Korean-born girl must leave US because she was adopted a year too late
A federal judge in Kansas has ruled that a South Korean-born teenager, who was adopted by her aunt and uncle in Kansas, will have to leave the country right after graduation from college .. Hyebin Schreiber was brought to the United States in 2012 at the age of 15 by now-retired Army Lt. Col. Patrick Schreiber of Lansing, Kansas and his wife, Soo Jin, who met in South Korea when he was stationed there in 1995.
Schreiber delayed a formal adoption, in large part because the 27-year Army veteran spent much of 2013 and 2014 in Afghanistan, where he served as an intelligence officer. He told the Kansas City Star that he was advised by his lawyer that he could wait to finalize the adoption until Hyebin was 17. However, that rule only applies to the adoption of native-born Americans.
Under federal immigration law, foreign-born children must be adopted before they turn 16 to derive citizenship from an American. The bottom line: Hyebin will have to leave the country after she graduates from Kansas University, where she is a senior studying biochemistry.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree said in ruling against the family that the federal immigration law is "not ambiguous" ... the father blamed himself for not fully researching rules on adopting immigrants. Looking back, he regretted not pursuing the adoption before time ran out. “I should have put my family ahead of the Army,” he said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/09/29/judge-south-korean-born-girl-must-leave-us-because-adoption-too-late/1472269002/
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