Can citizens of another country adopt in the United States through ASA?
If one of the spouses is an American, yes, but if both are citizens of another country, unfortunately, we believe, at this time, it is impossible in most cases because of the Hague Convention on International Adoption’s conflicts with American Domestic adoption practices.
Please see the “Outgoing Cases FAQ” at www.adoption.state.gov
THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS:
1) If citizens of another country have been approved to adopt by their country before April 1, 2008, they are considered a “Transitional Case” and can do a Domestic (non-Hague) from the U.S.
2) If citizens of another country are legally residing in the U.S., they can do a Domestic (non-Hague) adoption while they are living in the U.S.
3) Dr. Blackburn says she can place older children outside of the U.S. (The reason for this, is that older children can be very difficult to place in the U.S. and as they are already in Foster Care, the 60 day period to search for an American family would not pose a problem like it would in placing a newborn overseas.)
VIDA - Voice of International and Domestic Adoptions
354 Allen Street
Hudson, NY 12534
Dr. DeGuerre A. Blackburn
(518) 828-4527
http://members.aol.com/vidaadopt/vida.html
4) The same as above (#3) could be true for Special Needs newborns, however, since we rarely work with Special Needs newborns, this seems improbable.