My Russian wife is in the process of adopting a child in Russia, using
her citizenship.  She has no job, and no assets.  As part of our
application, I have provided notarized copies of my income and assets
(more than enough to justify adoption), and also I've provided a
notarized letter where I state that I promise to financially support
any children my wife adopts.

What if that doesn't mean anything to them?  Is there any American law
that compels me to support children that I adopt?  Both while I am
married, and also if I get divorced.  My wife and I are trying to get
as much ammunition before our court case in Moscow, and it would be
helpful if there were any case law that would indicate that support is
not an issue, given that I have an adequate income and assets.

The more verbage the better, really, I would just like to be able to
throw a bunch of relevant law at them.  I don't think they'll sift
through it, but it might quiet them down.

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Clarification of Question by mark2000-ga on 20 Aug 2002 22:14 PDT

In my experience, $100 would get me through a lawyer's door, but the
research I'm looking for would be a bit more than that.

Also, one point: an I-864 (INS affadavit of support) wouldn't be
helpful in this situation, since the Russian government doesn't care
about America having to pay support, they want to know that Russia
won't (and, they will say, that the child is guaranteed of being
placed in a financially stable situation).  They're really just trying
to poke holes where they can.

---

Clarification of Question by mark2000-ga on 20 Aug 2002 22:36 PDT

Another point: we've been married five years (state of Oregon),
commingling our assets (it's all in both of our names).  So legally,
maybe she does have assets?

By definition, adoption is a court procedure by which an adult legally
becomes the parent of someone who is not his or her biological child.
Adoption creates a parent-child relationship recognized for all
purposes including child support obligations, inheritance rights and
custody. http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/index.cfm/catID/21216A3D-29D5-41CD-A6E214E3E265D942
 
Every state has child support laws and holds adoptive parents legally
responsible for the care of their children. Nolo has a great web site
that lists the specific laws for many states. First you will need to
log on to http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/statute/state.cfm and click on
the name of your state. This will take you to the appropriate state
resource. Child support is under the jurisdiction of the states and is
not federally regulated. All states have numerous statutes and laws,
which differ, but all have the same purpose in common; the protection
of children. You will be able to obtain copies of these laws from the
Nolo website or your Attorney General to present as evidence if you
deem necessary.

If your state does not have an online searchable database link from
the Nolo web site you will need to contact your State Attorney
Generals office directly.
A list of Attorney Generals may be found at:
http://d5.dir.dcx.yahoo.com/society_and_culture/crime/law_enforcement/attorneys_general/u_s__states/

The most obvious source of information is your own lawyer. I highly
recommend that you utilize the services of a qualified attorney
experienced in foreign adoptions. It is complicated enough to adopt in
the U.S. alone. Dealing with foreign governments by yourself without
competent legal representation can be a nightmare.

To find an expert adoption attorney visit: 
http://www.adoptionattorneys.org/

The following sites may also be of interest to you:
http://www.adoptionattorney4u.com/index.html
http://www.sharedjourney.com/international.html

I sincerely hope this is what you were looking for.

Regards,

Kinglouie

---

Request for Answer Clarification by mark2000-ga on 20 Aug 2002 23:51 PDT

I'd appreciate some help searching www.nolo.com for laws relevant to
this question in the state of Oregon, can you help with this?

---

Clarification of Answer by kinglouie-ga on 21 Aug 2002 11:15 PDT

Dear Mark:

The following links will bring you to summary pages of the Oregon
State Laws and Legislative actions pertaining to Child
Support/Parental Responsibility issues. Please consider consulting a
professional attorney to assist you in deciphering how these statutes
will actually be interpreted in court.

Please note that the following disclaimer appears on the Oregon State
Legislature website:
“The text appearing in this database was produced from material
provided by the Legislative Counsel Committee of the Oregon
Legislative Assembly. The official record copy is the printed
published copy of the Oregon Revised Statutes. The text in the
database is not the official text of Oregon law. Although efforts have
been made to match the database text to the official legal text they
represent, substantive errors or differences may remain. It is the
user’s responsibility to verify the legal accuracy of all legal text.
The Legislative Counsel Committee claims copyright protection in those
parts of Oregon Revised Statutes that are legally subject to copyright
protection. The State of Oregon is not liable for any loss or damage
resulting from errors introduced into the materials supplied by the
Legislative Counsel Committee, by a user or any third party, or
resulting from any defect in or misuse of any search software, drivers
or other equipment.”
http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/ 

The 2001 Oregon Revised Statutes and other law publications are
available for purchase from: "http://www.lc.state.or.us/"


Here are the pages you will be most interested in:

http://www.leg.state.or.us/99orlaws/sess1000.dir/1030ses.html 
http://www.leg.state.or.us/99orlaws/sess0800.dir/0836ses.html 
http://www.leg.state.or.us/99orlaws/sess0700.dir/0735ses.html 
http://www.leg.state.or.us/99orlaws/sess0100.dir/0127ses.html 
http://www.leg.state.or.us/99orlaws/sess0001.dir/0080ses.html 
http://www.leg.state.or.us/orlaws/sess0400.dir/0455ses.html
http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/025.html
http://www.leg.state.or.us/01reg/measures/hb2000.dir/hb2072.a.html
http://www.leg.state.or.us/01reg/measures/hb3400.dir/hb3463.intro.html
http://www.leg.state.or.us/01reg/measures/hb3200.dir/hb3252.intro.html
http://www.leg.state.or.us/01reg/measures/sb0300.dir/sb0339.a.html

Mark, I admire your efforts to provide a nurturing home for a needy
child who desperately needs loving parents. I am acquainted with many
domestic and international adoptive families and I know what a
blessing this has been for them. I hope that you will give serious
thought to obtaining competent legal representation. The potential for
mishap in the international legal arena is very significant.

Best Regards,

Kinglouie

Answer was too general.  Links posted were not directly relevant to
the question asked (just seemed around child support, which was only
part of it), and I was specific that I wanted relevant law as an
answer.

I am sure for 100$ you can get an a profssional lawyer to answer this.
Maybe get an hour of his/her time

The first thing I would suggest is that you relax. A lot of kids are
adopted out of Russia and its neighboring states, and thus they
probably don't have much concern over U.S. law not requiring their
support. In every U.S. state, including (as kinglouie-ga notes,
Oregon) if you adopt a child you are obligated to support that child.
(This would not be the case if your wife adopted a child on her own,
and you did not adopt the child. But that's not what you're asking.)

(It is wonderful when state legislatures put their codes online. It
is, however, unfortunate when they don't have a user-friendly
interface. The Oregon code's search feature is not, in my opinion,
user-friendly.)

There should be Oregon case law which discusses the obligations of
adoptive parents, and there may well be some divorce cases in which
support is ordered which also describe a factual background that
includes the adoption of a child. You can review recent case law for
free (with free registration) at LexisOne and Findlaw. While this
unfortunately won't give you the bulk of Oregon cases, if you can find
a recent case on point, if needed it would probably be more persuasive
than an older case.

LexisOne:
http://www.lexisone.com/

FindLaw:
http://www.findlaw.com/11stategov/or/laws.html