April’s Story
I am from Fujian province, China, and got adopted 1.5 years before the Child Citizenship Act came into effect. For most of my life, I lived believing I was a true U.S. citizen until mid-2016. I found out while applying for financial aid. At that time my acceptance was rescinded, and had to postpone going to college. There are so many international adoptees who were/are in my place of believing they’re a full citizen when they’re not. Just like many others, I still had an American SSN and an American birth certificate, issued after adoption, but my parents never applied for my naturalization. Because I was adopted before the CCA came, I still had to apply for citizenship. The sad part is, coming to America means I lose my Chinese citizenship, but yet I did not even gain U.S citizenship…during my application, I was put on a list to be deported if my application was rejected.
On April 20, 2018, I was fortunate enough to be able to have a citizenship ceremony and take the Oath of Allegiance to become a true U.S. citizen. I spent almost 2 years of my life on hold and had no sense of belonging more than ever. There are no amount of words to express the emotional and mental toll I went through during that process. No adoptee should ever have to go through what I have gone through and this is why I will continue to fight for the Adoptee Citizenship Act. Not only that, I continue to bring up this issue because we do have fellow adoptees deported. Please support HR2731 and prevent other adoptees from going through this while bringing back the ones who got deported.
-April
To help April and other adoptees without citizenship, help pass the Adoptee Citizenship Act!