Australian Adoption Law and Adoption Visa

Adoption Visa (SC 102) allows children adopted outside of Australia to live with their adoptive parent in Australia. To be eligible, the child must under 18 years old and be adopted through one of the following categories:

• An inter-country adoption with the involvement of an Australian state or territory central authority or;
• Hague Adoption Convention or;
• Expatriate adoption where the Australian citizen has been living outside Australia for more than 12 months.

While the law is designed to protect against serious offences such as child trafficking and production of fraudulent documents, in some circumstances, it can cause unfair and unreasonable decision.

Recently on 9NEWS, an applicant who was born in Vancouver, Canada and was adopted there by Australian parents since she was a child. In this case the child was adopted at birth however they were rejected for citizenship by descent because at the exact time of her birth she did not have an Australian citizen parent. She is also not able to apply for the subclass 102 adoption visa as she is over the age of 18.

Both her parents are Australian, and she does not have any family in Canada. In the interview, the applicant stressed the unfairness of her situation as she was being treated differently to biological children of Australians.

“This is so wrong to treat an adopted child like this. I know there are rules in place but just knowing I have two Australian parents from birth, I wasn’t adopted at 24 years old, the age I am now.”

The family is calling for flexibility of the law for this unreasonable and unfair decision.