that you have not shared that means you are not being so.
I think organising to travel with a LA child to the US may be a bureaucratic nightmare from both the UK and the US side.

Normally I would also say that expecting a 7 year old newly-placed child to go on a transatlantic trip would be highly risky as to whether said child would cope. Ours definitely would not have coped. But in your case, given you already know the child, you are maybe in the best place to judge. But you should not judge all the kind helpful adopters on here who gave you best advice on the limited information you initially provided.