The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) recently developed a new pilot program that allows prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) to determine a child’s status as an orphan under the Immigration and Nationality Act prior to adoption or obtaining legal custody of the child. 

Currently, the pilot program involves only children from Haiti, Honduras, Philippines, Poland, and Sierra Leone.  Countries may be added or removed from this list at future dates. 

The program is designed to prevent situations where a PAP completes the adoption process in a foreign country, but is unable to return to the United States with the child because the child does not meet the Act’s definition of orphan. 

United States immigration law allows a child to immigrate to the United States only when the child fits the Act’s definition of orphan.  Under the law, an orphan is defined as a foreign child who does not have either parent because of death or disappearance, abandonment, desertion, or separation. 

The processing procedure involves several steps:

1. Submit Form I-600A to the BCIS
2. After the I-600A is approved, the BCIS will send a letter explaining the new pilot program along with the approval notice. 
3. If the PAP chooses to participate, he or she must do so at the time the Form I-600 is filed, either in a field office in the United States or at a United States Embassy or consulate abroad, and before adoption or a legal custody arrangement has occurred.  The I-600 must be accompanied with all required supporting information.
4. When the BCIS receives the I-600, they will adjudicate it for prima facie eligibility. 
5. If the I-600’s supporting documents establish that the child does meet the Act’s definition of an orphan, then the officer will prepare a Form I-604 and forward it and all supporting documents to the National Visa Center (NVC).
6. The NVC will forward the Form I-604 and documents to the overseas BCIS or State Department office having jurisdiction over the Form I-604.
7. The overseas office then investigates the Form I-604 and makes a determination that the child either is or is not classified as an orphan. 
1. If the child is determined to be an orphan, the overseas office will then return the I-604 to the domestic field office.

                                                              i.      The field office will issue a request for evidence to the PAP, and instruct the PAP to finalize the adoption or legal custody arrangement and forward all documentation of this action. 

                                                             ii.      After forwarding a final adoption decree, the Form I-600 will be adjudicated. 

2. If the overseas office determines that the child is not an orphan, they will return the Form I-604 to the domestic office, which will prepare a Notice of Intent to Deny.  This notice informs the PAP that the child is not eligible for immigration as an orphan.

                                                              i.      If new evidence arises subsequent to the overseas office’s investigation that could support an assertion that the child could be eligible for immigration as an orphan, then the PAP could file a cover letter and a Form I-72 Request for Further Evidence.

For more information about this pilot program, you may visit www.immigration.gov/graphics/services/index2.htm