Help us bring our adopted boy to Australia from the Philippines!

Petition to the Hon Brendan O’Connor

Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

We, the Bertrand family, have been trying to get a little boy that we have adopted from the Philippines to Australia for approx. 4 years now and it has been such a long process for us. He is related to us because mum (Evelyn Bertrand) is his great aunty and to her, it's her great nephew. 

We first saw him when we went to the Philippines a couple of years ago to see family and we noticed that he wasn't being totally cared for properly. His father is deceased and his mother didn't want to look after him anymore, so basically he was roaming around to different family members. Once, we found out who he was and what his story was, we came to the conclusion to adopt him. He was so thrilled to know. Dad firstly consulted the adoption agencies in Australia about adoption and they got him nowhere. So, we went through the Filipino Laws... and began the process. He was granted ours and we changed his name to Beau Anthony Gomez Bertrand (so he was officially ours), however when it came for him to be able to come to Australia - he was denied and was NOT mentioned by any australian adoption agencies that we had to do one of the two to be able to adopt/bring him to Australia, 1. both of the parents had to live in the child's country for at least 12 months (and with two parents who own their own business, it would of been a little hard to leave a business for that long) or 2. we should not of meet or seen the child before when adopting him. We couldn't believe that this had happened and that it not been mentioned to us before by anyone. The next step was to take it to court, so then we could plee to the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship to allow Beau a visa to come to Australia. Sadly we were denied by the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship as“it would not be in the public interest to intervene” (section 351 of the ACT).

No reason has been given for his non-intervention but, as so many of you have signed this petition, we argue that his decision should be reversed forthwith to allow Beau to be allowed to be with his adoptive family.

It should be pointed out we, the family, went through the Philippine Adoption Laws – Not Australian and the family did not spend 12 months living in the Philippines (as this was one of the requirements according to the Australian Adoption Laws. This was not made clear to us by Family Services SA), but frequent visits were made to see family.

Please help us by signing this petition, so we are able to bring our beloved Beau to Australia from the Philippines and so he is able to be with his rightful family and have a chance to have a better way of life. This has gone on for too long and WE NEED YOUR HELP! 

(if you want to see more - look on Today Tonight Adelaide and search "Adoption Laws" (it has two comments and is at the top) to hear the full story - http://www.todaytonightadelaide.com.au/)

PLEASE HELP US!