KAC-WA SUPPORTS CITIZENSHIP FOR KOREAN ADOPTEES

When intercountry adoption first began, U.S. citizenship was not automatically granted to adoptees. Some adoptive parents were not aware of this, and did not complete the naturalization process for their children. This has left thousands of adoptees, including Korean adoptees, without U.S. citizenship.

In 2000 Congress passed legislation to address this issue, to ensure that all intercountry adoptees received automatic citizenship. However, there were some loopholes- it did not retroactively cover adoptees who were already 18 at the time or did not have legal permanent resident status.

This March, the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018 (ACA) was introduced to fix these loopholes, with the intention of granting retroactive citizenship to most intercountry adoptees. This legislation will help secure adoptees' safety and livelihood.

The Adoptee Rights Campaign (ARC) will be joining the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) on May 8th in Washington D.C. to educate members of Congress on issues of importance to the Asian Pacific American community, including the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018 (ACA).

How You Can Help:

Sign the online petition
Call and/or email elected officials in the House and Senate by May 8th, asking them to support the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018 (S.2522, H.R.5233)
Participate in the Korean American Grassroots Conference (KAGC) Regional Seminar on May 19th-May 20th, where we will host a panel discussion on adoptee citizenship

Phone/Email Script:

Hi, my name is [ YOUR FULL NAME ], from [ YOUR CITY & STATE ] and I'm calling to express my strong support for the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018 (Senate 2522 and House of Representatives 5233), which provides citizenship to individuals who were legally adopted to the United States but are left without citizenship due to a loophole in the current legislation.

As someone deeply concerned about this issue, I urge your office to support the Adoptee Citizenship Act now. Thank you for your time.

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