High Court grants order recognising the adoption of Russian children by Irish parents living in the US, where the parents had relocated to Ireland, where Russia was not a party to the Hague Convention, and the adoptions predated the relevant legislation, on the grounds that the adoptive parents had complied with all that was required of them, and the recognition was necessary for the children to obtain passports.
The court acceded to an application under s.92 of the Adoption Act 2010 when the court was asked to give recognition to two foreign adoptions which had not complied with domestic legislation, or with The Hague Convention, after two brothers were adopted by Irish parents living in the USA who returned to Ireland after twenty years.
The adoptions were made in Russia, a country that has not given effect to the Hague Convention and the adoptions in question occurred before the commencement date of the Adoption Act, 2010. The facts of the case were not at issue between the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the Applicants. The Applicants, who were Irish, met and lived in the USA and were US citizens. They had four children, all of whom were adopted, and the family returned to Ireland having spent some twenty years in the USA. These proceedings related to two of their four children and the court pointed out that the adoptive parents did all that was required of them to ensure that matters were dealt with correctly in the USA. The family only realised that the adoptions were not registered in Ireland when they applied for passports on behalf of the two children in question.
The applicants sought, and were granted, an order to have the adoption of both children registered in the Register of the Intercountry Adoptions, to allow the adoptions to be recognised in Ireland. The court granted the orders sought under section 92 of the Adoption Act, 2010.