International Adoption: Orphans Reunited

May 19, 2010 - 10:02 AM

The Cruze family arrived at the Saliterman & Siefferman offices from Willmar, having earlier sought, and failing to find, a solution to a complex legal problem: how to bring Svitlana Kyriluk, a 16-year-old Ukrainian orphan and sister of three other orphans, Marina, Anya and Nadya, to the United States. Anya and Nadya had recently been adopted by separate Minnesota families, and Marina was in the process of being adopted by Ross and Dawn Marcus. Svitlana, the oldest, remained at the orphanage in Chyhyryn, a small village near Kiev. The challenge was recently resolved by Jerzy Guzior and Nicholas Wenner.

Initially, the Cruzes thought the solution simple: sponsor a student visa for the 16-year-old Svitlana, allowing her to stay near her sisters while studying at a Willmar high school and then a Minnesota college.

The problem turned out to be quite complex, however, involving, in addition to U.S. immigration law, Ukrainian law and post-Soviet bureaucracy. Such circumstances required political support as well, and so the assistance of U.S. Senator Norm Coleman's office was solicited. The task also required communication with the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, as well as with the orphanage and officials of the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, as well as the cooperation of Ukrainian border control officials.

Essentially, the problem was that the orphanage in Chyhyryn did not have any right to authorize its children to travel abroad. This problem was further exacerbated by a general human rights crisis in that part of the world, articulated by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education: thousands of young women from Ukraine and other countries of East and Central Europe are being drawn into international slavery rings as prostitutes. In any case, the Ukrainian authorities were unable or unwilling to interpret the scope of custodial rights issues under Ukrainian law that governed the travel rights of the minor Svitlana; the fact of the matter was, these officials had never encountered the situation of one of its orphans attempting to attend a school in the U.S., and were unsure how to proceed.

After days of meetings with various Ukrainian agencies it was determined that a better solution might be for Svitlana to emigrate to the U.S., through adoption, rather than to study temporarily. Because of her older age, however, the only way for such adoption to be allowed under the U.S. immigration law was for Svitlana to be adopted by one of the families that had already adopted one of her sisters. The new parents of Svitlana's sister, Marina, were fortuitously in Kiev at the time finalizing Marina's adoption, and upon hearing of Svitlana's predicament, agreed to adopt Svitlana in Ukraine. At the same time, the Cruzes arranged to take temporary custody of Svitlana immediately upon her entry into the United States pursuant to a delegation of parental authority to be simultaneously executed by Svitlana's newly adoptive parents. While the delegation only provided the temporary custodial authority of Svitlana to the Cruzes, it did allow the Cruzes the opportunity to be Svitlana's defacto parents while working out the details of the adoption. Because Svitlana and her newly adoptive parents consented to the adoption before an authority of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the Cruzes were able to petition the District Court in Kandiyohi County to legally adopt Svitlana within five weeks of her entry into United States. The District Court waived a home study investigation, and a decree of adoption confirming the legal custody of Svitlana Rose Cruze upon Tony and Sharon Cruze was signed by the court November 29, 2004.

It is been a very challenging and rewarding experience for Saliterman & Siefferman to be involved in uniting four sisters with their respective adoptive families in Willmar, MN. We hope and trust that Marina, Anya, Nadya and Svitlana are thriving in their new homes.

Jurzy T. Guzior & Nicholas M. Wenner