The adoption visa (102): the three kinds of adoption Australia recognises, the expatriate adoption, the ones that do not qualify, and citizenship instead of a visa

MARN 1576536

What the visa is

The adoption visa, subclass 102, is a permanent visa for a child under 18 who is outside Australia and who has been adopted, or is to be adopted, in one of the circumstances the regulations recognise, sponsored by the adoptive parent who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen. The regulations define the circumstances narrowly, because Australia's adoption law, which is state and territory law, and its obligations under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption are designed to prevent adoptions that bypass the safeguards for the child, and the visa follows that law rather than the law of the country where the adoption happened. The Department grants the visa on the evidence that the adoption falls within one of the circumstances; it does not assess, approve or arrange adoptions, and a family that writes to the Department asking how to adopt is referred to the state authority. The child visa guide covers the visa for a parent's own child.

Intercountry adoption through a state authority

The first circumstance is an adoption arranged by, or with the involvement of, the central authority of an Australian state or territory, under the Hague Convention or under one of Australia's bilateral arrangements with countries that are not Convention parties: prospective parents in Australia apply to their state's authority, are assessed and approved as suitable, are matched with a child through the other country's authority, and the adoption is completed in the other country or in Australia after the child's arrival, with the state authority's support letter to the Department; the visa is granted on that letter and the adoption documents, and where the adoption is completed in Australia the child arrives on the visa for that purpose. The countries available change as programmes open and close, the time runs to years, and the state authority's requirements on age, relationship, health and means are its own. A relative's child can in some states and with some countries be adopted through this process, which is slow and is the lawful route for a family in Australia.

Convention and bilateral adoptions by parents abroad

The second circumstance is an adoption under the Hague Convention, or under a bilateral arrangement, where the adoptive parents were habitually resident in the other Convention or arrangement country at the time and adopted the child there through that country's central authority, so that the adoption was a Convention adoption from the receiving country's side; an Australian couple living in a Convention country who adopt there through its process have an adoption Australia recognises under the Convention, and the visa is granted on the Convention certificate and the adoption order. Where at least one parent is an Australian citizen, the child may instead be registered as a citizen by adoption, below.

The expatriate adoption

The third circumstance is the expatriate adoption: the adoptive parent, an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, had been residing outside Australia for a period of more than twelve months at the time the visa application was made; the adoption was in accordance with the law of the country where it took place; the parent, and any partner, have full and permanent parental rights by the adoption; the residence abroad was not contrived to circumvent the requirements for the entry of children to Australia; and the adoption was not arranged by an Australian authority. The twelve months is residence, shown by the visa or status in the other country, the home, the employment, the children's schooling and the ordinary evidence of a life there, and a parent who moved abroad for the purpose of adopting and returning is the case the circumvention criterion catches, which the Department examines through the timing and the explanation. The adoption order, with a certified translation, the evidence of the birth parents' consent or of the lawful basis for dispensing with it, the evidence of the parent's residence, and the evidence of the parental rights the order confers under that country's law are the application. An adoption that gives something less than full parental rights, a kafala arrangement in the countries that use it, a simple adoption that does not end the birth parents' rights, or a guardianship, is not an adoption for the visa.

The adoptions that do not qualify

• An adoption completed abroad by a parent who was living in Australia at the time, of a relative's child or any child, however lawful in that country; this is the commonest refused application in the subclass.
• An adoption by a parent who went abroad for less than twelve months, or whose twelve months the Department finds was arranged for the adoption.
• A customary, religious or informal adoption that the law of the country does not treat as a full adoption with permanent parental rights.
• A guardianship, custody or kafala order, which transfers care and not parentage.
• An adoption completed after the child turned 18, or of a child who is 18 at the visa application.
• An adoption arranged privately in a Convention country outside its central authority, which the Convention does not recognise.
• An adoption in which the birth parents' consent was obtained by payment or pressure, which the Department refuses on the evidence and reports.

Citizenship by adoption instead of a visa

A child adopted in a Convention country or a bilateral arrangement country, under that country's process, where the adoption was completed there and at least one adoptive parent was an Australian citizen at the time, can be registered as an Australian citizen by adoption under the Citizenship Act, on the adoption compliance certificate and the state authority's or the Convention documents, and then travels to Australia on an Australian passport without a visa; a child adopted by permanent residents, or in an expatriate adoption outside the Convention process, is not eligible and needs the visa, and a child adopted in Australia under a state's law after arriving on the visa becomes a citizen by the ordinary route once the parent is a citizen. The citizenship route is quicker and cheaper where it applies, and the consultation checks it first. The descent guide covers the other citizenship route for a child born abroad.

The child's criteria

The child must be under 18 at the time of application, outside Australia at application and at grant, and must meet the health requirement, with the examination arranged through a panel physician, and the character requirement if 16 or over; the health waiver is not available for the adoption visa in the usual case, and a child with a condition that will cost the health system significantly is examined under the threshold like any permanent applicant, which for an adoption of a child with known needs is discussed before the application. The public interest criteria on consent and removal apply as they do to child visas: the Department must be satisfied that the law of the child's country permits the removal and that the persons with a legal right to decide where the child lives consent, which for an adopted child is the adoptive parents by the order and, where the order does not end the birth parents' rights, the birth parents too. The consent guide explains those criteria, and the translations guide the order in another language.

The sponsor

The adoptive parent sponsors on the child sponsorship form, with the undertaking to support the child for the first two years, police certificates for the sponsor and the partner, and the Department's scrutiny of the sponsor's history for offences against children, which bars a sponsor with a conviction for a registrable offence except in compelling circumstances; a sponsor who is a permanent resident must usually be settled, and a sponsor abroad in an expatriate adoption shows their intention to return to Australia with the child, since the visa is for the child's migration and not for a family that will stay abroad. The visa application charge for the adoption visa is the child visa charge, paid by the sponsor in practice.

The child already in Australia

The adoption visa is an offshore visa, and a child who is in Australia cannot be granted it; a child who came on a visitor visa and whom the family then wishes to adopt is adopted, if at all, under the state's adoption law, which for a child from overseas requires the state authority's involvement and is not available for a child brought for the purpose, and the child's visa position meanwhile is the visitor visa's, with its conditions and its end. A child adopted in Australia under state law by an Australian citizen becomes a citizen; a child adopted by permanent residents applies for the child visa as the adoptive parents' child. A family that brings a child to Australia on a visitor visa intending to adopt here has in most cases made the adoption impossible and the child's stay unlawful, and the consultation says so before the flight.

The alternatives

A child whose adoption does not qualify has the visas the child's own circumstances allow: the orphan relative visa, where the child is under 18, single, and each parent is dead, permanently incapacitated or of unknown whereabouts, which needs no adoption and which the orphan relative guide sets out; the child visa, where the child is the biological or step-child of the sponsor; a student visa in the child's own right when of school age; and, for a family that can wait, the state authority's intercountry process. An adoption order obtained abroad to bring a relative's child to a better life, with the parents alive and consenting, produces a child Australia does not recognise as the sponsor's and whose own parents are, for the orphan relative visa, alive, which is the position the consultation most often has to explain. The family unit guide covers who counts as a dependent child on other visas.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The subclass 102 criteria in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, public interest criteria 4015 to 4018, section 19C of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (citizenship by adoption under the Hague Convention or a bilateral arrangement), the Family Law (Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption) Regulations 1998, and the state and territory adoption Acts, as in force at the date above; the countries with which Australia has intercountry adoption programmes and the state authorities’ requirements change and their current published positions govern. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.