The applicant and the parent with whom the child resides must have lived together in a defacto relationship or been married for at least 3 years.

A parent/child relationship must exist between the applicant and the child to be adopted.

There may be a determination by the Family Court that an adoption is preferable to a parenting order. (see Applications - General step 1) before the DCD report is prepared and the full application filed.

There must be evidence that the long term welfare and interests of the child to be adopted would be promoted by the adoption.