Expert: Cesar - 12/31/2009

Question
My husband and I are in the very early stages of considering adopting from Colombia. My husband was born in Bogota in 1978 and was adopted at about one month old. He became a naturalized US citizen as a baby. I have heard that it is much easier to adopt from Colombia if one parent can prove Colombian heritage - I've heard that this is viewed as being comparable to domestic adoption and such seeking families are put at the "top of the list" so to speak. Is this true? If so - how does one in my husband's situation prove his heritage/origin? His naturalization papers and US passport both list Colombia as his place of birth. Is that sufficient? Would he need to apply for dual citizenship? Is he even eligible for dual citizenship?
Thank you so much! Adoption can be a long and tedious process - any help is appreciated!
Sincerely,
Julia

Answer
Dear Ms. Julia:

You could contact the ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, which I translate it as Colombian Institute for Social Well-being, often translated as Colombian Institute for Social Welfare) for assistance.

Their website is: http://www.icbf.gov.co/

I think that your husband by being born in Colombian would be a factor that would help the adoption process, but it is not an indispensable factor. Do not worry too much about your places of birth or citizenships. Rather other details about both of you such as poor criminal background, if any, age (very old people would probably have a hard time), and other kind of damaging things. One will be very low income or problems related to income). I suppose they would ask for a background check (specially criminal background check) or run one (at least one in Colombia), but I do not know if they would also run a credit check (but I doubt it). But do not quote me on that because I do not do that kind of work.

The official documents that say he was born in Colombia should be sufficient, but probably not needed much. I provided below links about the steps for adopting a child in Colombia:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2096557_adopt-child-from-colombia.html

http://adopt.childrenshope.net/programs/colombia/

I found them when I did a search that says "adopting a child in Colombia". I find answers to most of the questions I have by simply doing Goggle (or other provider) searches on the Internet).

More links:

http://colombia.adoption.com/

http://www.howtodothings.com/family-relationships/how-to-adopt-a-child-from-colo...

http://adoption.factexpert.com/223-adoption-from-columbia.php

Cesar
www.CesarUSA.com