Guest Author - Mindy Graham

An orphan as defined by the United States Government (Travel.state.gov) must meet the following criteria: The child must have no parents, either through death or abandonment or have parents who are unable to care for the child in question. It is also true that in order for an orphan to be adopted they must also be under the age of sixteen at the time I-600 is filed with the USCS.

The only way a child who is over the age of sixteen may be adopted by an American citizen is if that child has siblings who are under the age of sixteen who are being adopted by the same family. If that is the case, then a child can be adopted up until the age of eighteen. So while a sixteen year old may meet all of the requirements to be considered an orphan they will still be denied an adoption to American family regardless of the situation.

While the United States has done an excellent job of allowing its citizens to adopt from abroad with little interference it has blocked perhaps those needing adoption the most. The group that is the least sought after by adoptive parents and certainly the ones most at risk. Older child adoption is often considered a child who is over the age of four, but what about those who are teetering on the edge of adulthood? As a US citizen you are not permitted to adopt a child over the age of sixteen unless they have a younger sibling in the country. At that point the age is extended to the age of eighteen.

In Eastern Europe children this age are often put into vocational training of sorts, which in many cases means physcial labor. They are paid forty dollars a month and most drop out of high school, those who do choose to remain enrolled must do while also working. Glue sniffing is prominent in the dorms that these children live in where the smaller and weaker children are often victimized by the older ones. The lucky ones will move on to more technological training but this is only possible if they have not succumb to the pressure of drugs or prostitution.

The United State’s ban on these adoptions prevents many well intentioned families from completing their adoptions. It is legal in the majority of nations for a child to be adopted internationally up until the age of eighteen. The only thing that is preventing these children from having both a home and a future is a Visa. There are no special cases or exceptions made by the US so there are many who consider themselves a family who live thousands of miles apart.