rookwood

Hello everyone, I did search and hope this isn't covered elsewhere.

I live in the US and am a British (birth), Irish (parents) and US (marriage) citizen. Wife is US (birth) and Irish (parent). We have two adopted children and I want them both to have British passports. My daughter was born here in the US and adopted in Illinois. My son was born in Bulgaria and is a US citizen. He was adopted under Bulgarian law (Hague convention) and re-adopted in Illinois.

I understand that if they were my biological children there would be no problems, but being adopted and not residing in the UK may not entitle them to Citizenship. Both are under 16 years old. I understand that they are entitled to Irish citizenship, but we have to apply through the Irish adoption board in Dublin.

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks.

JAJ

For British citizenship, they need to be registered with the Home Office before age 18:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br...adoptedabroad/

For Irish citizenship, I think you need to look at the provisions of the (Irish) Adoption Act 1991 - if the adoption is recognised in Ireland you may be able to apply directly for them to be registered as Irish citizens by Foreign Birth Registration.

By the way, you should make sure you get a US citizenship certificate for your Bulgarian born adopted child - use form N-600. Otherwise USCIS will have no record of how and when he became a US citizen and if he ever needs to prove that to them later on, it could be difficult or impossible.

rookwood

Thank you for the the advice.