Signed into law S.1614, the Accuracy for Adoptees Act helps adoptive children who had been given inaccurate birthdates abroad by requiring federal agencies to recognize amended birth dates as issued by state courts. This is often an issue for children who were abandoned at orphanages without any birth record or who were given a “best guess” birth date.
The act, proposed by members of The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (AAAA) who had faced this issue and its long term consequences, removed the bureaucracy, red tape and endless dead ends that these families often faced. The AAAA partnered with adoption champions, Senators Klobuchar (D-MN) and Blunt (R-MO) and Representatives Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Karen Bass (D-CA), who introduced the bill in the Senate and House respectively.
While there is an existing state court process in the United States that allows families to present medical, educational and dental evidence to support a request for an amended date of birth, prior to the law, federal agencies would commonly not accept the amended dates. As a result, many adopted children ended up with two different dates of birth on their federal and state documents, creating a multitude of problems, from school grade level placement to the inability to get a driver’s license or passport.
If you would like more information on how to correct an adopted child’s inaccurate birth date, please feel free to contact us.