Thank you so much for responding. I was still in the Philippines from the time he was born until he was 2, now he’s 5 (we started the process when he was 2)My husband just got here a few months ago, but our son’s paper was just finished (both of us are in Canada already when we got the decision from the court. And our child is not related to either of us, he’s not also from an orphanage. Do you think that will fall to adoption for convenience? Please I also need some enlightenment on these aspects:
1. Do we need to submit a narrative report on how we acquire the child together with our sponsorship application?
2. Are we subject for the requirement of hauge convention on adoption? Or do we need to get that cert of no objection from here?
3. What are the papers that we need to get from the Philippines in his part?
4. How long did it take for you to get them.
Thank you so much in advance, I greatly appreciate your help.
Need more info before I try to answer the adoption of convenience aspect. How do you know the child? Is he an orphan and who raised him. You are still a Filipino Citizen I presume but you are a PR and living in Canada? What about your husband's status? During the adoption did they know you weren't living in the PH?
The question in my mind is since you were living in Canada during the adoption whether it should have been an inter-country adoption not an in country adoption and if that would affect the application. When we did our adoption we had no intention at the time for my wife and son to immigrate to Canada, we hadn't even talked or thought about it until about a year after the adoption was complete. Our lawyer had said at the beginning if we were planning to bring our son to Canada the court wouldn't grant the adoption and that it should be done inter-country. So if you were living here and had the intent to bring the child here that is a potential problem with the adoption of convenience aspect.
I am thinking that you should plan to consult an immigration lawyer, not a consultant but a lawyer to get professional advice.
1. It would be beneficial if you provided a letter of explanation with the app detailing how you came to adopt him, better to provide it up front.
2. The Hague convention applies to inter-country adoptions not an adoption that is done entirely in country(PH). It has nothing to do with a PR application that I am aware of. Not sure what the NO OBJECTION letter is you are referring to. In our adoption I had to get a letter of NO INVOLVEMENT from the provincial adoption agency where I last lived in Canada and from the federal government saying it wasn't their jurisdiction, but that had nothing to do with the PR application.
3. You will need the new birth certificate with you and your husband listed as the parents and passport for the PR application, nothing else that I am aware of since he is now your legally adopted child.
A note of caution, not that I think you would but it would be a big mistake for a person to try to pass off an adopted child as their biological child in a PR app. It would not work as the child wasn't listed as a dependent during your PR application. It could also jeopardize your PR status in Canada.
