Think of your Permis de Sejours as a Green Card to an immigrant in the United States. You are living in Haiti as a permanent resident, but you have not forfeited your U.S. citizenship. Living full-time in Haiti with a permis de sejours for at least 5 years will allow you to adopt a child in your custody as a Haitian resident, without the requirements of international adoptions and the Hague Convention. However, this situation also comes with very specific options to obtain your child’s citizenship which are only available to U.S. citizens living abroad. When you complete your Haiti National Adoption, your adopted child may obtain U.S. citizenship as long as you have had legal and physical custody for at least 2 years. However, should you decide to move back to the U.S. permanently prior to obtaining U.S. citizenship for your child, you may run into problems.

MANY families are being given incorrect information resulting in thousands of dollars in extra expenses, a year or more of extra waiting, and heartache as their adopted child moves back to the U.S. with them without proper citizenship. If you decide to move back to the United States permanently prior to obtaining your child’s citizenship, it is not impossible but the process to immigrate by adjusting status and then applying for citizenship is very costly and will take at least a year longer (at a minimum) to complete. Additionally, USCIS will require a substantial amount of evidence to prove that you were indeed living full-time in Haiti at the time of your National Adoption without the intent to move back to the U.S. upon completion of your adoption.

If you have completed your National Adoption and would like assistance in obtaining U.S. citizenship for your child, we can help. If you have had an emergency that has caused your plans to change and you find yourself and your adopted child stuck in between, I am happy to discuss your options.