Two of my friends lately have gotten to their court date, and the judge refused to go any further until they can prove the child will be guaranteed citizenship in the parents' home country.
This is only happening to Canadian and US adopting families. Why? Because unlike the Europeans adopting families (who get their kids' European passports before leaving Kenya), our kids will not legally receive US citizenship until their feet touch US soil. Hence, we cannot obtain a US passport for our child here in Kenya. We have to obtain a Kenyan passport and go to the US embassy for a US visa stamp inside his Kenyan passport. Then when we can file for his US passport once we physically get back to the States.
The problem I have witnessed recently is that when my Canadian friends arrived at their third (and supposedly final) hearing, judge did NOT grant them a final judgment. He said he wanted proof that the kids would receive citizenship, and put the burden on this family to provide 250+ notarized pages of Canadian law and letters and documents. Will every family have to provide this information? If so, why did the judge wait until the final hearing to inform them of such? Why weren't they informed of this so they could have gotten the documents together beforehand? Keep in mind these folks have dropped their jobs, their homes, their entire lives to move to Kenya for a year to adopt these children. Now at the very last minute possible the new judge decides to add in more requirements.
This infuriates me on many, many levels. We Hague-party adopting-families have already been through months and months of notarizing and documentation at the beginning of the process.
For me, I was sort of thinking: "Okay, this is the first Canadian family that has adopted in years. Maybe the judge just needed a refresher course to ensure these Kenyan kids aren't stuck without citizenship to any country."
Fast forward one week.
I just found out that another friend of mine is having a similar issue. She is a US resident and adopting via the Kenyan resident path (because she has lived here over 3 years and can bypass the international route like we had to go through since we aren't here permanently). I know several folks in this same situation: Americans living here and adopting locally. There are a few different rules and hence a few different consequences. One of which being that you cannot go straight to the US to live for at least 2 years after the adoption is final. But the paperwork is much easier and the process is way less expensive. So it's definitely preferred for some folks.
So one of my friends went into court recently and should've been appointed her GAL at that first hearing. However, the judge said he wanted additional proof regarding the child's future-US citizenship. I don't know all the legal requirements, but a child in this situation (after going through the appropriate steps) would indeed be allowed US citizenship eventually. The US embassy here has a form letter they give to adopting families that explains this to the judge. Well, this form letter (that has always been used in the past) is now not good enough for the judge. The judge wants an additional letter from the US embassy basically reiterating what is in the form letter. This has never been an issue in the past with the prior judges. I personally know of several kids that have adopted recently via this local-resident path and there were no issues.
I have said all along and I fully believe adoption is a spiritual battle (Unless of course kids are being put into same-sex marriage family. I'd love for a study to be done at some point to see the ease of their processes.)
Our next court date is over a month away. If I need to be gathering additional documentation regarding the laws and rules of US Citizenship then I need TO DO IT NOW. I NEED TO KNOW NOW.
I've emailed my attorney a few times, and I'll put in an email to our stateside agency. We are literally flying out of here in July. I do not have time to gather and notarize additional documents from the States. I am so stressed out about this (literally, my blood pressure is up now just typing this) that I cannot seem to focus on anything else.
I'm not sure what my point is in typing all this out. I guess if you have read this far, then I ask you to please pray that these two Nairobi judges would get educated on these issues and do their jobs correctly. So that families stuck here don't have to pay the price in the end.
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