A child who has no parents and often no guardian. Such a child would once have routinely been placed in a large institutional orphanage but is now more likely to be placed in a group home and then with foster parents until arrangements can be made for the child’s adoption. Under immigration law, for purposes of adoption, an orphan is defined as a child under age 16 at the date on which a visa application is filed and whose parents are dead, have disappeared, or have abandoned the child or whose surviving parent is unable to provide proper care and has formally consented to the emigration and adoption.