Hi all-
My husband has a very Jerry Springer family situation. He was adopted at birth by his biological maternal grandmother. He found out at 19 that his “sister” was his biological mother, because he finally got a look at his birth certificate when he joined the Navy. Now my question is, do I use his adoptive parents’ information for the relatives section on the e-qip or do I use who is listed on his birth certificate (bio mom with no father)?
If he went through a legal adoption, then you would use his adoptive parents information. They are now legally his parents. If the case requires a personal interview, he can explain it, but his adoptive parents are his legal parents and should be listed on the case papers. Conversely, adopted children are considered children and full siblings.
My only confusion is that when he went to get a passport, they had him list the information as shown on his birth certificate, so bio mom with no father, even though he told them he had been adopted.
If official documents list bio mom, I’d list her. But also have an explanation and adoptive mom’s info ready to give to an investigator. Unless either are a foreign national or career felon, it won’t matter too much and is easily explainable.
By the guidelines of the law, his grandmother is his mother through the adoption process. I can’t speak to why someone would instruct him to use his biological mother for passport information. An example would be if a foreign child is adopted by US parents, that child would not be required to list the bio parents in the relatives section of the case papers. Probably the best way would be to list the adoptive parents and in the comments sections, provide a brief explanation of the bio mother actually being the sister. This most likely will not be the first unusual circumstance the investigator has come across.
List the biological parents when known. You should also list the adoptive parents.This is not uncommon in background investigations.
Be especially sure to list the birth name if the birth name is not your current name (most common error with adopted Subjects)
Not listing the original parents will cause grief when the birth certificate is pulled from the birth state’s BVS (or equivalent).