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Liane Chu, nearly two-years-old, a Sunnyvale resident, became an instant U.S. citizen. Wilma and Dean Chu adopted Liane from Chengdu in the Sichuan province of China. 'She's our little magic,' said Wilma.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Family Day
Sunnyvale couple's adopted daughter is naturalized by Child Citizenship Act
By Erin Mayes
Dean and Wilma Chu are both American citizens and Sunnyvale residents, but their 2-year-old daughter didn't gain her citizenship until Feb. 27.
Thanks to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, the Chus won't have to worry about naturalizing Liane, whom they adopted from China last May.
Liane automatically became U.S. citizens along with about 75,000 other children around the country on the 27th, when the law took effect.
About 130 people, including almost 50 adoptees, showed up to a celebration at Fung Lum Chinese Restaurant on the 27th. According to Leslie Kornblum, a Saratoga resident and volunteer with Families with Children from China, 39 of the children were Chinese, three were Russian, two were Vietnamese, one was Korean and one was from Chile.
Many of the Chinese children were decked out in the celebratory color of their homeland--red. Their parents also donned red for the evening, topping off their ensembles with cardboard tiaras in festive colors. The restaurant hummed with the excited voices of the children as they ran around waving miniature flags and playing with balloons.
Before the enactment of the new law, parents who adopted children outside of the United States were required to go through a tiresome naturalization process, submitting applications and a $125 fee.
"The whole idea of having to submit the paperwork again seemed kind of absurd to us," Wilma Chu said. "For American couples that have children abroad, they have automatic citizenship, so it just seems like something that should have happened long ago."
She said that she and her husband were required to submit a dossier to the INS, then fingerprints. A social worker then had to conduct a home study, which Wilma described as a "review of your whole life."
Letters of reference, legal and tax documents are also required. The U.S. government then sent their information to the Chinese Government, after which the Chus waited for nine months to receive a tiny picture of Liane and all the paperwork that was necessary to adopt her.
"There's enough other immigration going on to keep the INS busy," Wilma said. "It takes them four months to process fingerprints. It's kind of frightening. We've talked to other people whose paperwork has been totally lost."
Liane's story is one that has become all-too common due to a law in China that prohibits couples from having more than one child.
"Like many other children in China, she was abandoned, mostly as a result of the one-child policy," Wilma said. "The women who choose to relinquish their children do so in a very public place."
Adoption officials told the Chus that Liane had been abandoned at a train station on the day she was born. From there, she was taken to the police station and eventually she wound up living in a foster home in China.
Wilma said the point at which Liane's foster mother handed her over to the Chus was a difficult one for the toddler.
"Liane had a very traumatizing experience being handed off from people she knew," Wilma said. "She was losing anything and everything that she knew."
However, Wilma said she'd expected Liane to be upset because she'd read books about adopting children beforehand.
"Our relationship was on her terms," Wilma said. "She actually adapted pretty well. After a couple of months she became reliant on us."
The Chus' next concern was about feeding Liane, who some people might say had been malnourished.
"She had been fed, but I don't think she ever really got her fill," Wilma said. "We have some pictures and videos of her eating almost adult-sized portions in one sitting. She was a little on the slim side when we got her home and she's been doing a steady weight gain."
Adoption officials told the Chus that Liane came with good habits, which meant she had a good appetite and slept well.
The Chus decided to adopt a child from China partly because of their Chinese heritage. Wilma is half Chinese, half Korean and Dean is full Chinese. They wanted an Asian child and knew about the abandonment problem in China, so it seemed a logical choice for them.
Wilma looked into adopting from the U.S., but developed reservations upon doing so.
"You're kind of at the mercy of these women who are pregnant with children who weren't planned for," she said. "We knew [adopting from China] was a sure thing."
The Chus are now in the process of adopting a second child from China. Despite having already submitted a dossier and fingerprints to the FBI, they have to completely re-apply, filling out all of the same paperwork.
"Because I could have become a hardened criminal in the meantime," Wilma joked.
This time, the adoption process seems to be taking a little longer, she said.
"We are not spring chickens here," she acknowledged. "We are older, wiser parents, so we want them now. Which everybody does. When you come to the decision, there's this whole other calendar. So, it's the journey. There's nothing that's going to speed it up. It's just what you have to go through. I've kind of concluded that having your own biological child is a right. Adopting children is a privilege."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
