If you recently adopted a child from another country, you are probably thrilled to bring that loved one home and introduce him or her to the United States. After you have a passport and a visa for your child, you can bring or her to the United States. Once here, you will need to seek U.S. citizenship for that child. Because the child was not born in America, he or she cannot be considered an American by naturalization, even though he or she is now legally yours. You will want to officiate your child’s citizenship while he or she is still young, in order to avoid complications later in life. Once your child reaches the teen years, working, voting, and even applying for college could be difficult if he or she is not a legal citizen in the U.S. Often colleges won’t give scholarships to non-US students.

In the worst of cases, children have faced deportation because they never became a U.S. citizen and were therefore an undocumented citizen on an expired visa. While this may sound harsh, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can take legal action if they deem it necessary. All of this to say, if you truly love your child you will want to safeguard his or her future by obtaining U.S. citizenship for that child right away. According to the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the Child Citizenship Act of 200 was designed to make the U.S. citizenship process easier for adopted children. This act eliminated a lot of the steps and costs of the process when a child is being documented into a legal American family.

Under the Child Citizenship Act, an internationally adopted young one can obtain citizenship if at least one parent is a U.S. citizen, and the child is under the age of 18. As well, the child must live in the legal and physical custody of the American citizen parent. For example, if a husband and wife married, adopted, and then divorced, and the child was given to the non-citizen parent, then this might affect this arrangement. When your child first arrives in the United States from being adopted abroad, he or she will be regarded as an immigrant who is eligible for permanent residence. If he or she is not given this status upon entering the country, then you may run into complications. Also, your child can only become a citizen of the United States through the expedited process if the adoption is final. If you are in a waiting period, the child cannot be issued citizenship until that period is over.

If your adoption doesn’t meet the requirements for a typical naturalization, then you may want to talk to a family lawyer who specializes in adoption to get more information. The U.S. Department of State says that children who enter the United States on an IH-4 or IR-4 visa automatically acquire U.S. citizenship once their adoption is finalized in America. You can obtain a Certificate of Citizenship after the adoption is finalized at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Contact them if you want more information about getting this document to clear up any confusion in the future.

Children who were 18 or older on February 27, 2011, did not acquire U.S. citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act when it was passed. Many of these children were then forced to apply for citizenship, and discovered that they could not apply for jobs, passports, or colleges because of their current state. If you are worried that your child will end up in a similar situation, contact your family law attorney and an immigration expert to ensure that your child has become a naturalized citizen.