U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services no longer uses local field offices to accept and process Applications for Certificate of Citizenship for adopted children (Form N-600 – unrelated to forms I-600 and I-600A). The fee is now $550 for adoption cases.  You should also print out the attached “Filing Tips” form.  Please now send your N-600 forms by U.S. mail to:

USCIS
P.O. Box 20100
Phoenix, AZ  85036

Express mail or couriers:

USCIS
Attn:  Form N-600
1820 E. Skyharbor Circle S
Suite 100
Phoenix, AZ  85034

Register for a Webinar on the Adoption Tax Credit

Due to popular demand, on March 22, NACAC will host one more webinar on the adoption tax credit. The webinar will be held at 12:30 p.m. central time (1:30 p.m. eastern, 11:30 a.m. mountain, and 10:30 a.m. pacific).

During the webinar, participants will learn the steps they need to take to file for the U.S. federal adoption tax credit, whether they adopted in 2011 or as far back as 2005. Participants will have an opportunity to ask case-specific questions. Fees are $15 for NACAC members and $20 for non-members.

Register for the webinar

Under current law, the adoption tax credit is not refundable in 2012 or beyond and, beginning in 2013, would apply only to people who incur qualified adoption expenses in the process of adopting a child with special needs. However, President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal would make the tax credit permanent for all adoption types, and maintain the maximum credit regardless of expenses for families who adopt children with special needs. In addition, the budget proposes making the adoption tax credit refundable for both 2012 and 2013.

Congress has not yet introduced legislation that would extend refundability of the credit, but NACAC is working to enlist members of Congress to sponsor such a bill and will alert our network as soon as there is legislation to lobby for.

Introducing our new webinar:

Sponsored by:

Questions? Email us at info@jointcouncil.org

In 2004, Americans adopted 22,991 orphans from other countries. That number has steadily declined to only 9,319 in 2011, according to State Department records. This decline is happening due to a set of complicated factors based partly upon different views regarding what is best for an orphaned child.

The Christian Post spoke to several international adoption experts to understand why the decline is taking place, and why adoptive parents have recently run into difficulties with the State Department when trying to bring their children home.

Part one of this series was about Becky Morlock, a missionary in India who has been living there for four years because she has been unable to get a visa from the U.S. State Department to bring her child home. Part two followed the Carrolls, Gerigs and Reeveses as they struggled with alleged falsified information and witness badgering from State Department officials when they were getting visas to bring their adopted children home from Ethiopia.

Read the rest of this article here -
http://www.christianpost.com/news/intl-adoptions-part-3-is-the-us-state-dept-opposed-to-inter-country-adoption-69783/