The Family Proceedings Rules 1991

Application under section 57 of Act of 1986 for declaration as to adoption effected overseas

3.15—(1) Unless otherwise directed, a petition by which proceedings are begun under section 57 of the Act of 1986 for a declaration as to an adoption effected overseas shall state—

(a)the names of those persons who are to be respondents pursuant to paragraph (4) and the residential address of each of them at the date of the presentation of the petition;

(b)the date and place of the petitioner’s birth;

(c)the date and place of the adoption order and the court or other tribunal or authority which made it;

(d)all other material facts alleged by the petitioner to justify the making of the declaration and the grounds on which the application is made;

(e)either that the petitioner is domiciled in England and Wales on the date of the presentation of the petition or that he has been habitually resident in England and Wales throughout the period of one year ending with that date.

(2) There shall be annexed to the petition a copy of the petitioner’s birth certificate (if it is available this certificate should be the one made after the adoption referred to in the petition) and, unless otherwise directed, a certified copy of the adoption order effected under the law of any country outside the British Islands.

(3) Where a document produced by virtue of paragraph (2) is not in English, it shall, unless otherwise directed, be accompanied by a translation certified by a notary public or authenticated by affidavit.

(4) The following shall, if alive, be respondents to the application, either—

(a)those whom the petitioner claims are his adoptive parents for the purposes of section 39 of the Adoption Act 1976(1); or

(b)those whom the petitioner claims are not his adoptive parents for the purposes of that section.