RE-ADOPTION or Domestication of a Foreign Adoption Decree.  Typically, a foreign adoption is finalized in the child’s country of origin. The adoption decree and new birth certificate are issued by the foreign country, and the U.S. Dept of State and Immigration departments give approval for the child to return to the U.S. on a valid visa.  In most cases, the international adoption grants automatic citizenship to your child; however, for those adoptions that do not provide automatic adoption, it becomes necessary to "domesticate" the foreign adoption in a United States court, so as to obtain citizenship for your child.

However, even in those cases where citizenship is granted automatically, it is highly recommended that you complete a re-adoption, for two reasons. 

First, there is always the possibility, however slight, that the foreign country will challenge the adoption at some later date, either because of suspected corruption in the process, i.e. baby-trafficking, or because some major political instability in the country has created new policy. When you complete a re-adoption in Georgia, you get an adoption decree from a valid U.S. court as concrete evidence of the adoption, evidence that cannot be overturned by a foreign government.

Second, the re-adoption gives your child an English language adoption decree and an English language birth certificate that will make it easier for her to use throughout her life. Foreign adoption decrees and birth certificates are usually in the foreign language, and come accompanied by an English translation, which makes it a cumbersome document to use in later life to obtain a passport, driver's license, etc.

It is strongly advisable that parents who are adopting internationally complete a domestication of the foreign adoption once they return home with their child, and before any of the international documents are mislaid.