Emma Acebo, a six-month-old girl born in Colombia, has been a US citizen since her adoptive parents brought her to New York last month.
But without proof of citizenship, foreign-born children cannot receive things like social-security cards or passports. Emma's parents wouldn't even bring her to nearby Canada for fear that they would have trouble bringing her back to the US.
"We would have been a little nervous," said Michele Acebo of Ontario, New York.
But on Friday, Emma received her citizenship papers during a celebration of the Child Citizenship Act Project, launched in January to speed documents to children while eliminating paperwork for parents.
Although the 2000 Child Citizenship Act made all foreign-born children US citizens at the time of their adoption, parents still had to submit an application for citizenship documents and wait up to 18 months for it to be processed.
The new project automatically delivers citizenship certificates to adopted children within 45 days of their arrival in the US.
Americans adopted 21,100 children from other countries during the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2002, government statistics show. The most foreign-born children came from China (6,062), followed by Russia (4,904), Guatemala (2,361), Korea (1,713) and Ukraine (1,093).
The State Department is completing rules to certify agencies specializing in foreign adoptions, required under a treaty signed by some 190 countries. Countries agree to follow certain regulations on international adoptions, such as making sure the child to be adopted is an orphan or abandoned by parents, and that adults wishing to adopt have been checked out by their home countries.
State Department spokesman Stuart Patt has said all of the US rules needed under the treaty should be completed next year.
More than 11,500 citizenships have been processed through the Child Citizenship Act Project's Buffalo headquarters so far this year.
"Before, the process was fragmented throughout the country in a way that we were having inconsistent delivery of documentation," said Eduardo Aguirre, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, as dozens of new citizens dug into cake after the ceremony.
Aguirre said the process was concentrated in Buffalo after de-termining the office seemed most efficient at handling the paperwork.
"Parents are concerned about the meticulous little things, about documentation, background, et cetera," Aguirre said. "So if a document takes 45 days or 90 days it's a huge difference."
Aside from the legal importance, the documents give parents a sense of assurance that the child is here for good.
"It's wonderful," said Debbie Lagree of Williamsville, showing the certificates her five and seven-year-old Colombian-born daughters received several months after their arrival in the country as babies.
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