Friday, February 29, 2008

The Adoption Name Game

I've written several post about names, naming, and changing names in the adoption process. In the last posts I was questioning the process of how to officially change the children's names. The official (document) name change will be needed even if I leave them with their Ethiopian given names. If you don't know, Ethiopians have one name and then their father's name is added as a surname. For my children this would mean that their documents would have CHILD'S NAME (Ethio given name), MY FIRST NAME (becomes their middle name), MY LAST NAME (their new last name).

If you read my post, Certificate of Citizenship Name Game, you know I was trying to figure out how to change this (correct this) on their documentation without re-adoption.

I finally received an answer from someone who completed the process here in Illinois. Thanks, Tara. Another adoptive parent explained that after bringing her child home on an IR-3 visa, she hired an attorney specifically for the name change. After receiving her Certificate of Citizenship, she paid about $900 to have him file papers with the county to change the name.

TIMELINE
  • April - Home with child
  • May - Certificate of Citizenship
  • July - Filed in court for name change (can be done immediately)
  • July - Court hearing
  • Sept. - Court order
  • Nov. - Record of foreign birth
This is still preferable to me than doing the re-adoption.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i know we've had this email discussion before and I understand your reasons. You certainly aren't taking the ez/cheap way out. Hope you get to put all the things you've learned into practice soon!

Jan

VALARIE said...

Not sure that I understand. It is actually cheaper to do what I'm doing than to re-adopt. The bonus is that I also get to see the kids twice.

graceling said...

Interesting. I wonder why it took so long from the court hearing to the court order?

VALARIE said...

The person explained that they filed in Cook County and they tend to be slower. She said that if she did it again she would file in her own county.

VALARIE said...

Also on the timing since I didn't have specific dates, the court hearing was the last week of July and the order was early September. Not sure that helps because she said that she thought it was long as well.

Handlyrics said...

Thanks for the info. I will need that as well.

Original Court Date: April 18, 2009
Final Court Date: May 18, 2009
[607 total days & 165 days w/IAN]