Chapter VIII: Adoption

The application for adoption is brought before the judicial court. The competent court is: – the court of the place where the applicant lives when the applicant lives in France; – the court of the place where the person whose adoption is sought lives when the applicant lives abroad; – the court chosen in France by the applicant when the applicant and the person whose adoption is sought live abroad.

Actions for the purposes of adoption fall within the scope of non-contentious matters.

The application is made by petition. If the person whose adoption is sought was taken into the applicant’s home before the age of fifteen, the applicant may make the application himself by simple petition addressed to the public prosecutor, who must forward it to the court.

The application must specify whether the application is for a full adoption or a simple adoption.

The case is heard and debated in chambers, after hearing the opinion of the public prosecutor.

The court shall verify whether the legal conditions for adoption have been met within six months of either the filing of the application or its transmission in the case provided for in the second paragraph of article 1168. If necessary, he shall arrange for an investigation to be carried out by any qualified person. He may appoint a doctor to carry out any examination he deems necessary. He may collect…

The court may, with the consent of the petitioner, grant a simple adoption, even if it is seised of a petition for full adoption.

The judgment is delivered in open court. Its operative part specifies whether it is a full adoption or a simple adoption and contains the particulars prescribed by article 1056. It also contains, where full adoption is granted pursuant to article 370-1-4 of the Civil Code, an indication of the forenames and surname of the spouse, partner bound by a civil solidarity pact or cohabitee in respect of whom the adopted…

Where appropriate, the court shall rule, in the same form, on the change of the adopted person’s forenames and, in the case of simple adoption, on the adopted person’s name.