New Zealand Legislation: Acts
Acts are laws made by Parliament
(1) Where a person has been adopted (whether before or after the commencement of this section) in any place outside New Zealand according to the law of that place, and the adoption is one to which this section applies, then, for the purposes of this Act and all other New Zealand enactments and laws, the adoption shall have the same effect as an adoption order validly made under this Act, and shall have no other effect.
(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall apply to an adoption in any place outside New Zealand, if—
(a) the adoption is legally valid according to the law of that place; and
(b) in consequence of the adoption, the adoptive parents or any adoptive parent had, or would (if the adopted person had been a young child) have had, immediately following the adoption, according to the law of that place, a right superior to that of any natural parent of the adopted person in respect of the role of providing day-to-day care for the person; and
(c) either—
(i) the adoption order was made by any Court or judicial or public authority whatsoever of a Commonwealth country, or of the United States of America, or of any State or territory of the United States of America, or of any other country which the Governor-General, by an Order in Council that is for the time being in force, has directed to be deemed to be referred to in this subparagraph; or
(ii) in consequence of the adoption, the adoptive parents or any adoptive parent had, immediately, following the adoption, according to the law of that place, a right superior to or equal with that of any natural parent in respect of any property of the adopted person which was capable of passing to the parents or any parent of the person in the event of the person dying intestate without other next of kin and domiciled in the place where the adoption was made and a national of the State which had jurisdiction in respect of that place—
but not otherwise.
(2A) The production of a document purporting to be the original or a certified copy of an order or record of adoption made by a Court or a judicial or public authority in any place outside New Zealand shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be sufficient evidence that the adoption was made and that it is legally valid according to the law of that place.
(3) Nothing in this section shall restrict or alter the effect of any other adoption made in any place outside New Zealand.
(4) In this section the term New Zealand does not include any territory in which this Act is not in force.
(5) This section does not apply to any adoption in another Contracting State that is an adoption—
(a) by a person habitually resident in New Zealand; and
(b) to which the Convention applies; and
(c) which takes place in that Contracting State on or after the date on which the Convention has entered into force as between New Zealand and that Contracting State.
(6) In subsection (5), Contracting State and Convention have the same meaning as in the Adoption (Intercountry) Act 1997.
Subsection (2)(b) was amended, as from 1 July 2005, by section 151 Care of Children Act 2004 (2004 No 90) by substituting the words “the role of providing day-to-day care for”
for the words “the custody of”
.
Subsection (2)(c)(i) was substituted by section 6(1) Adoption Amendment Act 1965 (1965 No 32).
Subsection (2A) was inserted by section 6(2) Adoption Amendment Act 1965 (1965 No 32).
Subsections (5) and (6) were inserted, as from 1 January 1999, by section 25 Adoption (Intercountry) Act 1997 (1997 No 109). See clause 2 Adoption (Intercountry) Act Commencement Order 1998 (SR 1998/427).
