Congress has introduced the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2024, continuing the fight to secure US citizenship for all adopted people brought to the United States for adoption.
The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2024 attempts to do one thing: secure US citizenship for intercountry adoptees who have been denied citizenship in the past, largely because of their age. While most people presume that children adopted by U.S. citizen parents receive automatic U.S. citizenship when they are adopted, this is not true for many older intercountry adoptees. Tens of thousands of adoptees, now adults, are not able to acquire U.S. citizenship through their adoptive parents.
ACA2024 will amend U.S. immigration law to repeal a current age-based restriction, which has denied acquired U.S. citizenship to adoptees born on or before February 27, 1983 (or to put it another way, current law denies acquired US citizenship to adopted people who were 18 or older on February 27, 2001). Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebrakas) are the House sponsors of the bill; Sen. Mazie Horono (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) are the Senate sponsors.
ACA2024, as introduced, would provide automatic citizenship to intercountry adoptees no matter their date of birth, provided they meet the core requirements of the law. Before having reached the age of 18, the adoptee must have been:
- adopted by a United States citizen;
- lawfully admitted to the United States;
- physically present in the United States in the legal custody of the US citizen parent.
In addition, the adopted person must have never previously obtained US citizenship, and must also be residing in the United States at the time ACA2024 is enacted. Additional provisions address intercountrry adopted people who have previously been deported, though there are additional requirements for deportees to obtain a visa to return to the United States.
Articles: Intercountry Adoption and US Citizenship
Selected articles about intercountry adoptees and the difficulty of securing or proving US citizenship, despite being adopted as children by US citizen parents.
Adoptees United is tracking the bill and its summary and analysis of the ACA2024 is here, including a PDF copy of the bill, which has not yet been assigned legislative bill numbers.
Originally posted by the author on Adoptees United on June 4, 2024
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