Reply #156: The adoption was finalized in Russia

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

You can't depart with the child without it being finalized, further at that time the mother would have been presented with a new birth certificate identifying herself as the mother. The child became a US citizen immediately upon arrival in the United States.

The Child Citizenship Act recognizes most foreign adoption decrees.

There are two exceptions which do not apply in this circumstance.

1. The child has not yet been adopted and enters on a visa for the purposes of adoption, citizenship is then granted upon finalization of the adoption.
2. The adopting parents are not or only one parent is present at the port of entry, in which case re-adoption is required and a new state adoption decree.

The first is pretty unusual except in refugee situations and the second doesn't apply because the mother is a single mother and she presented the child at immigration.