[ganda]

We are Australian citizens as well as my wife having USA and myself New Zealand citizenships. We live in Queensland

We are looking to adopt outside Australia.
Time is not on our side as we are 44 and 40 years of age.

Is there a way of adopting using either the NZ or USA citzenship and then entering Australia with our adopted child.

I know of couples from NZ who adopted from Russia and then entered NZ.

Any help would be appreciated
Ganda:

[Margy]

Hi Ganda,
If you're living in Qld, I'm pretty sure the only legal way to adopt is through the department of families - who have closed their books indefinitely. (I don't believe they can do that!!!) So, because of your age (in Qld one of you has to be under 41 - you're getting close!), I'd suggest you go to USA to adopt and make it legal there before applying for immigration papers for the child. You'd have to check with immigration about this though, as you're not meant to go overseas with the intention of adopting and you have to have lived overseas more than a year before applying for the immigration visa for the child - or even perhaps for the adoption itself. Presumably you could go overseas to visit your wife's family? and just happen to do an adoption while away. The fact that one of you is American helps as many of the agencies there won't work with us because we're both Australian.
The other alternative is interstate which may be preferable to you - all the other states have a better system than Qld I'm sure.
Hope it helps!
Margy