Is Your Citizenship Status Correct?
As of January 2026, this information is still valid. Consult https://adopteerightslaw.com/ if you have questions about your citizenship status.
Steps every intercountry adoptee should take to ensure their legal and immigration paperwork is accurate.
Every intercountry adoptee should make sure their legal and immigration paperwork is correct. We are not legal experts, but provide this information based on the best of our knowledge and our experiences working with adoptees and their families. To date, if you've heard about adoptees being deported from the U.S., it’s because: 1) their legal immigration paperwork was never completed correctly (by their adoptive parents and the adoptee was likely unaware of what they needed to do) AND 2) the adoptee committed a crime. Individuals who commit crimes and are not citizens have always been deportable by the U.S government. How this is enforced depends on the leadership in the White House. The process for confirming if your paperwork is correct can be convoluted and confusing but here are the basic steps:
All governmental documents need to be in your correct legal name. If you have these three documents correctly filed, your paperwork looks like every other citizen in the United States.
Birth certificate: If your name is not correct on your birth certificate, you'll need to update your birth certificate. You can read more about this process here.
Social Security card: The process for changing your name with social security can be found here.
Certificate of Citizenship (COC) or Certificate of Nationalization (CON). Both COC’s and CON’s are official documents that prove you are a U.S. citizen. They are issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). An adoptee not having one of them means that their citizenship status is NOT updated with USCIS and you are listed in their database as an expired legal resident. The process for obtaining a COC or CON (you can’t have both) depends on the year you were adopted, which visa you entered the U.S. on, and your age at filing. USCIS resources for Adoptees:
Other precautions:
Make sure your driver’s license or state ID is REAL ID–compliant, if you have one. While a REAL ID is not proof of citizenship, it can be helpful for domestic travel and identity verification.
Maintain a valid passport: A U.S. Passport/passport card, is widely accepted as strong evidence of U.S. citizenship for most practical purposes (travel, government processes, and identity verification), even though the underlying legal proof of citizenship is a birth certificate, Certificate of Citizenship, or Certificate of Naturalization.
If you cannot get a Real ID driver’s licence, apply for Global Entry, as it matches your face and your finger prints.
Carrying a copy or photo of your Certificate of Citizenship or Naturalization may be helpful in certain situations, as long as it is not presented as the original document and is not used fraudulently. Copies are not legal proof of citizenship, but they can help provide context or support if questions arise. Originals should be stored securely.
Consider carrying red cards, which detail your rights as a citizen.
We are not legal experts, but provide this information based on the best of our knowledge and our experiences working with adoptees and their families. If you have questions about obtaining a Certificate of Citizenship or Naturalization, reach out to Kelly Borsa (Cborsa7@yahoo.com), who is a specialist in working with USCIS on citizenship issues for adoptees. Depending on your circumstances, you may need to retain a immigration attorney as well.