You may bring your adopted child to the UK if you can show that they:

• Were adopted when both parents lived together abroad or when either parent was settled in the UK;
• Have the same rights as any other child of the adoptive parents;
• Were adopted because their original parents could not care for them, and there has been a genuine transfer of parental responsibility;
• Have broken all ties with their original family; and
• Were not adopted just to make it easier to enter the UK.

Your child must obtain permission to enter the UK before they travel there. This permission is called 'entry clearance', and will be in the form of a visa or entry clearance certificate. To obtain it, the child should apply to the British diplomatic post in the country where they live.

A foreign adoption order will only be recognised in the UK if it was made in a country on the 'designated list' - this means a country that is included in the Adoption (Designation of Overseas Adoptions) Order 1973.

A child who was adopted in a country on the designated list will normally be given permission to stay in the UK permanently if:

• Both you and the child's other parent are settled in the UK; or
• Both you and the child's other parent have permission to settle in the UK permanently and you both are entering the country together with the child; or
• You have permission to settle in the UK permanently and are entering the country with the child, and the other parent is already settled in the UK; or
• You have sole responsibility for the child.

Your child will not automatically become a British citizen, unless you adopted them through the UK courts and at least one of the adoptive parents was a British citizen when the adoption order was made.

Intercountry adoption:

If your child is coming to the UK so that they can be adopted by you there under the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption, they must:

• Be joining one or two prospective parents who are both habitually resident in the UK and who are the sole occupiers of accommodation where they can support and house the child without help from public funds;
• Be the subject of an agreement made under the Hague Convention; and
• Have been entrusted to the prospective parents by the authorities of the country from which they are coming; and
• Be under the age of 18.