Adoption Act 2000

The Court must not make an adoption order in relation to a non-citizen child as referred to in Part 2 of Chapter 5 unless—

arrangements for adoption of the child have been made by the Secretary or an accredited adoption service provider that may provide intercountry adoption services or the Secretary applies for the order on the basis that the proposed adoptive parent has intercountry parental responsibility for the child, and

the provisions of this Act and the regulations relating to intercountry adoptions have been complied with.

For the purposes of this section, a person has intercountry parental responsibility for a child if the child is from a country other than a Convention country or a prescribed overseas jurisdiction and the person, after being resident in that country for 12 months or more or being domiciled in that country, was given parental responsibility for the child under the law of that country.