ACCEPTABILITY OF AN ADOPTION ORDER IN A VISA APPLICATION FOR REUNION

Abstract

This study considers the law governing adoption of children in Nigeria and the impact on reunion attempts between the adopted children and the adopter-parents in the diaspora. A doctrinal approach has been utilized in analyzing the laws with findings derived from the author’s years of experience working as consular investigator in a law firm dedicated to providing legal immigration services to the Austrian Embassy in Nigeria. Our confidential findings show that 50% of persons adopting children for travel purposes do so illegally or illegally from sheer ignorance of the law. The study concludes that the major challenges in adoption of Nigerian children by foreign adopters lies either in the failure to follow legal procedure or the failure to conclude the legal procedure. An embassy would readily deny an application for a visa for reunion where these two steps are lacking. A claim of an abuse of international human rights or a denial of the rights of the child would not arise in such circumstance. The study therefore recommends a proper understanding of the laws on adoption in Nigeria to forestall rejection of applications for family reunion.