Interim Decision #2153 

MATTER OF POON ' 

In Visa Petition Proceedings 

A-10106076 

Decided by Board June 12,'1972 

The holding in Matter of Ng, Interim Decision No. 2147, is extended to recognize 

as valid for immigration purposes the adoption under Chinese law and custom 

in Hong Kong in 1953 of a male child, even though not related by blood, not of 

the same clan, and not of the same surname. [Matter of Chin, 12 I. & N. Dec. 

240, reaffirmed.] 

ON BEHALF OF PETITIONER: ON BEHALF OF SERVICE: 

Joseph S. Hertogs, Esquire R. A. Vielhaber 

580 Washington Street Appellate Trial Attorney 

San Francisco, California 94111 

(Brief filed) 

The United States citizen petitioner applied for preference 

status for the beneficiary as her adopted brother under section 

203(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The District 

Director denied the petition on January 15, 1970. The petitioner 

appeals from that denial. The matter will be remanded for further 

proceedings. 

The beneficiary is a male alien of Chinese ancestry who was 

born in Hong Kong in 1949. The file contains a written agreement 

of adoption dated October 30, 1953 according to which Cheung Yee 

Muey "of the Poon family," apparently the petitioner's mother, 

adopted the beneficiary. The petitioner's father allegedly died in 

1945. 

The District Director based his denial upon. his conclusion that 

(1) the applicable law of adoption was the Ching Code, and (2) the 

Ching Code requires that "a male adopted child be related by blood 

to the adopter or at least come from the same clan or have the 

same surname." He cited the absence of any written evidence that 

these requirements had been met and denied the application. 

It is settled that the law of adoption applicable to Chinese 

domiciled in Hong Kong, in addition to recent enactments by the 

Hong Kong authorities, has been Chinese law and custom, Matter 

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Interim Decision #2153 

of Yue, 12 I. & N. Dec. 747 (BIA, 1968). In our recent precedent 

decision in Matter of Ng, Interim Decision No. 2147 (BIA, April 28, 

1972), we endorsed a definition of the term "Chinese law and 

custom" which defined it as "the rules of law which were generally 

in force in the Chinese Empire on 5th April 1843 together with and 

subject to such rules of custom as were at that date and/or have 

thereafter been applied in China or any part thereof or in Hong 

Kong with the force of law." As we noted in the Ng case, the courts 

of Hong Kong have defined Chinese law and custom "as partly 

evidenced by, but not necessarily as wholly defined by or confined 

to [the Ching Code]." See Matter of Chin, 12 I. & N. Dec. 240 (BIA, 

1967). 

The District Director's decision anticipated our subsequent precedent decision in Matter of Yiu, 13 I. & N. Dec. 624 (BIA, 1970). In 

that decision, which was actually concerned with the validity of 

the adoption of a female in Hong Kong under Chinese law and 

custom, we noted that (1) "Chinese customary law permits adoption only for purposes of succession to the family [cult] and is 

limited to males," (2) "the adoption of strangers is prohibited and 

allowed only when a person has exhausted all his kindred," and (3) 

"the adopted child must be of the same surname." 

As we stated in Matter of Chin, supra, the Ching Code provided 

for two kinds of adoption (1) adoption of a male child for the 

purpose of instituting him as an heir for perpetuation of the 

ancestral cult, and (2) adoption of a child, whether male or female, 

without intending to institute it as an heir. In the Chin case we 

noted that the Ching Code provided a number of restrictions with 

respect to the first type of adoption, namely, that the child must be 

male and must come from the same kindred, but that these 

restrictions did not apply to the second type of adoption. 

Subsequent to the District Director's decision in the present 

case, we had occasion to reconsider the principles enunciated in 

the Yiu decision. As a result, in Matter, of Ng, supra, we receded 

from our holding in the Yiu, case and recognized the adoption of, a 

female in Hong Kong under the Ching Code and Chinese custom 

as a valid adoption of the second type. 

The issue in the present case is whether we should apply the 

same reasoning used in Matter of Ng, oupra, to the adoption in 

Hong Kong of a male child, even though not related by blood, not 

of the same clan, and not of the same surname. We believe the 

question should be answered in the affirmative and we accordingly 

extend our ruling in the Ng case to cover the present case. We also 

reaffirm our earlier holding in Matter of Chin, supra, which 

recognized the possibility of the simple adoption of a male of a 

different family under the Ching Code. 

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In the present case the District Director never reached the 

factual issue of the validity of the adoption. In the absence of any 

findings in that regard we have no choice but to remand the 

matter to the District Director for further proceedings. The following order will be entered. 

ORDER: The case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with the foregoing. 

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