Now that we've adopted William from Taiwan, we've decided to adopt him once again in the United States.
We brought William home on an IR-4 visa, not having seen him prior to picking him up. As a result of his visa classification, we need to complete more paperwork and participate in a re-adoption hearing with a local judge. Doing so will enable him to have a Pennsylvania birth certificate, necessary for so many important filings later on in his life.
In addition, because we need to file a name change on his behalf (his Taiwanese visa only lists his given Chinese name), I'm told by our county courthouse's adoption unit that we need to hire an attorney. I could be misinformed, but apparently this is something that the average layperson cannot do.
Initially, I was under the impression that the attorneys' fees would run somewhere in the $300.00 range, a price that someone on a Pennsylvania online adoption group had estimated. However, when I interviewed three lawyers who have handled a good number of re-adoption cases, I learned that their fees range anywhere between $750.00 to $1,500.00. Ai-yo!
At this point, if you haven't guessed, we're a wee bit tired of cracking wide our wallets and dealing with paperwork. However, if this is what it takes to ensure our son won't hit any snafus with identity, citizenship, or who knows what later in life, I guess we'll just need to suck it up and forge ahead.
We brought William home on an IR-4 visa, not having seen him prior to picking him up. As a result of his visa classification, we need to complete more paperwork and participate in a re-adoption hearing with a local judge. Doing so will enable him to have a Pennsylvania birth certificate, necessary for so many important filings later on in his life.
In addition, because we need to file a name change on his behalf (his Taiwanese visa only lists his given Chinese name), I'm told by our county courthouse's adoption unit that we need to hire an attorney. I could be misinformed, but apparently this is something that the average layperson cannot do.
Initially, I was under the impression that the attorneys' fees would run somewhere in the $300.00 range, a price that someone on a Pennsylvania online adoption group had estimated. However, when I interviewed three lawyers who have handled a good number of re-adoption cases, I learned that their fees range anywhere between $750.00 to $1,500.00. Ai-yo!
At this point, if you haven't guessed, we're a wee bit tired of cracking wide our wallets and dealing with paperwork. However, if this is what it takes to ensure our son won't hit any snafus with identity, citizenship, or who knows what later in life, I guess we'll just need to suck it up and forge ahead.
4 comments:
oooh, you peeked my interest by the title....I thought wow, that was fast, another roller coaster ride to follow!
Oh do I hear ya sista! Does anyone not have their hand in the till?! We happen to have a lawyer who is in our church who is willing to do the re-adoption for us for no cost... do you think there is anyone you might know of in your community? Just a thought. Good luck. =0) Sara
Judy we are right there with you! We just started the readoption process as well! We're using a philly attorney since our homestudy agency is located there. Good luck - we'll have to exchange stories!!!! However I have heard the Philadelphia and surrounding areas are the easiest and quickest for readoption so that's a plus! William is a such a cutie!
Tiffany
Hi Judy,
I found your blog while thinking about switching to VN from China, we are stuck in 'the wait" this time. This will be our 2nd adoption.
Thou we did not readopt, I wanted to pass on to you that a family in our travel group did, actually 2 times, w/o a lawyer. Last one was in 2005 in 'Bucks County". I still have his email, he says you can do it by yourself but the staff is reluctant to tell you that. I have some forms he attached...would be glad to forward to you if you would like to look at them.
Peggy
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