§ 19-8-8.Domestication of adoption of child born in foreign country; Certificate of Foreign Birth; authority of court to change date of birth
Chapter 8. Adoption · Article 1. General Provisions · Last amended 2018 · Last verified October 9, 2026
Full Text of § 19-8-8
Plain-English Summary
Families who adopt internationally use this section. It covers a child born outside the United States who arrived with an immediate relative immigrant visa or Hague Convention immigrant visa that a United States consular officer issued and affixed in the child’s passport. The visa does most of the work: the court treats it as prima-facie evidence that the foreign process was proper and need not look behind it.
Subsection (a) handles domestication. When a court or administrative body in the child’s birth country, or the country where the child habitually lived just before coming to the United States, entered an adoption decree making each petitioner the child’s parent, the family may have that adoption domesticated in Georgia. The visa is prima-facie evidence that all parental rights were terminated, the child was available for adoption, the adoption was in the child’s best interests and it complied with foreign law. The court shall domesticate the foreign decree and issue a final decree under § 19-8-18(c). If the adoption was full and final before the child entered the United States, the child is then entitled to a Certificate of Foreign Birth from the State Office of Vital Records of the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Subsection (b) covers a child who came home under a foreign guardianship order that terminated both parents’ rights and made each petitioner the child’s guardian. With the visa, the court is authorized to finalize the adoption here, with one exception: if the foreign order requires specific postplacement supervision, the court can’t finalize until the petitioner documents that those conditions were satisfied. Once the adoption is granted, the child is entitled to a Certificate of Foreign Birth. Subsection (c) lets the court change the date of birth shown on the child’s original birth certificate and passport when a more accurate date is shown by a preponderance of evidence. Section 19-8-13 lists what to attach to the petition, including the passport visa page and a translated birth record, and under § 19-8-16 the court need not appoint an investigating agent and no criminal history check is required. The section was last amended in 2018.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to readopt my internationally adopted child in Georgia?
This section doesn’t require it, but it gives you a route. If a foreign court or administrative body finalized the adoption and your child entered with an immediate relative or Hague Convention immigrant visa, you may have the foreign adoption domesticated here. The Georgia court treats the visa as prima-facie evidence the foreign adoption was proper and issues a Georgia decree. If the adoption was full and final before your child entered the United States, the decree also entitles your child to a Georgia Certificate of Foreign Birth.
How do I get a Georgia birth record for my child adopted abroad?
Through a Certificate of Foreign Birth issued by the State Office of Vital Records of the Georgia Department of Public Health. A child whose foreign adoption was full and final before entering the United States becomes entitled to one when the Georgia court enters a final decree of domestication. A child adopted here after a foreign guardianship becomes entitled to one once the Georgia adoption is granted. The certificate is issued under § 31-10-13(f)(2), a vital records statute.
Can a Georgia court change my adopted child’s date of birth?
Yes. Subsection (c) gives the court authority to change a child’s date of birth from the one shown on the original birth certificate and in the passport when a more accurate date is proved by a preponderance of evidence — that is, shown to be more likely right than not. Under § 19-8-18, the decree may include the change if you ask for it and evidence was presented to justify it.
Our child came home under a foreign guardianship, not a final adoption. Can we adopt in Georgia?
Yes, under subsection (b), if the foreign guardianship order terminated both parents’ rights and made each petitioner the child’s guardian, and the child entered on an immediate relative or Hague Convention immigrant visa. The visa is prima-facie evidence that parental rights were terminated and the guardianship was properly granted, so the court is authorized to finalize the adoption without looking behind it. If the foreign order requires specific postplacement supervision, though, the court can’t finalize until you document that its conditions have been satisfied.
Does the Georgia court re-examine what happened in the foreign country?
No. When the child’s passport carries an immediate relative immigrant visa or Hague Convention immigrant visa, the visa is prima-facie evidence that the foreign proceedings were proper, and the court need not make any inquiry into them. In a domestication under subsection (a), the court shall domesticate the foreign decree and issue a final decree. Section 19-8-13 adds that those petitions need no paperwork on surrender or termination of parental rights and no compliance with the biological-father notice rules of § 19-8-12.
Amendment History
Laws 1990, p. 1572, § 5; Laws 1991, p. 94, § 19; Laws 2018, Act 285, § 1-1, eff. Sept. 1, 2018.