Helping Families Adopt Orphans Act

Helping Families Adopt Orphans Act - Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that any "covered individual" (an individual whose Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition was approved on or after January 1, 2005) may file a Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative for at least two years after the approval of the individual's application.

Prohibits the Secretary from requiring: (1) a covered individual who files a timely petition to pay any fees or complete any requirements already paid or completed in conjunction with the application or contingent on the amount of time that elapses between the application's approval and the petition's filing; and (2) any person who was a covered individual on this Act's enactment date from paying any fee for the timely filing of a petition unless that fee was required at the time the application was approved.

[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5888 Introduced in House (IH)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5888

    To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that an 
   individual may file an orphan petition for at least 2 years after 
            approval of an advanced processing application.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 25, 2006

  Mrs. Wilson of New Mexico introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that an 
   individual may file an orphan petition for at least 2 years after 
            approval of an advanced processing application.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Helping Families Adopt Orphans 
Act''.

SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE ORPHAN PETITION.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure 
that any covered individual may file an orphan petition for at least 2 
years after the approval of the individual's advanced processing 
application.
    (b) Fees and Requirements.--The Secretary of Homeland Security 
shall not require a covered individual who timely files an orphan 
petition to pay any fees or complete any requirements that--
            (1) the individual has already paid or completed in 
        conjunction with the advanced processing application; or
            (2) are contingent on the amount of time that elapses 
        between the approval of the advanced processing application and 
        the filing of the orphan petition.
    (c) Additional Fees.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall not 
require any person who was a covered individual on the date of 
enactment of this Act to pay any fee for the timely filing of an orphan 
petition, unless that fee was required at the time the advanced 
processing application was approved.
    (d) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) The term ``covered individual'' means any individual 
        whose advanced processing application was approved on or after 
        January 1, 2005.
            (2) The term ``orphan petition'' means the Petition to 
        Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative or such form that is a 
        successor to that form.
            (3) The term ``advanced processing application'' means the 
        Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition or such 
        form that is a successor to that form.
                                 <all>