VIC Australian Citizenship for Child of Same-Sex Couple?

[RedPeach]

Hi,

I've been reading recently about a same-sex Canadian couple who have had difficulty in obtaining Australian Citizenship for their child, so am keen to know if anyone has any ideas about how it would work in our situation.

Situation:

- I am in a same-sex relationship recognised by a UK Civil Partnership

- My partner and I were both born in Australia and moved to the UK 8 years ago where we have now been naturalised, and therefore hold dual citizenship.

- We have recently had a child through an altruistic surrogacy arrangement in the UK.

- I am the child's genetic father and the egg was provided by an anonymous egg donor.

- We expect a parental order to be granted within the next six months which will extinguish the current birth certificate (which lists the surrogate and her husband as the child's parents) and replace it with one which lists myself and my partner as the sole parents

Questions:

- Does Australia recognise Parental Orders made in the UK resulting in a birth certificate which only lists the two same-sex parents (Not clear in Family Law Regulations 1984 - Sched 1A).

- If yes, does this make the application for the child's citizenship / passport straight forward? (i.e. no consent would be required from the surrogate).

- If no, what options do we have?

 

[Lance]

Well, this is a complicated one except for the fact that one intended parent is also a genetic. Surrogacy arrangements that are undertaken outside Australia may not fulfil the many requirements for a transfer of legal parentage in Australia.

That said, one parent is the genetic parent so a DNA test would confirm this and once the new birth certificate is issued you should be able to apply for citizenship by decent. Once you have citizenship for the child you should be able to get a passport.

Here is the link about citizenship by decent on the Australian High Commission UK website: Citizenship by Descent

Here is some information of surrogate immigration: Fact sheet - International surrogacy arrangements

Good luck. I hope you are successful in getting your baby over here.

 

[RedPeach]

Thanks for you response Lance.

Once the parental order is granted a new birth certificate will be issued naming both my partner and I only. I'm expecting (incorrectly?) Australia will recognise this as the only birth certificate as would be the case in the UK (as the first will be officially extinguished in the UK).

Therefore it would not be a case of going down the surrogacy route, but a simple application for citizenship by decent. The problem I have is that all forms for citizenship by decent ask for details of both the mother and the father, however the birth certificate will only list two fathers.

I couldn't think of anything worse than not being able to bring my baby back to Australia to grow up.

 

[Lance]

Its a complicated situation because of Australia's immaturity to same sex marriage. While its not an ideal situation for you and your partner, a DNA test to bring the new and old birth certificate together may be an option to consider.

The only other thing I would say is that its probably worth talking to an Australian immigration lawyer to thrash out the specifics of this case. I truly hope you can sort this out. I think its only a matter of time before Australia adopts a more mature view of same sex marriage and problems like this should be ironed out in the very early stages of acceptance.