Equivalent of social services for MN-1 applicaton from US with adoption

[tarafnablin]

I am a British Citizen (otherwise than by Descent) living and working in the USA. I and my wife have two children adopted in the USA from South Korea - they are now in their early teens. I would like to register them as British Citizens, and I understand the way to do this is via the MN-1 forms. I'm struggling with a few questions and would really appreciate any help.

1. My first question is - does this process work? Has anybody done this successfully recently from the USA for adopted children, where one parent is British? If so, what make it work (or not?) I'm worried about spending over £2,000 then having the whole thing fail or get stuck in red tape.

2. How do you do biometrics for MN-1 in the USA? The MN-1 requires biometrics for the children and says that an appointment should be set up through VFSGlobal. However, when I go to the VFSGlobal website, it doesn't appear to offer any services for the UK. They have no phone or email so I can't even ask them. I tried emailing the home office and just got an auto-reply back saying they are not replying to emails.

3. The MN-1 requires we submit a letter from the U.S. equivalent of social services, confirming the legality of the adoption, etc. Since there is no real equivalent in the U.S., do you have any idea as to what would be acceptable here?

Thank you so much for your help, and sorry if some of this was covered elsewhere. I have spent time looking through the forums but couldn't find anything more recent than 2015, when there appeared to be some confusion about the biometrics.

Tony

[vinny]

Adoption is a complex subject.

Were you British on the date of the adoption?
When was the adoption?
Was it under the Hague convention?

[tarafnablin]

Thanks for responding vinny!

Yes, I am British from birth
Adoptions were in 2004 and 2005 in the USA. The children were born in South Korea.
I don't believe South Korea is part of the Hague Convention

Tony

[tarafnablin]

Just checking if anyone had any advice.... thanks so much!

[tarafnablin]

Hi! I am working on MN-1 applications for British citizenship for my two teenage children adopted from South Korea. I am a dual US/UK citizen married to a US citizen. The children were adopted at birth from South Korea and are currently US citizens and we are all resident in the U.S.

The MN-1 requires that we submit a letter from the U.S. "equivalent" of UK social services confirming the legality of the adoption. Since the U.S. does not have an equivalent, does anyone have any idea what a substitute would be that would likely be accepted? We can get something from our adoption agency (non profit). I also can get confirmation of their arrival in the US from the US state department.

I tried emailing the UK home office but all they would say is "the onus is on individual customers to ensure they satisfy the requirements" which wasn't helpful at all.

Thanks!

Tony

[secret.simon]

Surely the relevant state that you live in would have something approximating to Social Services.