Adoption Certificate - England and Wales

UK GRO Certificates provides a fast and simple service to obtain an official England or Wales Adoption Certificate.

We provide only the Long/Full version of England and Wales Adoption Certificates .

Adoption records are limited to the beginning of civil registration within each country. For England and Wales Order online for any event which took place on or after 1^st January 1927 to 6 months from the current date provided you have sufficient information to identify the entry. A 3 year search for the index reference will be carried out.

96%* of our customers confirm that they are satisfied with our service and would recommend it to others and we hope you will also. So that you can make an informed decision when ordering, please be aware that there are other certificate ordering services available and that costs do vary.

The main difference between the birth and adoption documents is that the adoption certificate shows the adoptive parents, whereas a birth certificate shows the names of the birth parents. It is possible to request a copy of the original birth certificate if your original name is know (along with the details of your parents if the birth took place within the past 50 years).

England and Wales Adoption certificates of full version shows the following information:

• Date of birth
• Place and country of birth
• An adoptive forename and surname
• Sex
• Name and surname
• Address and occupation of adoptive parents
• Date of adoption order
• Date on which adoption granted and the name of the court.

Official replacement England and Wales Adoption Certificates can be ordered from here. These documents replace a birth certificate for those persons that have been legally adopted subsequent to their birth.

Duplicate Adoption Certificates are often essential to prove identity when applying for:

• Passports
• Visas
• Bank accounts
• Pensions
• Social Security
• Employer ID
• Driving licence
• Investments
• Marriage
• Overseas Property Purchase

A certified copy of an entry in the Adopted Children Register is the equivalent of a birth certificate for a person who has been adopted. An entry in the Adopted Children Register will only contain the adoptive details of a person and has no information that relates back to the corresponding birth entry. Both full and short adoption certificates can be ordered online.

• Full Certificates: A full certificate is a copy of ACR entry and includes the date of the order and the name of the court as well as the particulars of the adoptive parent(s). Their names cannot be shown on the certificates as though they were the natural parents, even if one of the parents is the birth mother or father.
• Short certificates: A short certificate contains no reference to the fact of adoption and shows only the adoptive name and surname, sex, date of birth and country or district of birth.

The Adoption Acts have varied in their provisions regarding the inclusion of the country and place of birth in an entry. The following information explains the inclusion of country, district and sub district of birth on a full and short certificate.

• Adoption Orders made between 1927 and 1949: Neither the country, district or sub districts are shown on a full certificate as this information is not included in the format of the entry. The country of birth will be shown on a short certificate if it recorded on the Court Order.
• Adoption Orders made between 1950 and March 1959: The country of birth is recorded on both a full and short certificate.
• Adoption Orders made since April 1959: Where a person is born in England and Wales the country, district and sub district is recorded on a full certificate, the country is not recorded on a short certificate. Where a person is born outside England and Wales only the country is recorded on both a full and short certificate.