Difficult Situation: Adoption and Citizenship ! (Help!!)

[farewellw]

Dear All,
I am a Permanent Resident in Canada. I have sponsored my spouse and his two children, and they are now PRs in Canada. Simultaneously, I have also adopted these two children in Taiwan, establishing myself as their legal parent. Can these two children apply for Canadian citizenship along with me as a family or a group?

 

[Mounat]

Dear All,
I am a Permanent Resident in Canada. I have sponsored my spouse and his two children, and they are now PRs in Canada. Simultaneously, I have also adopted these two children in Taiwan, establishing myself as their legal parent. Can these two children apply for Canadian citizenship along with me as a family or a group?

Are the two sets of children the same? Or you sponsored your step kids and two MORE separately? Not enough info. In my view, this forum is mostly about in Indian migration to Canada (OCI, etc..) so not much expertise on Taiwan. Talk to an immigration lawyer.

Good luck

 

[farewellw]

Are the two sets of children the same? Or you sponsored your step kids and two MORE separately? Not enough info. In my view, this forum is mostly about in Indian migration to Canada (OCI, etc..) so not much expertise on Taiwan. Talk to an immigration lawyer.

Good luck

I'm sorry for not making it clear earlier. There are only two children who are my spouse's biological kids, and they are both PR now. I am also in the process of becoming their legal parent in Taiwan. Therefore, I would like to know if, by using Taiwan's legal adoption documents, they can obtain citizenship together with me？

 

[Mounat]

I'm sorry for not making it clear earlier. There are only two children who are my spouse's biological kids, and they are both PR now. I am also in the process of becoming their legal parent in Taiwan. Therefore, I would like to know if, by using Taiwan's legal adoption documents, they can obtain citizenship together with me？

Understood. Well, the kids are PR of Canada so they're destined for citizenship whether they get it at the same time as you or not. That's the good news. Regarding the acceptance of adoption documents from a foreign country, I can't even begin to tell you how complicated that is. If you thought immigration was hard, international adoption is just as hard, if not harder. It's best to seek consultation with an immigration lawyer who specializes in international adoptions. It won't hurt, as well, to contact CIC and inquire. And that's on top of the Googling you'll probably end up doing on people with similar experiences. But online searches are no substitute for sound legal advice.

I wish you all the best.

 

[armoured]

I'm sorry for not making it clear earlier. There are only two children who are my spouse's biological kids, and they are both PR now. I am also in the process of becoming their legal parent in Taiwan. Therefore, I would like to know if, by using Taiwan's legal adoption documents, they can obtain citizenship together with me？

You brought this up in a separate thread.

I suggest you contact a lawyer if you're not satisfied with the answers here.

Note that while it varies by province, adopting one's spouses children (your stepchildren) is generally MUCH easier and can be done directly by application to the court. You can find it out about Ontario, for example, here:
https://www.ontario.ca/page/adopt-stepchild-or-relative

Obviously there are matters of import here such as whether the other biological parent has given up rights and/or approves.

It is my belief/understanding that IRCC's approach to recognizing adoptions elsewhere (eg Taiwan) is SUBSTANTIALLY different than for other types of international adoption for cases where it's a stepparent adopting and the other parent is the current legal spouse. In other words, roughly akin to the Ontario situation above.

I believe that will be sufficient to get your adoption 'recognized' in Canada. Not sure how you go about this though because the kids are already PRs. Conceivably you could adopt them in Canada (where they now, after all, reside).

It may be that the only way to determine for sure is to apply for citizenship for the kids on the basis of the adoption orders and ... see what happens.

But again, I think the point to emphasize in all cases is that this is NOT the usual type of international adoption. One biological and custodial parent is married to a new partner (stepparent), who has adopted (with permission/abandonment of rights) of the other biological parent. Stepparents adopting their stepchildren is a privileged case in many jurisdictions.

I don't have direct experience with this. I do know of cases where one stepparent adopted with no issues vis a vis IRCC/Canadian authorities, although cases where one biological parent was deceased and the other remarried. That's an important difference but not necessarily a critical one.

 

[gayathri1090]

Hi. I do not know about Taiwan exactly but we adopted from India when we were permanent residents. We brought the children to Canada on PR. A few months later, we applied for citizenship as a family. They are eligible to apply along with you if they are permanent residents. They do not have to meet any other obligations.

 

[armoured]

I came across this part of an operational manual for citizenship and adoption:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/canadian-citizenship/grant/minors.html#s04

You have to jump down to the last section, "Procedures for applications submitted by adopted children who are permanent residents" for the bit about adopted children.

There is actually very little here apart from the points that refer to 'the adoptive Canadian parent.'

Which might seem insignificant, but my bureaucracy interpretation experience leads me to believe a simple point: they are just going to establish whether the adoption is valid. The absence of any special instructions here is what is significant - they're not geared/requiring staff to do deep dives on adoption validity.

Or put differently, since the case above is not about qualifying for PR status where stricter standards for internatioanl adoption can be required (not relevant because the children are already PRs), my belief is that this means they will simply look if the adoption seems to be valid - and for that the Taiwanese court documents (plus translations etc) will likely be enough.

And on top of it - I repeat the point that stepparents adopting their spouse's biological children are considered a normal, expedited type that requires minimal review (i.e. child services agencies and the like basically are not involved).

HOpe this helps. Again, need more certainty - ask a lawyer.