Oranga Tamariki - the Ministry for Children holds adoption records for any adoption that it was involved in.
These records can range from a small amount of information to a lot of records about the adoption application and process.
You have a right under the Privacy Act to any information about you on an adoption record or court adoption record held by Oranga Tamariki, when requested.
If you want to get information about your birth parents (for example, their names) that might be on Oranga Tamariki adoption records, they will need your pre-adoptive (original) birth certificate.
Find out how to get your pre-adoptive birth certificate.
Requesting records can bring up a range of emotions. Learn where you can find support to help you during this process.
To request adoption information from Oranga Tamariki, you can:
Under the Privacy Act Oranga Tamariki must respond to your request within 20 working days. If Oranga Tamariki need more time they must tell you why.
After you have made your request, the Adoption Services team will search for any relevant adoption records. They will ask for proof of your identity before they give you adoption information.
They will assign a social worker to you, who can help you to understand the information and to support you with any steps to find and contact your birth parents, if that is what you want.
Find out more about how to request your adoption information from Oranga Tamariki.open_in_new
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This webpage is about how you can ask for adoption records from Oranga Tamariki.
Adoption means a family:
Adoption records means the information that was kept about you:
Click here to find out more about Oranga Tamariki.
Oranga Tamariki has records for any adoption it was part of.
The adoption records can have an amount of information that is:
or
The Privacy Act says you have the right to any information about you from an adoption record.
The Privacy Act is a law that tells organisations how information must be:
This includes court documents that Oranga Tamariki has.
You will need to show Oranga Tamariki your pre-adoptive birth certificate if you want to get information from adoption records about your birth parents.
A pre-adoptive birth certificate has information on it like:
Birth parents means the parents when the child is born.
Adoptive parents are the parents who:
Click here to find out more about getting your pre-adoptive birth certificate.
You can ask for adoption records from Oranga Tamariki by:
Oranga Tamariki must get back to you in 20 working days.
Working days in a week are:
If Oranga Tamariki need more time to look for the adoption records they must tell you why.
Phone
You can phone Oranga Tamariki on:
0508 326 459
This number does not cost money to call.
If you find it hard to use the phone the New Zealand Relay service is for people who are:
Click here to find out more about the New Zealand Relay service.
Email
You can email Oranga Tamariki at:
webadoption@ot.govt.nz
Online form
Click here to fill in an online form on the Oranga Tamariki website.
The Adoption Services team at Oranga Tamariki will look for any records that have to do with your adoption.
Adoption Services will ask you for proof of identity before they give you the adoption records.
Here proof of identity means an official document that shows who you are like your:
Adoption Services will match you up with a social worker.
The social worker will support you to:
Click here to find out more about how to get your adoption information on the Oranga Tamariki website.
This webpage is not in Easy Read.
Asking for your records from Oranga Tamariki can make you feel lots of things.
It can be good to have someone to talk to about it.
You can talk to your:
Kōnae has information on where to get support you if you want to talk about how it feels to get your records.
Click here to find out what support you can get.
Click here to download the information on this webpage as a PDF.
More Easy Read information is available.
Click here to visit our Easy Read library webpage.
Click here to learn about who made this Easy Read.