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| Mr. Enda Francis Scott of Irish nationality and Ms.
Catherine Boardman of British nationality, both resident in Spain since 1989,
decided to apply for an international adoption in Colombia and in 2002
approached the appropriate local authority, Junta de Andalucía, as
established in article 14 of the Hague Convention of 1993 for the Protection of
Children and Co-operation in International adoption. La Junta de
Andalucía gave the couple their certificate allowing them to adopt
("Certificado de Idoneidad") and the couple presented their solicitude to the
Columbian authorities who in turn approved their application with the result
that Mr Scott and Ms Boardman are at this moment on the waiting list in
Columbia ready to travel there when children are assigned to them. When they return from Columbia they will need to register the adoption either in the Spanish Consulate in Columbia or in the Civil Register in Spain and this is where the problem arises because the Spanish Consulate in Columbia refuses both to register the adoption as this would automatically imply giving Spanish nationality to the adopted children, as their adoptive parents are not Spanish nationals and to authorize the exit of these children to Spain where they could register the adoption in the Civil Register in Spain. The Spanish Consulate in Columbia argues that these citizens have to go through their own consulates and not the Spanish one. The Junta de Andalucía says that although they do not understand the stance of the Spanish Consulate in Columbia, they can do nothing about the problem. Despite not agreeing with these arguments but given the necessity of an urgent solution, we made contact with the British Consulate in Málaga to see if it would be possible to register the adoption in the British Consulate in Columbia and obtain a British passport for the adopted children (even provisionally) which would allow they to enter Spain. According to the British Consulate this is not possible as a British passport is only given after a person has resided in Britain a minimum of three years and a provisional or emergency passport only allows you to travel to Britain and is only given in special cases such as the loss of a passport. Microsoft Word version of this document |