# Adoption order



## Milly28

Just wanted some ideas of time scales... We got the adoption order granted yesterday so we are very excited, but how long from order being granted to celebration hearing ? and do you get their new adoption certificate on the day of celebration hearing or do you have to apply for them after the hearing.

We can't wait to get passports as my husband parents live in Spain and we are hoping to get out for Christmas.


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## Loopylou29

Your celebration date depends on how busy the court is. We've waited around 4 weeks between adoption order being granted and celebration hearing.

The adoption certificate is issued by the GRO and takes several weeks. You will receive a letter and a short birth certificate. The letter will tell you how to obtain the long adoption certificate which you will need to apply for passports.


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## Milly28

Thank you for your reply ...hopefully we should be able to get passports before December even if we have to fast track them or collect from Durham if we don't get the main adoption certificate till later on in the year.


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## Flash123

We had our oa granted in April and our celebration hearing was end of may. We are still waiting for our certificate  our sw said realistically they are currently taking upto approx 10 weeks but some are being done sooner. I bet you can't wait to visit in laws


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## Macgyver

Our ao was granted the beginning of June and celebration hearing end of June. Still waiting for our certificate to get lo a passport to visit my aunt and uncle.


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## Anjelissa

Hi Milly,

Congratulations on your Adoption Order 

We only had about a week and a half between Adoption Order being granted and Celebration Hearing, but as others have said it can vary a lot between courts.
We were able to select one of two courts and fortunately there was no wait at all with our chosen court.
The date we would have been given at the other court was about a month after Adoption Order.  

As for the birth certificate, as others have said, there seems to be a bit of a delay atm.
So far it's been over 2 months for us, but we have no urgency (eg passport application etc) so I'm going to wait a little longer before chasing.
They advise that it's usually approximately 4 weeks (I think it was even less than that with our son). 
Judging by other's replies though it does seem as if the extra wait is quite normal atm.

Even with the current delays I'd be very surprised if you weren't able to get everything sorted in time for a trip at Christmas though.

Anj x


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## Miny Moo

Even though our AO was granted in a different court to the one we were having our Celebration hearing in we were sent our AO hearing date and Celebration Hearing dates in the same letter.

Due to our sons history we were told though that the AO was going to be granted at  the 1st hearing regardless of wether BF appealed, so that could of been why we also got Celebration date to.


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## Sun Flower

we have been told 3 weeks between Adoption order granted and celebration day


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## EverHopefulmum

We phoned the court and asked them a few questions, including this one and were also told 3 weeks between. They said this is because technically the BP can appeal in that time :-(


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## Flash123

Celebration day cant take place sooner than 3 weeks because Legally they have to be 3 weeks apart sp bp can be given chance to appeal.


Ours was 6 weeks because I had returned to work by then and wanted it to be on a Friday. The location of ours was changed the week of the CH but they still managed to get us in on the planned day.


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## Macgyver

Wow, we were never told bp could Appel upto three weeks after ao was granted


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## Anjelissa

Just a 'ps' to my last post (with Flash's post in mind).

Our week and a half between Final Hearing/Adoption Order and Celebration day was from our 2nd final hearing (as we had 'complications' at the 1st one).
Technically it would have been over 3 weeks from our original final hearing, if that makes sense, (so bp's had the legally required time).

Anj x


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## Milly28

Thanks for all your relply's . I think I might contact the court where AO was granted and they may give me an idea of timescale.

I thought once AO was granted that's it the BP cannot contest as it's final and you are the legal parents to the children and the celebration hearing wasn't the legal part.
I'm worried again I just want it over.


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## Flash123

Hiya milly, just to let you know we received our new short birth certificate today only 6 weeks after our celebration hearing - much better than the 10 weeks we were warned of


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## Mummy Noodles!

Our AO was granted beginning of June and we are still waiting on Court. We were told our local court was very busy and there would be a wait. The Curator is coming out to meet us next week. Hopefully it wont be long after that. Our LO has been home 1 year 1 month now but really want it sealed and delivered. DH and I are fed up with all the visits    Is that wrong? We feel he's ours now    Anyway...yeah...it's taken a while.


Noodles xx


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## Macgyver

Mummy noddles our was the begin of June too.
Just to let u know our short cert arrived today.6 weeks after ao and 3 weeks after celebration hearing.

For the long cert It costs £9 something for standard del 3-5 weeks or £29 for express which is a few days.

Hopefully yours won't be long xxx


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## Loopylou29

Yep, ours arrived this morning,6 weeks after order granted and a week after celebration day!


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## Daddyboo (Paul)

We've only just sent the application off, our SW even messed up some of the details inside!
Fancy correcting your own SW on an official document?

I think we'll be glad when we finally get rid of her as the post adoption support that we have so far received from the agency has been great, it's just a shame it took so long to access the resource!

Hopefully we'll be in the AO club before Christmas.


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## mummy2blossom

Hi Paul, 

Your sw sounds similar to ours, all our paper work went to court today. After a delay from our sw. She seemed to think we knew what we were doing & gave no help or advice at all. We finally had help from blossoms sw who had to correct some bits! She was dropping papers into court today. She said we should be all done by sep however we won't hold our breath lol.


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## mummy to little pea

can i just ask as a link to this how long from putting papers in to adoption order ? bit confused now x


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## Belliboo

Mummy to a little pea, you can apply to court after 10 weeks of LO being placed if all parties agree ie social workers as they write the report to support your application but when order is actually made depends upon court waiting times think ours was about 4 months from applying to court & then court order being made & then celebration day at least 3 weeks after this as birth parents can try to appeal final decision too xx


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## mummy to little pea

Thank you belliboo, you have put my mind at rest thought it was approx 9 month from putting adoption papers in till adoption order being approved and then another month for celebration hearing, phew x


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## Macgyver

We filled in ours 10 weeks after lo came home. After waiting another 6 weeks as we heard nothing it turned out or sw had forgotten to get lo birth cert and hadn't sent it off.   
It wasn't until the feb that the papers got to court, first hearing was may but bp contested, 2nd hearing June where the ao was granted. 
Good luck


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## -x-Lolly-x-

Little pink came home September.
Papers submitted to court after 10 weeks in December.
First hearing (directions hearing) March where birth mum contested.
Second directions hearing April where leave to appeal not granted to birth mum.
Final hearing May where adoption order granted!
Celebration hearing scheduled for June but had to postpone as I have birth to baby blue that day!
Celebration hearing is now next week, can't wait!

Hope that helps


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## Milly28

I contacted our court where the AO was granted and they were sending out the docs that night.
Our celebration hearing will be in September, 8 weeks After AO and once I received the papers I contacted the registry, they too had received our papers and said it will be 4-6 weeks to receive the short certificate, which we will probably get before our celebration day, all being well.
The lady said once we receive the short certificate we can buy the long certificate,available next day if you pay extra.
So hopefully we should get passports whey before Christmas...touch wood.
Thank you all for your relply's


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## Milly28

Don't know if anyone is still following this thread but I thought I will put this info on.
I have received our short certificate through the post today, which has taken less than 4 weeks from the registry receiving our adoption order.
It cost £23.50 for the long certificate if you need it within 24hrs and £9.50 if you can wait 5 working days.
You can also pay extra for a fast track passport to receive within a week. The cost is £87
For us it's been really quick and we could have our passports within the next two weeks if we wanted too


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## AoC

Super news, Milly!


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## Sun Flower

Thanks for the update Millie

We can't wait to get LO passport sorted, little photo, our full family name, too cute   

X


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## EverHopefulmum

Just had the phone call to say our adoption order has been granted. Feel ecstatic & tired after a sleepless night!! Off for celebration lunch.....yippee his legal status is now in fact what has been true for so long...he's out little boy.

Now we need to get in the queue for birth certificates and passport.


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## AoC

Congratulations!  WOOOT!  You did it!


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## Milly28

Congratulations...it's a great feeling isn't it? 

It didn't take us long to receive their certificates and I'm applying for the passports this week, which has taken us 7 weeks from adoption order being made.

I hope it doesn't take you long before you can apply for the passport.


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## Anjelissa

Just an update, 4 months post Final Hearing/Adoption Cert and we have finally received our lo's Birth Cert 

It turned out that as our Final Hearing and Celebration Hearing were held at different courts there was a 'miscommunication' between the two and the application wasn't even submitted to the General Register Office    

Fortunately there was no urgency in our case and we've since received sincere apologies from the courts.

I just wanted to add my update to illustrate that mistakes/admin errors can and do happen so it's definitely worth making some calls and chasing up if it starts going beyond the time frame you've been given.

I hope all above have safely received their certs now .

Anj x


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