PUERTO RICO: LAND OF THE FREE

Adoptions; change in registration; confidential

If the birth of an adoptee had previously been registered in the Vital Statistics Registry, the registration certififcate of such birth shall be substituted for another showing the new juridic status of the registered child, as if he were a legitimate child of the adopters; Provided, That the original registration certificate of the birth of the adoptee, the decision of the court, and other documents shall be kept in the Registry in a sealed envelope and shall be confidential documents. In no registration certificate issued by the Registry shall the fact of the original certificate be set forth, unless the petitioner of said certificate has expressly required the showing of such facts and a competant court has so ordered for justified causes; Provided, that such authorization shall not be required when the applicant be the adopter or the adoptee.

(Apr. 22, 1931, No. 24, p. 228 sec. 21A, added June 15, 1953, No. 84, p. 296 sec. 2, eff. 90 days after June 15, 1953.) P.R. STAT. ANN. tit. 87, sec. 1136

Puerto Rico Respects Adoptee Rights

Privacy of hearings and documents

All hearings with regard to cases of adoption and waiver of patria potestas, and of transference of custody, shall be held at the office of the judge with the intervention of the prosecuting attorney. The presence of any persons other than the Court officials, the adopting parties, the adopted, the parents, when their presene be indispensable, witnesses, counsellors, and representative of the Public Welfare dependency in the discharge of their official functions with regard to the adoption, is hereby forbidden. All documents relating to the adoption and filed with the corresponding Court, as well as the judgment and orders of the Court, shall not be subject to inspection by any person whatsoever, with the excepttion of the parties to the action and their counsel, and the Public Welfare Division. The Court may, through a written order issued for just cause, permit other persons to inspect the said documents.

(Code Civil Proc., 1933 sec. 613D, added June 15, 1953, No. 85, p. 298, sec. 2, eff. 90 days after June 15, 1953.)

P.R. STAT. ANN. tit. 32, sec. 2698

Original Birth Certificates are available, upon request to adult adoptees born in Puerto Rico.

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