As my dossier was sent to Bulgaria before the enactment of the Adoption Act on 1st November 2010, I was unsure as to how things would play out when it came to the referral stage. I sent a quick email to the Central Authority here in Ireland to check if there would be any potential issues at the time of referral.
This is the reply I received:
Persons proposing to adopt from a Hague Convention State after 1/11/2010 should satisfy themselves that their adoption complied withe the terms and conditions of the Hague Convention i.e.
- that the Article 15 Assessment Report should be sent from Central Authority (CA) to Cantral Authority (or a designated Accredited Body (AB))
- the the Article 16 Child Study Report should be from CA to CA (or a designated AB)
- that the Article 17 Approval Notice should be sent from CA to CA (or a designated AB)
- that the final Article 23 Certificate should be issued by a CA (or a designated AB)
As my Assessment report was sent directly by me to the Agency in Bulgaria I was also told that a question may arise if / when I go to seek an entry in the Register of Intercountry Adoptions as to whether the adoption was effected under the terms and conditions of the Hague Convention as the adoption was not finalised before 1st November 2010.
There is no provision in Irish legislation for the recognition of an intercountry adoption from a Hague Convention State that has not been carried out in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Hague Convention.
In order to achieve a successful outcome, I was told that I should at least ensure that the Hague Convention applies to the process from here on in i.e. that the Article 16 Child Study Report (Referral) is sent by the agency in Bulgaria to the Central Authority here in Ireland for approval.
This is just something to bear in mind so that we are not faced with unnecessary heartache at the time of referral. What I take from this is that we just need to make sure that our Agency sends the referral directly to our central authority so that at least from this point on our adoption complies with the Conditions of the Hague Convention
