大象传媒

Since 2001, children adopted overseas by American parents automatically become US citizens. Before that, it was up to adoptive parents to take the legal steps to make sure their children were properly naturalised. But some adoptive children -- now well into adulthood -- are finding out that their parents never actually took the steps to make them citizens.

Image: Ella Purkiss was adopted from South Korea by American parents. But her parents never went ahead and had her naturalised as a US citizen. Credit: Rachel Christiansen