The information on this page is from other adoptive families that have gone through the process of applying for their child's US passport. It does seem that everyone has a slightly different experience and one family my get by without a certain document that another family must provide. You need proof that you are your child's parents and you need proof of their US citizenship. If you haven't readopted (recognition of adoption), and you do not have an original Louisiana (or other state) birth certificate, they probably won't accept the Russian birth certificate (you are listed as the parents on the Russian birth certificate) unless you have it retranslated again by a certified translator in the US. Some families did not have to take this extra step of retranslating the Russian birth certificate and some have. Apparently, there is a huge disconnect between the post office that accepts applications and the passport agency. Some families "slip" through without any problems and others encounter several problems along the way.
This is what you will need, regardless of what the post office tells you:
1. Proof of Citizenship - If your child's LA birth certificate has "In accordance with LA R. S. 40:79(c) this is not proof of citizenship" stamped on it, you must submit their original Citizenship Certificate. If you do NOT have proof of citizenship, there is a way for the passport office to file a form to prove your child's US citizenship. You can contact the national passport office and ask about this service or just apply for the passport with the information you have and wait for them to send you a letter stating your options for submitting more documents. At least the process will have begun.
2. Proof that you are the parents of the child - This proof can be your child's Louisiana birth certificate (original copy) or Russian birth certificate with a retranslation in the US. This can not be your driver's license. The post office will make a copy of your driver's license and one family was told that this would be sufficient, but the pass port office told them that anything "copied" is worthless.
National Passport Information Center
Toll-free: 1-877-487-2778
Monday – Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Eastern Time
You can get a "live person" on the phone, but it takes listening to many different menu items. Keep listening until you hear the "adopted children".
For specific information regarding international adoption and the foreign country's laws pertaining to international adoption, visit:
Note to parents with more than one child:
Do not be alarmed if you applied for all of your children's passports at the same time, but do not receive them in the mail on the same day. We applied for our five children's passports together and they all came on different days over a span of 3 weeks. Also, you may receive your child's birth certificate and citizenship certificate back separately and on a different day as the passport.
