Factsheet, Page 2
U.S. IMMIGRATION PROCEDURE: Once you have completed your adoption you are ready to proceed with the US immigration procedure as follows: Advise the USUSCIS regional office at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa that you have completed your adoption and provide originals and one set of copies of the documents listed in Attachment 3, and make an appointment to file your I-600 petition. All documents must be translated into English.
File your I-600 petition at the USUSCIS office, located at the US Embassy Consulate, window # 11. Appointments are given on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Petitions are usually approved within two working days (if all appropriate documentation is in order) and the USCIS, upon approval transfers the approved petition to the Consular Section. A written notification of approval is given to you.
The last step is for you or your spouse to take your child to the Consular Section of the US Embassy for the immigrant visa interview. Although your child must be present, only one parent needs to attend. Please see the Immigrant Visa Unit checklist Attachment 4 for the documents required for the immigrant visa. Currently, fees are $260.00 for the immigrant applications and $65.00 for the visa (or the equivalent in Lempiras), plus $1.00 per page for required photocopies (only cash or US money orders are accepted). Provided that all is in order, a visa will be issued the same day. Once issued the visa will be valid for travel to the United States at any time within six months from the date of issuance. After you return home, you should consult the nearest USCIS office for information regarding obtaining US citizenship for your child.
STEPS TO COMPLETE AN ADOPTION IN HONDURAS:
1) File a petition to adopt a child at the IHNFA-
The IHNFA will provide you or your attorney an Adoption Request Form, that must be presented together with the above listed translated and authenticated certified documents (you must provide two sets. We recommend you keep another set in case they get lost). Once your application is reviewed and all requirements are met, your request will be placed on their list of applicants until a child is assigned to you (this may take a year). You cannot choose a particular child. You may refuse to accept the child assigned to you, provided that you have an acceptable reason for doing so. However, if you refuse a second child assigned to you, adoption proceedings will be terminated. Once IHNFA assigns the child, the prospective adoptive parent(s) must come to Honduras to meet the child, and be psychologically and socially evaluated by the IHNFA social worker and staff psychologist. The results of these evaluations will be used in the preparation of a report approving or denying the adoption to the Family Court. At this point the adoptive child may be placed with a foster care family at your own expense. The IHNFA will place a child in your care only if you will remain in Honduras until the adoption has been completed.
2) File a petition to adopt a child at the Honduran Family Court.
Once you have completed the IHNFA's procedure, the prospective parents must appear personally to file a petition to adopt at the Family Court. Once the Court has reviewed your petition and determined that you meet the legal requirements to adopt, they will request IHNFA to provide them with a formal report on your social, psychological and economic suitability to adopt. You should insist that your attorney follow up with the Court to ensure that this order is sent promptly. It normally takes the IHNFA approximately twelve weeks to complete this report. At the same time, the court will direct your attorney to publish your intent to adopt in an official government publication ("La Gazeta") and in a local newspaper. Your attorney should send you copies of these publications. The US Embassy's Immigrant Visa Unit requires originals.
When the Court receives the IHNFA's report and proof of publications, they will take your case under advisement. If all is in order, a final adoption decree will be issued within about three weeks.
3) Notarize the Court's Final Adoption Decree
Your attorney must notarize the final adoption decree, and a Public Deed will be executed. In case the adoptive child is an abandoned child, the Public Deed will be signed by you and the IHNFA's President; in case you have adopted a child by relinquishment, the Public Deed is signed by you and the child's biological parent. You or your attorney must take the Court Final Adoption Decree, the Public Deed and proof of publication to the Civil Registrar's office to register your child and to obtain a new birth certificate showing your child's new name and listing you and your spouse (if applicable) as parents. An adoption certificate will also be issued. This process usually takes one to five days.
AGE AND CIVIL STATUS REQUIREMENTS: The Honduran Family Code states that one member of the adoptive couple must be 25 years old, but no more than 50 years of age. Single persons who meet the age requirements may adopt. In the case of a married couple, both partners must petition for the adoption. The child to be adopted must be at least 15 years younger than the youngest member of the adopting couple. The initial adoption petition must be presented in person by the prospective adoptive parent(s). It cannot be done through an intermediary. In practical terms, this means that both members of an adoptive couple must come to Honduras. Foreigners who are not permanent legal residents of Honduras must obtain a written "follow up certification" from a US adoption agency which is licensed and duly registered with the Instituto Hondureño del Niño y la Familia (IHNFA). The certification must state that the Agency will check periodically on the well-being of the child until s/he reaches the age of fourteen, provide written reports to the IHNFA to ensure that the adoptive parents meet their obligations to the child. Honduran children become eligible for adoption in one of two ways:
a) Abandoned children, whose parents are unknown, cannot be found, or who have refused to care for their offspring. This group may include children left unclaimed in a hospital, children who have been neglected/abused, or those whose parents have died. Such children are remanded to the custody of the Court of Child, which normally places them in the care of state orphanage and attempts to locate natural parents. If the natural parents cannot be located, the court will issue an "abandonment decree", which becomes effective 90 days after it has been officially published. This period, which is intended to provide time for the natural parent to come forward, is established by law and cannot be shortened. Adoption proceedings cannot begin until a final decree of abandonment has been issued.
b) Child relinquished for adoption occurs when a parent(s) voluntarily gives up his/her child for adoption. If both parents of the child are living, then Honduran law does not permit them to give up their child for adoption.
Note: For immigration purposes, a relinquishment or release by the parents for a specific adoption does not legally constitute abandonment, and, under US immigration law, such a child cannot be considered an orphan. However, US immigration law does provide that, the child of a sole or surviving parent may be considered an orphan if that parent is unable to care for the child properly and forever and irrevocably releases him/her for emigration and adoption. Under some circumstances the child of an unwed mother may be considered to be an orphan as long as the natural father has disappeared, deserted or abandoned the child, and the natural mother is not married which would result in the child having a stepfather under the US law.
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