Adoption in the United States

Re-Adoption/Adoption Finalization – Texas Residents

 Many families make their 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.

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