[Brett]

Hi everyone - I hope someone can help me.

A friend of mine is hoping to emigrate to NZ. Just one question. She is in the process of adopting - the baby will be available by December. She wants to know whether that would negatively affect her application in any way. If not - is there any special route that she needs to follow?

Thanks

[dharder]

A friend of mine is hoping to emigrate to NZ. Just one question. She is in the process of adopting - the baby will be available by December. She wants to know whether that would negatively affect her application in any way. If not - is there any special route that she needs to follow?

Can't say anything specifically about the emigration process. But we have just gone through a second parent adoption with our children, and after that applied for NZ citizenship. In order for the adoption to be accepted, it had to be done according to the laws in the country it was done in, and (presumably)in one of the countries that are member states of the Hague convention.

Since our adoption took place in the UK, all that was required was a copy of the adoption order (with a stamp of the court on it) and the new birth certificate you get after the adoption has been finalised. With that, we got the citizenships speedily for them.

I know you didn't ask about citizenship, but I assume if the paperwork I mentioned above is enough to get citizenship, it is probably enough to get into the country.

Not sure if this helps, but I thought I'd try :)

Daniela

[migratory birds]

It's not clear from your post if she's submitted her EOI yet or had an ITA (Invitation to Apply) but if neither has been done yet, I'd suggest going ahead with submitting the EOI (or perhaps waiting if she's in no hurry) and by the time the ITA needs to be returned it sounds like baby will have arrived. At that point she just applies as any parent would with baby needing to undergo a baby physical, get a passport (after adoption is finalized), etc. They're looking at the Principal Applicant not so much the children unless special medical or educational needs are present.

[Malay-Coopers]

We secured our residence visa while in the middle of an uncertain adoption. We explained the situation to our immigration worker and she was fantastic. She even extended the beginning dates of our visa to accomodate a delay in the adoption process. We came to NZ with the adoption final and are currently applying to her to have residency as well.

According the the Ministry of Health your dependent children will be covered medically if their parents have residency even if the child doesn't have residency. We have also had no problem enrolling her in school.

The only trouble we ran into was when we went back to the US for a visit and Air NZ wasn't going to allow our daughter on the plane since she didn't have a return ticket. (They didn't seem to care when we moved here on a one-way ticket but that's another thread.)