Tulsi joins the party of Common Sense

[AnjelKizzez]

We were adopting a child about 5 years ago but she was made to return to Thailand before our adoption was finalized. We didn't want her to go and she wanted to stay with us. She will be 20 years old in a few months and we would like to bring her home to our family in America.

What is the process for a person aging out of the system/orphanage? Does she need a release from their house papers to be able to get a Visa? We have her green card and social security card. What Visa is the likeliest one to apply for her to be able to come home with us?

Does anyone know how long this process takes? Is there a certain social worker who works with kids aging out?

Thanks in advance for any tips/advice/leads!

[Thanyaburi Mac]

If her Green Card is still valid, she can pretty much just hop on the plane and go, I'd think, no U.S. visa required. She already has a Thai passport, correct?

Mac

[VisasPlus]

If her Green Card is still valid, she can pretty much just hop on the plane and go, I'd think, no U.S. visa required. She already has a Thai passport, correct?

Mac

I think that. if she has been out of the US for more than 6 months, then the green card is not valid. She would require a visa to return. That said, why, if she has a green card, was she told to leave the US, and why have the adoptive parents waited for 5 years to try to get her back there I would think that, at 20 years old, she is too old to benefit as a dependant, unles there are exceptional compelling circumstances.

There is obviosuly a lot more involved here than we now know. This girl was already in the USA, and she was told to leave. There are, no doubt, reasons for that happening.

[AnjelKizzez]

Thank you for your replies! I guess I need to supply a bit of background info for the questions to be answered.

We have not "waited" 5 years. We were told she could not come back to us until she is an adult and can make that decision for herself. We tried to bring her back when she was 18 but the orphanage kindly told us she is not an adult until she's 20.

We still have her green card but were told she had to have come back within a year. She couldn't, of course. We're hoping for a Returning Resident Visa with a waiver stating circumstances beyond her control kept her away for more than a year. It seems like our best shot.

I don't want to get into too many details about her departure from our family. She has done nothing wrong so she was not asked to leave the US. It was something I did many years ago that a spiteful person discovered and used to tear our family apart. It was not illegal, had nothing to do with children, but she felt it was morally incorrect (one night stand when I was just out of college!). So of course Thailand social services needed to save face. They determined our daughter had to return instead of staying in a family she was perfectly happy with. We discovered soon after her return to Thailand, that this exact thing had happened to other families. At least one other family was torn apart by this very same person. I don't know for certain who she is but I feel confident she is a "fellow" American. I would certainly like to meet her one day and share with her the time/money/stress and loss she has caused our family by being a busy body.

Sorry to go off on that! It seemed important to state it was no wrongdoing on her part. She is not a criminal so there should be no real reason she cannot come home. We have a significant attachment, have maintained contact, and wish to bring our daughter home. Of course we asked her if she would rather stay in Thailand and we will come find her a place to live and a job. She said she wants to come home. I just don't know what it will take to make that happen for her.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Thank you for your replies! I guess I need to supply a bit of background info for the questions to be answered.

We still have her green card but were told she had to have come back within a year. She couldn't, of course. We're hoping for a Returning Resident Visa with a waiver stating circumstances beyond her control kept her away for more than a year. It seems like our best shot.

Well, you've obviously done some homework to have dug up the Returning Resident Visa, so why not give that a shot.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_1333.html

Are returning to the U.S. from a temporary visit abroad and, if the stay abroad was protracted, this was caused by reasons beyond your control and for which you were not responsible.

This point, obviously, will need some elaborating.

Mac

[AnjelKizzez]

Mac,

Not the magic answer I had hoped for but encouraging just the same. I'm glad there are people out there like you.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. If the Returning Resident Visa doesn't work.....well....I guess I had better make some other plan.