Inter-country adoptions – a nationality and immigration law perspective

Sarah Pinder Barrister Goldsmiths Chambers

Family law practitioners will be familiar with the frameworks and procedures providing for and regulating a child’s adoption in the UK. But what of adoptions that have taken place overseas? Even within the UK the relevant legislative provisions and procedures are different within England and Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland. Advising clients who wish to bring back a child adopted overseas to the UK can be a minefield and like many other family cases such matters often involve high levels of stress on both the clients’ end and the lawyers. Stakes and expectations are high and there are often many lose ends to tie up.

Within this article Sarah Pinder a specialist barrister will provide an outline of the different types of inter-country adoptions and how these are effectively recognised (or not) by the laws of England and Wales. Such recognition or the absence of it impacts on both the adoption itself as well as the child’s consequential rights when it comes to British nationality and/or immigration laws. In the second part of the article Sarah will...

Read the full article here.