The first thing to draw attention to is the fact that a UK Provisional Adoption Order is permissive. It gives the applicant(s) permission to ‘remove the infant from Great Britain for the purpose of adopting him/her’. Without this court order, removing a child from the UK would have been illegal and punishable. The reason for the child needing to be removed from the UK was the it was illegal for a non-domiciled individual to adopt a UK citizen in the UK.

The responsibility was placed by the County Court and Social Services onto those wishing to adopt.  By seeking to gain a UK Provisional Adoption Order the adopting couple indicated to the court that they were willing and able to complete this task in their home country.  Unfortunately this was not always understood by the couple and a legal adoption were not often completed. Because the process of gaining an Adoption Order was very similar to a PAO the legal advice might not have made the difference clear. The court did request assurance from a legal professional from the couples home country stating that the couple were eligable for adopting in that country and that the legal professional would complete the adoption process.  Once assurance was given the court issued the PAO, but the couple often misunderstood this as being a request for a character reference and not part of an on-going yet to be completed process.

There were a number of studies done by social workers in Oxfordshire in the 1970s who uncovered the fact that the main group of individuals seeking PAOs were American Servicemen.  The studies also revealed that many of those who succeeded in being awared a PAO did not in fact complete the process in the USA.  I have attempted to gain access to these studies but they were destroyed by the Oxfordshire Council.

If an adoption was not completed by the couple in the country that they settled in, for example the USA, and they did not apply for social welfare no one would be the wiser.  The child would continue to exist with their UK passport and enter into that countries system just like any other child.  If they never travelled outside of that country the passport would never need to be renewed.  The big difference being that without an adoption certificate they were acutally an illegal immegrant.  This situation could be rectified until the age of 18 by completing the adoption process, unfortunately only in rare cases did this happen.  Once the child passed the age of 18 there was little if anything that could be done.  I know of two cases where adults who have lived their entire lives in the USA have been deported to the UK as illegal immegrants because their PAO was discovered by the American government.

On the other hand if the child and their ‘parents’ remained in the UK and never moved from it, UK law was happy to look between it’s fingers and behave as if an adoption had happened.  So in answer to the question, it all depend on the country that you are in.  If you are in the UK, then everything can continue as if nothing happened.  The UK authorities are not intrested in solving this situation as it is too embarrasing and far too much work for them; afterall the only people who are impacted are adoptees.  If on the otherhand you are in any other country, especially the USA, the only advice that I can give you is to seek the best legal advice that you can afford.  If you are in this situation, please can you let me know you name and details. I will add you to a growing list of names that I intend to submit to the UK government in an attempt to gain recognistion of this problem and hopefully a solution to our shared problem.