More Australian visas granted to adopted foreign children
February 10 2010 by Liam Clifford
An increasing number of Australians are adopting children while living abroad, according to new figures.
Some 269 foreign adopted children entered
Australia in 2008/2009, according to figures from Adoption Australia. This
represents more than half the 441 total. However, an additional 112 were brought
to live in Australia by their adoptive parents who were living abroad at the
time of the adoption.
Adopted children of Australian citizens are
granted a special Australian visa if the parents can prove they lived in the
child’s home country for a year before they bring the child back to live in
Australia.
The number of these residency visas that were granted in the
2008/2009 period was up 12 per cent on the year before – suggesting that
adopting a child while living abroad is growing in popularity among Australian
parents.
Adopting abroad can be a lot cheaper and quicker than adopting
in Australia or through a country joined to Australia through the inter-country
adoption system.
Most of the parents who qualified to adopt within
Australia or through the inter-country adoption process were over 40 and 95 per
cent were married.
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