Question on adoption

[kiwijana]

I am a citizen of India. I will be a citizen of the US soon. My wife and I are planning to move to NZ and call it home. I will be applying for NZ permanent residency next year. I am originally from India with 15 years of IT experience in the US. Assuming that I will be getting the PR without any problem, I would like to know the procedure to adopt a child from India...

1. Should I get the PR and then seek for adoption?

2. Adopt a child and then apply for PR.

#2 is a long process as adopting a kid (from Inid) by a US citizen is usually a very long process. #1 is preferable, but I have no idea of the process of adoption. If I go thru #1, should I move to NZ before I can adopt a child. This is very important for my wife and I and so we would like to get as much info as possible. Could you point me to the right direction. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hi,

If you get permanent residency, and then decide to adopt a child from outside of New Zealand, you may have great difficulty sponsoring the childs residency.

It's probably best to adopt the child first, and then include him/her in your application as a family.

If you plan on going the first way, I would recommend that you contact the NZIS about it first as I'm not too sure about adoption proceedures.

All the best

[kiwijana]

Could you elaborate what the 'great difficulty' is about? Sorry to go into details...just seeking some answers

To be honest, not knowing much about the adoption process I couldn't elaborate much more.

Going by the normal rules of family sponsorship (which would be the case if you moved abroad and your natural child wanted to join you at a later date) you have to be in New Zealand for 5 years before being able to sponsor family members. If the child wasnt included on the original application for residency (which I'm assuming they wouldnt be, depending if you know the child you wish to adopt yet) then NZIS want to know why they weren't originally included, and why you are trying to sponsor them now.

The rules for adopting form outside of New Zealand may well be completely different and I cannot find any guidelines on this subject.

I know that for slightly different circumstances, people who marry someone not from New Zealand have to provide a great deal of evidence to show that the relationship is a genuine and stable one, and not just a means of illegal immigration.

You really are best off speaking directly with immigration on this one. Its a bit too complicated for me!

[kiwijana]

Thank you, Taffy