Adopted Children and Australia's Child Visa 802 in 2026: Which Adoptions Qualify?
An adopted child can qualify for the Child visa (Subclass 802), but not every adoption does. Under the Australian Department of Home Affairs Child visa (Subclass 802) official page (as of the August 2026 version), the adoption must have been finalised before the child turned 18, and — where the adoption happened after the parent already held Australian citizenship, Australian permanent residence or eligible New Zealand citizenship — it must also fit one of three routes: an intercountry adoption involving an Australian state or territory central authority, an intercountry adoption arranged between two countries other than Australia that are both parties to the Hague Adoption Convention, or an expatriate adoption where the adoptive parent had been living outside Australia for more than 12 months before the adoption was finalised. Which route applies determines which documents carry the case.
Does the three-route test apply to your adoption at all?
Start with timing, because the Department splits adoptions into two situations. The official page states that the adoption can have happened either before or after the parent became an Australian citizen, Australian permanent visa holder or eligible New Zealand citizen. What changes is the extra condition attached afterwards.
If the adoption was finalised before the parent held that status, the official page adds no central-authority, Hague or overseas-residence condition on top of the age rule. If the adoption was finalised after the parent became an Australian citizen, permanent visa holder or eligible New Zealand citizen, one of the three routes has to be satisfied.
Either way the child must be a dependent child of that parent, and an adopted child is listed alongside a biological child as a qualifying relationship. Stepchildren are treated separately: the official page requires the child to be the child of the step-parent's former partner and under 18, with a parenting order, guardianship or custody in place.
Was the adoption finalised before the child turned 18?
This is the one rule that applies to every adopted child, regardless of route. The official page states plainly that the adoption must have been finalised before the child turned 18, and it records no exception to that cut-off. The child's age at the time of the visa application is a separate question, covered by the general age criteria discussed below.
Because the rule is about the date the adoption was finalised, a process that was still ongoing, or an arrangement that only later received recognition, sits outside it. If the paperwork in another country describes something other than a completed adoption, the adoption papers themselves become the decisive evidence.
Which of the three routes fits your adoption?
Adoption cases sit at the meeting point of migration law and the family law of another country, so read what follows as general information about how the criteria are framed rather than as advice on your own circumstances, and confirm anything that affects your case against the official page or a qualified professional.
Route 1: an intercountry adoption involving an Australian state or territory central authority
The first route is an intercountry adoption carried out with the involvement of an Australian state or territory central authority. Those authorities are listed by Intercountry Adoptions Australia. This is the path that ties the adoption to Australia's own intercountry adoption system, so the authority's involvement is both the eligibility test and a source of documentary proof.
Route 2: an intercountry adoption between two Hague Adoption Convention countries
The second route is an intercountry adoption by arrangement between two countries, other than Australia, that are parties to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Hague Adoption Convention). Both countries in the arrangement must be Convention parties; Australia's own central authority is not involved in this route. In practice this is the route used when the adoption was processed under the Convention framework between two other states.
Route 3: an expatriate adoption after more than 12 months living outside Australia
The third route applies where no Australian state or territory central authority was involved. The official page describes it as an expatriate adoption by an Australian citizen, an eligible New Zealand citizen or the holder of an Australian permanent visa who has been living outside Australia for more than 12 months before the adoption was finalised.
Two details matter here. The official wording refers to living outside Australia, not to living in the country where the adoption took place. And the Department's own page recommends obtaining independent legal advice both in Australia and in the child's country of usual residence before proceeding with an expatriate adoption, noting risks for both the child and the adoptive parents.
Can the 12-month overseas residence requirement be waived?
The public visa page sets the 12-month period as a requirement and does not mention relief from it. The Migration Regulations 1994 and the Department's PAM3 procedural guidance, however, describe the overseas residence requirement in clause 802.213 as something that can be waived on compelling or compassionate circumstances, with the decision made by the case officer. Because that relief appears in the regulations and procedural guidance rather than on the visa page, check the official current version of both before relying on it.
What documents prove the adoption?
Hague and Australian central authority adoptions: the compliance certificate and the supporting letter
For identity purposes the official page asks for certified copies of the adoption papers or the adoption compliance certificate where the child was adopted. The document list repeats the same item for relationship evidence: the child's adoption papers or adoption compliance certificate.
There is one addition specific to Route 1. Where an adoption involved an Australian state or territory central adoption authority, the page asks you to include a letter supporting the adoption. That letter is what connects the adoption to Australia's intercountry adoption system, so it is worth requesting from the authority as part of the post-adoption paperwork rather than trying to reconstruct later.
Expatriate adoptions: the four things the evidence has to show
For an expatriate adoption, the official page sets out four evidential points:
- at least one of the adoptive parents lived outside Australia for more than 12 months before the adoption was finalised
- the adoptive parent did not arrange to live overseas so they could avoid Australia's intercountry adoption laws
- the adoptive parent has full and permanent parental rights, with no remaining legal ties between the child and the birth parents
- the child was adopted in line with the adoption laws of their home country
Read together, these are not four separate documents but four propositions, and a single document rarely covers all of them. Residence records address the first, the adoption order addresses the third and fourth, and the second is about the parent's reason for being overseas in the first place — the point the PAM3 guidance flags as being tested for whether the overseas move was a way around Australia's intercountry adoption laws.
What else does the child have to meet?
The adoption rules sit inside the wider Subclass 802 criteria. The child must be sponsored by an eligible parent or that parent's spouse or de facto partner, and sponsorship must be approved before the visa can be granted; sponsorship will be refused if the sponsor or their partner has a pending registrable offence charge, and a registrable offence conviction can only be approved in very limited circumstances.
The child must also meet one of the age alternatives — under 18, or 18 to under 25 and studying full time, or 18 or over with a disability — and cannot be married, in a de facto relationship or engaged, with the stricter "never married or had a de facto partner" test applying from 18. Health and character requirements apply (character from age 16), any debt to the Australian Government must be repaid or formally arranged, and children aged 18 or over must sign the Australian Values Statement. For a child under 18, the Department will only grant the visa where there is written consent from everyone who can legally decide where the child lives, the home country's laws allow the child to leave, or the grant is consistent with any Australian child order about the child. The visa may also be refused if granting it would not be in the best interests of an applicant under 18.
How is the application lodged?
Subclass 802 is a paper application. The official page requires Form 47CH (Application for migration to Australia by a child) and Form 40CH (Sponsorship for a child to migrate to Australia) to be completed in English and sent together, with payment made before submission through the ImmiAccount online payment function and evidence of payment included. Applications cannot be lodged in person; they go by post or courier to the Child and Other Family Processing Centre in Perth. Send certified copies only, not originals. The child must be in Australia when the decision is made, so any travel while the application is being processed needs to be considered against that requirement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the adoption have to be finalised before the child turns 18?
Yes. The Department's Child visa (Subclass 802) official page states that the adoption must have been finalised before the child turned 18, and it applies this rule to adopted children generally rather than to one adoption route. The child's age at the time of application is assessed separately under the general age criteria.
Our adoption was finalised before I became a permanent resident — do the three routes still apply?
No. The official page attaches the central authority, Hague Convention and expatriate routes only where the child was adopted after their parent became an Australian citizen, Australian permanent visa holder or eligible New Zealand citizen. An earlier adoption still has to meet the under-18 rule, but the page does not add a route condition.
Do the 12 months have to be spent in the country where the adoption happened?
The official wording requires the adoptive parent to have been living outside Australia for more than 12 months before the adoption was finalised; it does not require that residence to be in the country of adoption. The PAM3 procedural guidance states the same point, that the 12 months need not be in the country where the adoption took place.
What is an adoption compliance certificate?
It is the document the Department names as an alternative to the adoption papers. The official page asks, for both identity and relationship evidence, for certified copies of the adoption papers or the adoption compliance certificate, and links the certificate to adoptions under the Hague Adoption Convention in the regulations.
Can the 12-month overseas residence requirement be waived?
The Migration Regulations 1994 and the PAM3 procedural guidance describe a waiver where there are compelling or compassionate circumstances, decided by the case officer, but the public visa page does not mention it. Since the instruments are updated over time, confirm the current wording against the official latest version.
Does an adopted child still need a sponsor?
Yes. The child must be sponsored by an eligible parent or that parent's spouse or de facto partner, and the Department must approve the sponsorship before the visa can be granted. Sponsorship will be refused where the sponsor or their partner has a pending registrable offence charge.
Where does the child need to be when the decision is made?
In Australia. The official page states that the child must be in Australia when the decision is made, and it asks applicants to notify the Department if the child needs to travel overseas while the application is being processed.