Legal process

[Drypancake]

Hi - I am looking for some insight into the tail end court process and key documents. Our adoption (ie final) court hearing is on 23 June. The adoption is not contested.

Wondering if anyone knows the answers to any the following

1. how long between the adoption order and the pronouncement hearing?
   
2. is the pronouncement hearing optional (ie purely celebratory and at the request of the adopters) or mandatory. Do you receive any documents at that hearing?
   
3. what is the difference between the adoption certificate and the amended birth certificate? Who issues these? What is the use of either of these?
   
4. how long did it take for either the adoption certificate or the amended birth certificate to be issued?
   
   Thank you so much.

[excitedmamma]

our judge at the celebration hearing told us that we could use the adoption order to gain a passport in the new name.... said the court officials would help us do that... in our case it didn't matter and we waited until we had the 'full' birth certificate & applied for passport then..

just a thought and worth checking with the court if you really wanted to get away & time was against you...

[Hels20]

Excited that is really interesting. I'm going to ask. On adoption order day, do you come away with any paperwork?

[excitedmamma]

we got another stamped copy of the adoption order, some informal certificate and a photograph of us with the judge....

after that, the short version of the birth certificate arrived in the post, with an application form for the full adoption certificate - including a phone number & reference number that we used to order it over the phone... iirc you could pay extra for express delivery

[Drypancake]

Hi guys. So, adoption order was granted last week, which was a huge relief.

On top of that, good news to Hels20 and everyone else who thinks it takes 2 months+ to get the passport: we seem to have found a way to shorten that to 2 weeks (!). Here's what we did

1. Ask for judgement to be written up on the day. We had our solicitor say he would wait until it is done. Then we asked the clerk for it to be sent to GRO right away.
   
2. We called the adoption team in the GRO every day. After 2 days they confirmed they had received it. We sent them an email with confirmation that it was urgent (proof of travel booking), and paid £30 or so over the phone for the long form certificates and the special delivery. They arrived 5 days after the adoption hearing!
   
3. Meanwhile we scheduled a "Fast Track" appointment for a passport application, for which we had to pay £90. We got an appointment within a week of asking (maybe this was luck). They told us the processing time was guaranteed to be within 1 week. Remains to be seen but we are hopeful.
   
   As I said, maybe we were extremely lucky, but there is still hope for those looking to get a few days of sunshine before the summer is out.