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I-600A – Advance Processing for Orphan Petition
If you’re in the middle of an international adoption paperchase and haven’t yet filed your I-600A, now is the time to get that puppy sent in! On July 30th, fees will increase from $545 to a whopping $750, and biometrics fees will increase by $10 per person from $70 to $80.
The silver lining in all of this is that the new fees will allow for one free extension of your I-600A. If you’re adopting from China for example, you will need to extend at least once, and probably twice, so one freebie will definitely be welcomed.
N-600 – Application for Certificate of Citizenship
If you need to apply for citizenship for an adopted child (form N-600), the current fee is $215. If you wait until after July 30, however, the fee skyrockets to $420 – almost double. Note that if you automatically received the Certificate of Citizenship for a child who entered the U.S. in an IR-3 visa, but the Certificate was issued in a name other than the name you plan to use for your child, you can apply for a corrected copy. The fee is currently $220, but will increase to $380! You must use form N-565 – Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document and must supply a copy of your child’s legal name change. The name change is commonly accomplished during readoption, but if you choose not to readopt and/or it is not required, you can call your local courthouse and inquire about the steps involved with a legal name change.
This is hitting me in the pocket book as all three of our Haitian children’s Certificates of Citizenship were issued with amalgamations of Haitian/adoptive family names that were not chosen by us. Because we want to make sure all our Is are dotted and our Ts are crossed, we’re biting the bullet and sending in our applications prior to the deadline. This, however, requires that we do the kids’ readoptions now, which runs in the $500 range in our area. In the end, we’ll have paid more than $1200 simply for the privilege of having Certificates of Citizenship with the correct names. Oh, the joys!
Best wishes for speedy paperchasing for all!
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why do folks insist on raising the price of everything?
My paycheck isn’t going up and it’s depressing.