The IR4 adoption visa classification is appropriate for orphans who meet the following criteria:
- The orphan will be adopted after being admitted to the US (requires both intent and satisfaction of any applicable pre-adoption requirements of the home state); and
- The adoptive parents must have secured custody of the orphan under the laws of the foreign sending country sufficient to allow the child to be taken from the foreign sending country and adopted in the US or elsewhere.
An “orphan” is defined as follows for the purposes of an IR3 adoption visa:
- The child is under the age of 16 at the time a petition is filed on his or her behalf (or under the age of 18 if adopted or to be adopted together with a natural sibling under the age of 16) and is unmarried and under the age of 21 at the time of petition and visa adjudication;
- The child has been or will be adopted by a married US citizen and spouse, or by an unmarried US citizen at least 25 years of age; and
- The child is an orphan because either: (a) The child has no parents because of the death or disappearance, abandonment or desertion by, or separation from or loss of both parents; or (b) The child’s sole or surviving parent is incapable of providing proper care and has, in writing, irrevocably released the child for emigration and adoption.
- The adoptive parents must intend to enter into a bona fide parent-child relationship with that orphan and that there is no credible evidence of child-buying, fraud, or misrepresentation associated with the case.
IR4 adoption visa recipients become permanent residents upon admission to the US, but do not automatically acquire US citizenship. A child who enters the US on an IR4 adoption visa acquires US citizenship as of the date of a full and final adoption decree in the US (assuming the child is under age 18 at the time of adoption). We do not assist with registration of legal adoptions, but can assist with an IR4 adoption visa application.
Self Help
US State Department - IR4 Adoption Visa
Foreign Affairs Manual - IR4 Adoption Visa
USCIS - IR4 Adoption Visa
