2021 Georgia Code
Title 19 - Domestic Relations
Chapter 8 - Adoption
Article 1 - General Provisions
§ 19-8-8. Domestication of Adoption of Child Born in Foreign Country; Certificate of Foreign Birth; Authority of Court to Change Date of Birth

1. 1. A child, who was born in a country other than the United States and for whom a decree or order of adoption has been entered pursuant to due process of law by a court of competent jurisdiction or an administrative proceeding in the country of the child's birth or the country in which the child habitually resided immediately prior to coming to the United States establishing the relationship of parent and child by adoption between each petitioner named in the foreign decree or order of adoption and the child according to the law of such foreign country, shall be eligible to have his or her adoption domesticated under this subsection if a consular officer of the United States Department of State has issued and affixed in the child's passport an immediate relative immigrant visa or Hague Convention immigrant visa.
   2. Evidence of the issuance of an immediate relative immigrant visa or Hague Convention immigrant visa by the United States Department of State in the child's passport shall be prima-facie evidence that all parental rights have been terminated, that the child was legally available for adoption by each petitioner named in the foreign decree or order of adoption, that the adoption of the child by each petitioner named in the foreign decree or order of adoption was in the child's best interests, and that the child's adoption by each petitioner named in the foreign decree or order of adoption was finalized in full compliance with the laws of the foreign country and the court need not make any inquiry into those proceedings but shall domesticate the foreign decree or order of adoption hereunder and issue a final decree of adoption pursuant to subsection (c) of Code Section 19-8-18.
   3. A child who qualifies for domestication of his or her foreign adoption under this subsection and whose adoption was full and final prior to entering the United States shall, upon entry of a final decree of domestication of adoption by the court, be entitled to have a Certificate of Foreign Birth issued to him or her by the State Office of Vital Records of the Georgia Department of Public Health pursuant to paragraph (2) of subsection (f) of Code Section 31-10-13.
2. 1. A child, who was born in a country other than the United States and for whom a decree or order of guardianship has been entered pursuant to due process of law by a court of competent jurisdiction or an administrative proceeding in the country of the child's birth or the country in which the child habitually resided immediately prior to coming to the United States terminating the parental rights of both of his or her parents and establishing a guardian-ward relationship between each petitioner named in the foreign decree or order of guardianship and the child according to the law of such foreign country, shall be eligible to be adopted pursuant to this subsection if a consular officer of the United States Department of State has issued and affixed in the child's passport an immediate relative immigrant visa or Hague Convention immigrant visa.
   2. 1. Evidence of the issuance of an immediate relative immigrant visa or Hague Convention immigrant visa by the United States Department of State in the child's passport shall be prima-facie evidence that all parental rights have been terminated, that the child is legally available for adoption by each petitioner named in the foreign decree or order of guardianship, and that the guardian-ward relationship between each petitioner named in the foreign decree or order of guardianship and the child was granted in full compliance with the laws of the foreign country and the court need not make any inquiry into those proceedings but shall be authorized to finalize the child's adoption as provided in this subsection.
      2. Notwithstanding subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, when the foreign decree or order of guardianship requires specific postplacement supervision, the court shall not be authorized to finalize such child's adoption as provided in this subsection until the petitioner provides documentation of formal evidence that the conditions of the foreign decree or order of guardianship have been satisfied.
   3. Once a child's adoption is granted pursuant to this subsection, he or she shall be entitled to have a Certificate of Foreign Birth issued to him or her by the State Office of Vital Records of the Georgia Department of Public Health pursuant to paragraph (2) of subsection (f) of Code Section 31-10-13.
3. The court shall have authority to change a child's date of birth from that shown on the child's original birth certificate and as reflected in the child's passport upon presentation by a preponderance of evidence of a more accurate date of birth.

(Code 1981, §19-8-8, enacted by Ga. L. 1990, p. 1572, § 5; Ga. L. 1991, p. 94, § 19; Ga. L. 2018, p. 19, § 1-1/HB 159.)

The 2018 amendment, effective September 1, 2018, rewrote this Code section.

- For note, "Surrogate Mother Agreements in Georgia: Conflict and Accord with Statutory and Case Law," see 4 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 153 (1988).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Construction with other law.

- Trial court erred in denying an aunt and uncle's petition to adopt their nephew from Honduras who was battling leukemia under O.C.G.A. § 19-8-8, and should have applied O.C.G.A. § 19-8-7 as: (1) the former was not intended to be a general rule regarding the adoption of foreign children; (2) the aunt and uncle satisfied the jurisdictional and venue requirements of O.C.G.A. § 19-8-2 by filing the adoption petition in the superior court of their county of residence; and (3) as the child's aunt and uncle, they were relatives eligible to adopt under § 19-8-7(a). In re Adoption of D.J.F.M., 284 Ga. App. 420, 643 S.E.2d 879 (2007).