A, Re

In an adoption application involving a person with a foreign element, notice should be given to the Home Office where the order may affect, or materially strengthen a later application for, British citizenship. This remains so even where the parties are habitually resident in the United Kingdom and the order would not automatically confer citizenship. The court must also comply strictly with the mandatory age requirement in section 49(4) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. An adoption order cannot be made unless the application was made before the person attained eighteen, although the judgment left open whether the relevant date is filing with the court or formal issue.

An aunt applied to adopt her eighteen-year-old niece, who was a Pakistani citizen and had lived in England and Wales for many years. The application was supported by a positive social-work report and the proposed adoptee strongly wished the order to be made.

The application had been received by the court on 30 January 2017 but formally issued on 8 February 2017, after the proposed adoptee had attained eighteen. The court had to address whether notice should be given to the Home Office and whether the application satisfied the age condition in section 49(4) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

1. The application was not finally determined. The court directed that notice of the proceedings and the relevant documents be served on the Home Office and the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who could participate if they wished.

2. An adoption application may have a foreign element, for the purposes of Practice Direction 14B to the Family Procedure Rules 2010, even where the precise categories in the Practice Direction are not engaged. The importance of notice was not diminished by the parties’ habitual residence in the United Kingdom.

3. Following In Re W (A Minor) (Adoption: Non-Patrial) [1986] Fam 54, notice was necessary because an adoption order could materially strengthen a later application for British citizenship. The possibility that the Home Office would not oppose the application did not justify withholding notice.

4. Section 49(4) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 was mandatory. The court could make an adoption order only if satisfied that the person to be adopted had not attained eighteen on the date of the application. The court expressly declined to determine whether that date was the date of lodging a sufficiently compliant application or the later date of formal issue.

5. The solicitor was directed to file and serve evidence identifying precisely how and when the application and supporting documents were lodged. The matter was listed for a further final hearing, at which the Home Office’s participation and the section 49(4) issue could be determined.