You have court orders upholding validity of adoption 

2) certified copy of court order should suffice 

3) JJ act is not applicable in your case as you have adopted child from close relative 

1. Once court has declared the adoption as legally valid then you do not require any letter from CARA. CARA cannot sit in appeal over the decisions of courts.

2. The decree of the court should suffice.

If you have convince to CARA authority that at the time of adoption procedure you both were on student visa in the Australia, plus were Indian citizens.

After adoption you both had got Australian visa. In the middle time frame you should have applied on the CARA office for adoption procedure, but forget to applied hence applying now. CARA people will understand your concern especially the social working committee.

See in case there is court order then no such letter from the CARA as such is required. You can submit the certified order of the court for adoption, also you can meet the CARA officer and they can as per court order may give a letter but the adoption is not as per the CARA guidelines or the JJ act they may deny that too. 

Dear Sir,

The following information may kindly be read:

Registration of adoption under Hindu law to be made mandatory

Parents adopting a child under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA) could soon be required to mandatorily register the adoption with country's apex adoption body as part of efforts to check trafficking, a senior government official said.

Prospective parents can adopt a child under the stringent Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015. Additionally, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs have the option of formalising an adoption through the 60-year-old HAMA.

Officials say that while the JJ Act has provisions for verifying the source of the child as well as a thorough background check of the prospective parents, these pre- requisites are missing from HAMA, thereby, allowing many to take advantage of its loopholes.

"The ministry of women and child development has prepared a draft Cabinet note proposing an amendment to HAMA in order to make it compulsory for parents to register with the apex adoption body, Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)," a ministry spokesperson said.

The note is being circulated among the ministries of finance, home affairs and law and the Prime Minister's Office, before it is taken up by the Union Cabinet, the official said.

"Adoption under HAMA is very simple and two Hindus can exchange a child after filing a deed. We did a sample check and discovered that the number of adoptions under HAMA is too high and we suspect that a lot of these involve trafficked children," the spokesperson said.

The ministry has proposed changes to HAMA so that parents who adopt a child mandatorily register their deed of adoption on CARA's web portal, following which they will be issued a certificate of adoption.

CARA CEO Lt. Col. Deepak Kumar said that the move will allow it to maintain a 'national adoption register' which will compile data on adoptions under HAMA, in addition to those that take place through its web portal.

"HAMA is a big hole in our net. We need to widen our net so that we can monitor all adoptions. But first we need to record these by having a national adoption register," Kumar told.

The official explained that the adoption agency carried out a study where data from one of the total 22 sub-registrars in Delhi was collected, which showed that 145 adoption deeds were registered in the past three years.

He added that if this data is extrapolated, it can be assumed that over 3,000 children were adopted under HAMA in the past three years in Delhi alone.

"But these are only those adoptions that are actually legally formalised. We found out from the Collector of Stamps in Delhi that in 14 months there were 3,200 stamps sold for the purpose of adoption. If all these stamps are being used lawfully, we should have seen nearly 9,000 adoptions during these three years," Kumar explained.

In a bid to reform the adoption procedure in the country and bring more transparency, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development brought a new set of guidelines in August, 2015.

For the first time, the entire adoption procedure was transferred online, to be monitored by the Central Adoption Resource Authority, the nodal body regulating adoptions in India.

However, despite the new mechanism, CARA hasn't seen an increase in adoption and recorded a mere 3,788 adoptions across the country in 2016, while there were four to five times the number of parents waiting to bring home a child.

Officials hope that once they have data on adoptions under HAMA, they will have a more realistic picture.

The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, is applicable to Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs and gives an adopted child all the rights enjoyed by a biological child.

Until the universal JJ Law came into existence, Muslims, Parsis, Christians and Jews had no adoption law and would have to approach the court under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, and get the guardianship of a child until he or she turned 18.

Hi 

Your case of adopting the child is valid as is confirmed by Competent Court's order.

You obtain a certified copy of the order passed in 2016 by the concerned court.

As apprehended by you, JJ Act is not applicable to your case, since you adopted your niece (your sister's daughter)

Need not worry.

Good Luck

You have adapted child through court order which is above all authorities. CARA as it`s own procedure to follow  and CARA has no facility to confirm the adoption on the basis of court order. Court order is above all, nothing else to do.  Have to file writ in HC for direction to Indian Immigration for visa approval.

You can apply for the said letter from CARA and get the same certified by it. Being court order of adoption you don't require any other thing. 

- Children of relatives, as defined in Sec 2(52) of the JJ Act, can be adopted by a Intercountry parent.

- CARA is statutory body of Ministry of Women & Child Development established under Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.

- It is a nodal body for adoption of Indian children. It is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.

- The process of adoption involves authorities such as the Court of Competent Jurisdiction who can pass Order for Adoption; Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA); State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) or Adoption Coordinating Agency (ACA) and Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA).

- Since, you have obtained Adoption Decree from the Court of Competent Jurisdiction , hence further confirmation from the CARA does not arise.

- If, the immigration department not agree to accept the same, then you should file a Contempt petition before the same court which has passed the said order in your favour.

- Court will pass order for accepting the said adoption deed.

Dear Concern,

Please note - 

01. Keeping the decree passed in 2016 declaring the adoption to be valid as base of your case you shall make an application before the CARA to process your application and get your adoption registered at their office as well. 

If you want then you can appoint an advocate for this process who will assist you in getting the entire process completed or else you can simply walk into the office of CARA and can get it done by yourself or by the way of your family members as well who are still residing in India. Remember for once you have to come down to India appearing before the CARA office for completing the entire process.

Once you are done with that you are through with the process and can move ahead with the other formalities back at Australia. 

My best wishes to you. 

1. You had adopted the girl when you were Indian Citizen and thereafter you both had gone to Australia on student Visa. Did you take your adopted daughter to Australia along with you? If no, then while applying for citizenship in Australia, did you mention that you have a daughter in India?

2. If no, then write the CARA about the fact that Australian authorities consider it as domestic problem in India since the adoption was done in India for  which they are unwilling to issue home study report.

3. If CARA refuses  to issue certificate allowing your adopted daughter to be shifted to Australia, for want of the home study report to be issued by the Australian authority, file a Writ Petition before the High Court against CARA praying for a direction upon them to issue the said certificate to you.

A Home Study Investigation Report issued by an authorized adoption agency, is a legal document that is used by the Courts (U.S. and foreign), Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the country from the family is adopting as documentation that the individual or couple has been investigated and approved as prospecitve 

SCHEDULE VII
See regulations 2(11), 9 (10) and 20 (2)
HOME STUDY REPORT OF RESIDENT INDIAN PARENT/
OVERSEAS CITIZEN OF INDIA/FOREIGNER LIVING IN INDIA

You may have to follow the procedures as laid down for taking the child out of the country as provided under CARA since it is an adopted child.

If the provisions in Australian law  do not permit to give the desired certificate then you may have to file a suit to declare the adoption as legally valid in the court of law which would enable you to obtain the requisite certificate from CARA to go ahead with the visa process.

The adoption was done when you were in India.

Therefore documents at that point of time are relevant. Give an application to CARA and if it is not responding or not taking appropriate action then file a writ petition in the high court.

Regards