I have written about the Certificate of Citizenship (C of C) some parents opt to procure for their internationally adopted children, and the debate continues over the importance of having such a document.

The cost to obtain a C of C jumped considerably at the end of last month, and many parents feel it's overkill with a passport being considered to be more than enough proof that their child has the full rights of a citizen of the United States of America.

A somewhat delayed response to the post I linked to above takes strong issue with any cavalier attitude toward the C of C, however, and urges parents to look closely at the matter.

Saying that a handicapped adopted son, born before the Children's Citizenship Act went into effect in February of 2001, had a small run in with the law in 1990, they report that when the family later applied for the boy's C of C the USCIS threathed to deport him.

Yikes!

Offering a link to a website that details the ordeal, a personal story like this is just the thing to put fear into parents and make us wonder what the heck the US government can be thinking as it grinds its gears.

The Children's Citizenship Act applies only to those under the age of 18, so whether or not the son's age was a factor, I have no idea, but the fact of the matter is that according to the fact sheet on the act from the US State Department, citizenship is supposed to be automatic for "both biological and adopted children of U.S. citizens who are born abroad and who do not acquire U.S. citizenship at birth."

That seems pretty clear to me to mean that no piece of paper is required to make the citizenship a fact ... it just is.

Of course, there's paperwork involved in the process, but the C of C does not come with, and if it doesn't come with the process that makes the child a citizen how can it ever be required?

I've been stunned by the difference of opinion I've been reading for the past months over the should we / shouldn't we tug-of-war and the fact that nearly everyone that's gone hunting down the true scoop has come back with a different answer.

Can it be that the law of the land in America is now so convoluted or subject to interpretation that no one in charge has any real grasp of what it is or how it works?

And if this is anywhere near the case, where does that leave parents trying to calculate every possible permutation of an impossible-to-foresee future when bending over backwards planning to protect their children?

If money is an issue ... and for most of us it is to some degree ... there has to be some weighing done in decided whether to spend a thousand bucks or so on a C of C that may be completely unnecessary.

If anyone does have a handle on this, I think we'd all be interested. I know I would.