Archives for January 2022

How to Plan for Visitation With Your Child’s Birth Parent

How Do I Create a Visitation Plan With My Child’s Birth Parent?

In 2019, more than 64,000 children were adopted in the United States. According to the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, 52% of those children were adopted by their foster parents, and 36% were adopted by a relative. When planning an open adoption, no matter what the child’s age, creating a visitation agreement with the birth parent and a New Jersey adoption attorney may help your family have a smoother transition and better communication.

Consider the Type of Adoption

The only type of adoption that allows the birth parent to visit with their biological child is an open adoption. The open adoption process requires careful navigation and planning, which is why it’s best to work with a New Jersey adoption attorney. In an open adoption, the adoptive parent or parents may choose to allow the birth mother or biological father of the child to occasionally or regularly communicate with their child through specific types of interactions at a specific frequency and through certain methods.

Determine the Timing of Communications

A very young child may not understand the difference between biological and adoptive parents. They may become confused or develop attachment disorders or other mental health issues if they don’t understand who their parents are. Some adoptive families choose to limit the child’s in-person interactions with the birth parents until the child is old enough to understand that they were adopted and their biological parents are different from the people who adopted them.

 

VeryWell Family suggests telling a child they are adopted by the age of 3. Use words the child can understand. Working with a child psychologist may help with this process.

Plan Which Types of Communication Are Allowed

Thanks to technology, there are many ways a birth parent can interact with their biological child and the child’s adoptive family. Consider how you want these interactions to take place. You might think about sending digital photos, setting up video calls, sending text messages or emailing. Phone calls and snail mail also facilitate regular communication between a birth parent and their biological child.

Decide on Visitation Times

For in-person visitation, consider which times and how frequently you want them to occur. Special events in a child’s life, such as their first birthday, first day of school or first school play may be of interest to their birth parent. The birth parent might want to see the child on their birthday or on religious holidays. Decide what you feel comfortable with, such as a two-hour visit on the child’s birthday.

Include Visitation Locations

The location of visits with your child and their birth parent matters. Your child may feel more comfortable at a neutral place, such as a children’s museum, counselor’s office or similar setting. If you’re comfortable, you could have the birth parent visit your child in your home.

Consider the Child’s Preferences

As the child gets older, you may want to reconsider the visitation agreement. Your child might wish to see their birth parent more or less frequently as they get older. They may have an idea of how they want to spend their birthdays, school breaks and other special events and days. Including your child in the process could help reduce confusion, resentment and negative feelings toward you or their birth parent.

 

If you’re considering an open adoption, speaking with a New Jersey adoption attorney will help you understand your rights and the rights of the birth parents. Knowing how to set up a visitation agreement with the birth parent also give you information about what to expect in the future for your family. To learn more or to schedule a consultation with the law firm of Cofsky & Zeidman, call our Haddonfield office at (856) 429-5005 or our Woodbury office at (856) 845-2555. You can also complete our online contact form, and our associate will reach out to you to schedule a consultation.

Do International Surrogacies Give Children Dual Citizenship?

Does an International Surrogacy Mean Dual Citizenship for Your Child?

The U.S. State Department has long upheld a policy that denied citizenship to those who were born via surrogacy or IVF (in vitro fertilization), preventing children who were born in this way from obtaining dual citizenship. But now, thanks to the recent update in the department’s policy regarding how they handle these types of cases, it’s now more possible than ever for children who were born with a surrogate parent or in vitro fertilization to become U.S. citizens.

A Highly Restrictive Previous Policy

Previously, State Department policy prevented children born abroad by assisted means — e.g., international surrogacies — to obtain citizenship. The only circumstance that would then allow for the child to become a U.S. citizen is if one of the parents is already a legal citizen and the child is directly related to them. This applied to children who were born outside of the U.S. by way of assisted reproductive methods, most commonly a surrogate or in vitro fertilization, to both heterosexual and same-sex parents.

New Rules More in Touch With Reality

This new policy was announced on May 18, 2021, and it does set some stipulations. In order for your situation to be applicable to this new policy, your child has to have been born outside of the United States, and the parents must be married. Additionally, one or both of the child’s parents must already be a citizen of the U.S., and the child has to be biologically related to one of their parents.

 

A statement put out by the State Department praised the update to the way that the Immigration and Nationality Act is applied. The department says it’s now considering realistically what the families of today are truly going through. There have also been numerous advancements that have come in technology for assisted reproductive means, changing the way these policies must be thought of and implemented.

 

These newly-adopted guidelines are effectively a reversal of a long-standing rule that had obvious issues. The previous policy classified any child born through surrogacy outside of the United States as being born out of wedlock, even though the child’s parents were actually married. It was also a requirement of the State Department for children born outside the U.S. to be genetically or gestationally related to the parent who was a U.S. citizen.

A Well-Disputed Old Policy

This has led to a handful of same-sex couples filing lawsuits due to the former policy, fighting for their children’s rights to legal citizenship in the United States. Over the course of two years, two cases were brought and won by parents in this situation against the Trump administration.

 

In June 2020, a federal judge’s ruling required the State Department to recognize a same-sex couple’s daughter as a legal citizen. She was a year old at the time, born in via surrogacy in Canada.

 

Another instance of a successful case challenging the old rule, taking the fight to court, involved twin boys. The Canadian-born twins were the children of a same-sex couple, where one of the children was genetically tied to his father, who was a citizen of the United States. This child was granted his citizenship. His twin brother, on the other hand, relationally tied to the father who was born in Israel, was not allowed to become a citizen.

 

In 2019, the judge presiding over that case made the ruling that this child was, in fact, a U.S. citizen due to the fact that he had married parents. In this case, the ruling was that the State Department hadn’t applied its own law correctly.

A Big Moment for the LGBTQ Community

With the new law, LGBTQ parents are all feeling a momentous breakthrough. It’s a huge win for everyone who’d been fighting back against the State Department’s previous policy, which was dehumanizing, out of touch, and above all, unconstitutional.

 

Immigration Equality is one of the outstanding LGBTQ immigration rights groups that has brought a number of federal lawsuits that challenge the old rules of the State Department. They work with New Jersey lawyers to help provide what’s best for these children.

 

This new policy sends a clear message to the public, especially those in LGBTQ communities, that unity and determination are both powerful tools against systemic discrimination. It underlines the idea that families are formed from love, not from genetics.

 

If you or a loved one are in this type of a situation, call the firm of Cofsky & Zeidman, L.L.C., at (856) 429-5005. Donald Cofsky is a friendly, knowledgeable, and experienced New Jersey lawyer who will guide you through every step of the process to help your child become a dual citizen.

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