Now…before you panic, ‘re-adopt’ does not mean we are thinking of adopting again. Readoption is a means of documenting the parent-child relationship under U.S. law. It is the first step in obtaining a state birth certificate and legal name change.
It has been 5 years since we adopted our two kids from Russia. They were 5 and 10 at the time, so they know where they came from. They don’t mind talking about living in Russia. And, to this date, we haven’t run into many issues showing ID proof with a Russian birth certificate.
However, yesterday I had to take Tania to the DLMV to get her driver’s permit. I needed identification for her. 15 yr. olds, as a rule, don’t have many forms of ID yet. I brought her Russian birth certificate, her Adoption certificate (again in Russian with a translated form attached), her Russian passport, Social Security card, and Proof of Citizenship. The form they liked the best was the Proof of Citizenship. It has her photo on it, our address and, of course, is in English. Aside from spelling ‘Tatiana’ wrong several times, the DLMV person found her being from Russia quite interesting. Tania enjoyed the extra attention she got. He was amazed she spoke no Russian anymore…and even more amazed when I told him that was gone at one year…totally forgotten at 5 years!
It did start me thinking how it might be easier in the upcoming years with High School, college, etc., that my kids get re-adopted in the U.S. courts and get their birth certificates re-done in English. However, after doing some checking online I found that most IL attorneys who do this charge about $800 per child. Yikes! We certainly can’t swing $1600 for that right now.
Anyone know of a Re-Adoption attorney in IL that doesn’t cost a months worth of school tuitions? I’d appreciate knowing who they are. Do you think it’s important to have all documents in English? Opinions….?
Until next time…
Deborah Mumm, The Adoption Coach
Everything for Adoption
Adoption Highway 
Posted by Denise on Tuesday, December27, 2011 at 3:35 -06:0012
We adopted our son from Russia when he was 3. He is now 18 and a senior in HS. We have never reAdopted him in the US. We hit a bit of a glitch when we went to get his drivers license. It never occured to me to take his naturalization papers so we had to go get those. They told us he would need to bring them anytime he renewed his license for the rest of his life. We are just starting the college application process so I am not sure if there will be problems. We have never felt the need to go through the time and expense of re-adopting.
Posted by adoptioncoach on Tuesday, December27, 2011 at 3:35 -06:0012
We have never re-adopted our two kids either. It was a bit challenging getting our daughter’s drivers license without it, but as long as we showed ID’s of other kinds it seemed to work. It is expensive to re-adopt, and we have two to re-adopt. I am willing to keep doing things without the new forms for now. Anyone else out there have opinions on this???
Debbie