Children of All Nations and Great Wall of China Adoption want to congratulate you on the addition to your family. We want the very best for your family and each of your adopted children now and in the future. Many families make this journey abroad to receive their child and finalize the adoption in the child’s country of origin. While these are very crucial steps to the adoption, it is also very important for a family to complete several steps when returning to the United States.
Why Re-adopt in the United States?
- Obtain a document from a state court certifying that a legal parent child relationship exists between the child and the adoptive family. In Texas, this is usually done as a re-adoption, sometimes by a recognition.
- Obtain a birth certificate from a state bureau of vital statistics. In Texas, this can only be done with a state court order such as a re-adoption or recognition. (The replacement of a foreign birth certificate may be impossible to obtain and, at a minimum, the process can be very time consuming and expensive.)
- Change the child’s name and/or date of birth. The “Accuracy for Adoptees Act” requires that a Federal Certificate of Citizenship for a child born outside of the United States reflect the child’s name and date of birth as indicated on a state court order or state vital records documents.
A Breakdown of the Services is Listed Below:
For several years, we have worked with an experienced Texas law firm for obtaining re-adoptions and recognitions of their international adoptions and the law firm has offered our families a discount in legal fees. The law firm will provide you with the following services:
- Preparing Petitioners’ Original Petition for Adoption and Affidavit
- Filing petition with the Court
- Preparing Final Adoption Decree and Certificate of Adoption
- Preparing for hearing, filing documents with the Court and appearing in Court for final hearing on the merits
- Forwarding Certificate of Adoption to Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics requesting new birth certificates
- Three Certified Final Adoption Decrees that will establish that you are the parents of the child under the laws of the United States
- A Certified Texas Long Form Birth certificate (After the birth certificate has been issued, you will have the ability to order additional birth certificates online)
- Change adoptive child’s birthday
Children of All Nations and Great Wall of China Adoption will also provide you with the following services:
- Coordinate and centralize the adoption process
- Electronically store and make available to you copies of you adoption documents
- Provide you with information regarding changing and/or obtaining a Certificate of Citizenship for your child
- Provide you with information regarding a passport for your child
- Provide the firm with your home study and any necessary post placements
- Provide the law firm with the child’s foreign adoption papers and any additional supporting documents from the foreign country if required by the court.
- Provide the law firm with information and documentation regarding the adoption process in the foreign country
Who Can Use This Service?
Any family that is a Resident of Texas may use this service. In most cases, families residing in Texas do not have to travel or come to court.
This service is also available to Texas Resident families wishing to complete the re-adoption process for multiple children at one time. It is not required that the children were adopted at the same time or even from the same country.
Re-adoption and Adoption Finalization Service Fees
The fee for the law firm’s legal services and the fee for GWCA/CAN’s services are reasonable and affordable.
To initiate this service GWCA/CAN Re-adoption and Finalization Services, contact our Adoption Program Director Diedra at 512-323-9595 ext. 3040 or diedra@gwca.org).