How to Notarise an Adoption Paper in Australia

To notarise an adoption paper in Australia, bring the original order or certificate issued by the court or registry, and photo ID, to a notary public, who certifies a copy or witnesses your signature. First check two things: whether you are entitled to the record at all, and whether DFAT will take the original directly without a notary.

Key takeaways

• Access to adoption records is set by state and territory law. A notary cannot release a record or certify one you have not lawfully obtained.
• Court documents and registry certificates are on DFAT's list of originals it can legalise. For some adoption papers, you may not need a notary at all.
• A notary is needed when you want to keep the original and send a copy, or when you must sign a consent, affidavit or declaration for use overseas.
• The Hague Adoption Convention and the Hague Apostille Convention are different treaties. A country can belong to one and not the other.
• Certify only the pages the receiving authority has asked for. Adoption files identify people who are not part of your application.

Start with whether you can have the record

Adoption papers are not like other documents. In Australia, adoption records are held by state and territory adoption authorities, registries and courts, and access to them is controlled by legislation rather than by who happens to have the paper. Depending on the jurisdiction, when the adoption took place and who is asking, a record may be open, restricted, or released only with another person's consent or under a court order. The rules differ between states and have changed over time, so check with the relevant authority rather than relying on what applied to someone else.

This comes before any notarial step, for a simple reason: a notary can only certify a copy of an original they have lawfully sighted, and has no power to authorise the release of a record. If you already hold a document the authority gave you, such as an adoption order, an amended birth certificate or a certificate issued at the end of an intercountry adoption, you can usually proceed. If you are looking for a file you have never held, your first contact is the adoption authority in the state or territory where the adoption was made, not a notary.

What a notary can and cannot do

An Australian notary public can:

• Certify a copy of an adoption order, a court document, an amended birth certificate or an intercountry adoption certificate, after sighting the original.
• Witness your signature on consents, undertakings, applications and powers of attorney that form part of an adoption file for use overseas.
• Administer an oath or affirmation for an affidavit, for example one describing the adoptive relationship for a foreign registry.
• Certify a translation bound with the document and the translator's statement, where the receiving authority wants that.

A notary cannot confirm that an adoption is valid, that an order is still in force, that a placement complied with another country's law, or that the facts in the papers are true. Those are questions for the court that made the order, the central authority, or a lawyer in the destination country. A notary also cannot issue an apostille; only the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) does that in Australia.

Before signing anything, the notary will check your identity and that you understand the document and are signing freely. With consents in particular, a notary who has any doubt about understanding or pressure may decline, and that is part of what gives the notarial act its value overseas.

Two conventions that people confuse

This is the point most worth taking away. Two separate Hague treaties can apply to adoption paperwork, and they do different jobs.

• The Hague Adoption Convention governs intercountry adoption itself: which countries may place children with adoptive parents in which other countries, and through which central authorities. It decides whether an adoption can happen.
• The Hague Apostille Convention governs how a public document from one member country is recognised in another. It decides how your paperwork is authenticated.

If the destination is a member of the Apostille Convention, DFAT attaches an apostille, a certificate confirming the signature and seal on the document, not its contents. If it is not a member, DFAT issues an authentication certificate and the document then goes to that country's embassy or consulate in Australia for legalisation. Membership changes, so check the destination on the HCCH Apostille status table on the day, and remember that this table is for the Apostille Convention only. For more, see the Hague Apostille Convention explained.

Do you need a notary at all?

Often not, for the core documents. DFAT's list of documents it can legalise names birth certificates and court documents among the originals it accepts directly. An adoption order issued by an Australian court and an amended birth certificate issued by a registry fall into those categories. Confirm with DFAT before you lodge, because it assesses each document.

A notary is the right step when:

• you need to keep the original, for example a sealed court order you cannot replace easily, and send a certified copy instead;
• you must sign something for the foreign authority: a consent, an application, a power of attorney or an affidavit;
• the document is a private one, such as a letter or report prepared by an agency, which DFAT will only legalise after a notary has dealt with it. Ask DFAT how it treats the specific document.

If the document is for use inside Australia, for example with a state authority or for a passport application here, a notary is usually not needed. Ask the body what form of certified copy it accepts; a Justice of the Peace or other authorised person is often enough for domestic use.

What counts as an original

The notary must sight an original, not a scan or photocopy. For adoption papers that usually means one of these:

• an order or certificate issued by the court or registry, bearing its seal or stamp;
• a certified copy issued by the court or authority itself, under its own seal, which is an original document in its own right;
• an amended birth certificate issued by a state or territory registry after the adoption was registered.

A photocopy you made, or a copy certified by a Justice of the Peace, is not an original. If the court or agency will not release its original, ask whether it issues sealed copies for overseas use. Laminated certificates are a separate problem: DFAT does not accept laminated, framed or altered documents, so order a fresh certificate rather than bringing a laminated one.

The usual chain for use overseas

1. Obtain the record from the court, registry or adoption authority, in the form the receiving authority wants.
2. Notary, if you are sending a certified copy or signing a document. Skip this step if DFAT will take the original.
3. DFAT issues an apostille for a Convention member, or an authentication certificate for a non-member.
4. Embassy or consulate legalisation, for non-member countries only, following that mission's own requirements.

The DFAT step, and how the apostille attaches to each type of adoption document, is covered in apostilling adoption papers.

Documents compared

Document	Usual route overseas	Notary's role
Adoption order from an Australian court	Original to DFAT, or a notarised copy	Certifies a copy if you keep the original
Amended birth certificate	Original to DFAT, not laminated	Certifies a copy if needed
Consent or application you sign	Notary, then DFAT	Witnesses your signature and checks ID
Affidavit about the adoptive relationship	Notary, then DFAT	Administers the oath or affirmation
Foreign adoption decree issued overseas	Authenticated in the issuing country	None; an Australian notary cannot vouch for it

The last row matters for intercountry adoptions into Australia. A decree issued by a foreign court is authenticated in that country, not here. An Australian notary can certify that a copy matches the foreign document sighted, but cannot vouch for the foreign court's seal, and DFAT does not legalise foreign documents.

At the appointment

The item people forget is the written list. Adoption files are often long, and "notarise the adoption papers" can mean two pages or forty. Certifying pages nobody asked for costs more and discloses more of a private file than necessary.

The notary sights the original, prepares and seals the notarial certificate, binds it to the copy and records the act in their register. Do not unbind the finished document to scan it. A document that looks tampered with may be refused, and an authority reading adoption papers is already reading closely.

Privacy, redaction and other people's details

Adoption records identify people who did not choose to be part of your application: birth parents, siblings, and sometimes a child who is now an adult. Two habits help.

• Certify only what is asked for. Ask the receiving authority for its list and stick to it.
• Do not redact before copying. A notary certifies a complete and accurate copy of what was sighted, and a page with blacked-out lines is not that. The certificate would either be refused or would have to describe the redaction, which draws attention to it. If information should be withheld, ask the issuing authority for a version that omits it.

If a document identifies someone who has asked not to be contacted, speak to the adoption authority about how to use it before it goes overseas.

Translations

If the papers are going to a country that works in another language, the receiving authority decides whose translation it accepts. Some want a translation made in their own country; others accept one from Australia. If DFAT is to legalise the translation itself, it must be by a NAATI certified or recognised translator, with the translator's name, signature, NAATI seal and date on every page. Names, dates and place names are where adoption translations go wrong, so check them yourself before the set is sealed. See NAATI-certified translation with a notary.

Cost and time

We do not quote fees or processing times here. The cost depends on how many documents and copies are involved, whether anything must be signed, and whether a translation is needed; DFAT and any embassy set their own fees. Time is dominated by what is not the notary: obtaining records from an authority or a court can be slow, and DFAT and embassies work to their own timetables. If a placement, citizenship application or travel date is fixed, start from the destination's requirements, ask each body for its current timing, and work backwards.

For anything about the legal effect of an adoption, its recognition in another country, or a child's citizenship, speak to a lawyer who practises in that area, or to the central authority. A notary can prepare the paperwork correctly, but cannot advise on whether a foreign authority will recognise the adoption.

Here is an illustration, not a real case

An adult adoptee in Adelaide wants to register her adoption with the civil registry in the European country where her adoptive father was born, so she can apply for citizenship there. The registry asks for the adoption order and her amended birth certificate, each with an apostille. She orders a fresh amended birth certificate from the registry, since hers is laminated, and sends that original to DFAT directly. The adoption order is a sealed court copy she does not want to part with, so she has a notary certify a copy, which DFAT then apostilles. She certifies only the order's two operative pages, as the registry's list specified.

In short

Check first that you are entitled to the record, and that the authority has issued it in the form the receiver wants. Court orders and registry certificates may go to DFAT directly; a notary is for keeping the original, for signatures and for oaths. Confirm which Hague convention anyone means, check the destination's Apostille status on the day, and certify only the pages asked for. More on the service is at document notarisation.

People also search for

• How do I get an apostille on adoption papers?
• Which documents are needed for an overseas adoption?
• Can DFAT apostille my birth certificate directly?
• How does DFAT authentication work?
• Which documents can be apostilled in Australia?

Preparing adoption papers for another country? Send us the receiving authority's list, and we will explain each step before you book.