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Hi everyone ☺️

I was wondering if anyone had a positive update to share since the last posts. Is it possible to make it happen? And if not, as a French citizen, would I ever be able to live in France with my child? Or it would be impossible for France to recognise my UK adopted child as my child?

I am not considering moving back but I’d love to know that I have the option to if I ever wanted to.

Thank you,

Ophélie

Hi Ophelie, We are only starting to look into this ... 3 years later. I just started gathering paperwork to attempt to get our son's adoption recognised in Nantes. I believe the "Conditions for adoption" section of an Adoption Order might refer to different sections of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 which in turn might (just my assumption) impact on how your request is dealt with and perhaps it's more or less straightforward outcome. I am also a French national. We are only getting started, and will keep everyone in posted on how it goes. Nass

Sorry for not updating our journey with this. So far we are still no way closer to having a passport for our eldest child. We have gone down the route of hiring a French solicitor to argue our case in the Family Tribunal in Nante. She has argued for us at a final hearing and our application was again declined (late 2023). Our route now, it seems, is to appeal to the Paris tribunal, which we will probably do. But most probably take several more months or a year perhaps. We've maybe spent 3,000 Euros so far on legal fees and have the same to go we think. As best as I can understand the Family Tribunal in Nante was unhappy with the Adoption Order and Adoption Certificate. They wanted to see proof that the Adoption had gone through correctly, to re-judge the case in effect. We were unwilling to provide all the in depth rational and unable to provide what the court heard as UK court transcripts run into thousands of pounds (before translation costs) and besides we were arguing that they did not have to re-judge the Adoption Order; simply to recognise the Adoption Order. Our solicitor thinks the same. Not what we were hoping for and it does seem quite unfair and unjust, but that is where we are at the moment. We're determined to do what we can through the legal system. It is encouraging to hear that if we were to move to France their Adoption Certificates are recognised in other areas of life. Maybe one day we can have a ruling that applies to everyone, but as a small minority of people with families made through adoption I guess we need to do the best we can for our kids. We won't give up this one without a lot more struggle, I just wish we could put that effort and money into other areas of their lives! If anyone would like our solicitors details, happy to exchange them, but not on this public forum (I'm not good at this website, if there is a PM function or chat function please let me know!)

Baba22 and Chestnuttree. Sorry my notifications went to spam so I am again late to the reply party ! Time moves on, my two boys are now 16 1/2 and older one will be 18 in May. They have now been here in France 5 years. We've been able to get their (pre-Brexit, WA) Tds as young adults at 16/17 due to doing a prof Bac. No issues with any of the ID or adoption 'birth' certs given for that. Scary that Baba22, your daughter holds a French passport and you are French but they still would not allow her citizenship! What hope will there be for our two (both of us are English). I do have all their legal papers as we were involved from an early stage as were previously their foster carers in UK before we went on to adopt. We know the French citizenship process can be very lengthy so will be stating this soon so guess we shall see what happens next .

Thank you for your update Aero11, it is discouraging that the French government doesn't recognised children adopted in the UK by French citizens, I was wondering if several of us in the same situation could get together perhaps through the same solicitor, and also if something could be written in the French press about it? Personally I don't have any contact with the press, but it feels so unjust and unfair. My daughter is now 24, she contacted the French consulate herself and was told the same thing.

She occasionally says that she might like to live in France one day, of course right now she wouldn't be able to.

Baba22 - so is it likely to be any different recognising a UK adoption order when the adoptive parents are both British or is that irrelevant? It does seem bizarre (and very sad) that your daughter cannot be legally recognised as 'yours'.I assume she is not in France at the moment.....if she came over under a working visa or similar and then got her Tds and applied for citizenship after 5 years in France do you think that would that make it any different. I intend applying for citizenship myself in the future (though my husband probably not as he doesn't feel he can manage the language). After 5 years our boys are fully immersed into French life and neither have any desire (except for holidays to visit extended family) to return to UK and are both very eager to begin the citizenship process. I really want them to be successful in getting French citizenship as I know it is what they both want and if they get turned down because they are 'adopted' that will be a real emotional hurdle to deal with.....like it's making them out as different and not 'ours' :(

Ddhh33, no we both live in London, she was born here, but I am French, moved to London over 30 years ago, but of course she would like to have the option to live in France or anywhere else in Europe if she so desire one day, all my family is in France..., yes it is very sad, strange and infuriating that having a French mother the adoption can not be recognised in France when it is recognised in the UK, it is baffling!

I must say that we haven't started the legal side of things yet, but reading the post above by Aero11 it sounds very costly for not very positive results. At the moment my daughter is quite happy here with her first job after Uni and I can't see her wanting to engage with the process yet. I shall talk to her about it.

Hi everyone,

I think I’ve read all the posts and it’s look like a dead end!

My partner is French and we sent our papers May 2022, last August they contacted us and asked for all relevant papers including court orders which we sent. Last week we got reply a two pages latter stating that our adoption does not meet their legal requirements as per some artical 370-3.

i found out one of France supreme court’s order dated 11/05/23 exempting UK adoption from this requirement order number is 21-24.178.

to me this looks like a little hope. Now we want to appeal but we can only do through advocates.

does anyone know any advocate in Nantes who we can contact?