CODE 1   Known child adoption

Known child adoption is the adoption of a child/children born or permanently residing in Australia before the adoption, who have a pre-existing relationship with the adoptive parent(s) and who are generally not able to be adopted by anyone other than the adoptive parent(s). These types of adoptions are broken down into the following categories: Step-parent, Relative, Carer and Other.

CODE 2    Local adoption

A local adoption is the adoption of a child/children born or permanently residing in Australia before the adoption, who is legally able to be placed for adoption, but who generally had no previous contact or relationship with the adoptive parents.

Intercountry adoptions are adoptions of children from countries other than Australia, who are legally able to be placed for adoption. Intercountry adoptions can be classified as either 'program adoptions (Hague or bilateral) or 'non-program adoptions' (known child or ad-hoc) according to whether the child's country of origin was a partner country. Inter-country adoptions are broken down into the following categories:

CODE 3    Hague intercountry adoption

A Hague adoption is an intercountry adoption where the adoptive child’s country of origin has ratified or acceded to the Hague Convention and the file of the applicant(s) was sent after the Hague Convention entered into force in that country.

CODE 4    Bilateral Intercountry adoption

A bilateral adoption is an intercountry adoption where Australia had an official adoption program open with the adoptive child’s country of origin at the time the file of the applicant(s) was sent.

CODE 5    Intercountry known child adoption

A known child intercountry adoption is an intercountry adoption where the child and the applicant had a pre-existing relationship prior to the adoption that allowed the adoption to occur. Without this relationship, the child would not generally be able to be adopted by the applicant through an intercountry adoption process.

CODE 6    Intercountry ad-hoc adoption

An ad-hoc adoption is a non-program adoption from a country with which Australia did not have an existing intercountry adoption program at the time the file of the applicant(s) was sent.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare