2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 50. Health and Safety › Chapter 15. Vital Statistics › Part 3. Marriage and Adoption › 50-15-311. Certificates of adoption or annulment of adoption -- report of amended or annulled adoption decree

50-15-311. Certificates of adoption or annulment of adoption -- report of amended or annulled adoption decree.
(1) For each adoption decreed by a district court, the decree must require the clerk of the court to prepare a certificate of adoption on a form prescribed and furnished by the department. The certificate of adoption must include facts that are necessary to locate and identify the date and place of birth of the adopted person or, in the case of a person who was born in a foreign country, evidence from sources determined to be reliable by the district court as to the date and place of birth of the person. The certificate of adoption must also contain information necessary to establish a new certificate of birth for the person adopted and must identify the order of adoption. The clerk of the court shall certify the certificate of adoption.
(2) Information necessary for the clerk of the court to prepare the certificate of adoption must be furnished, by each petitioner for adoption on a form prescribed by the department, at the time that the petition for adoption is filed. A person or agency having knowledge of facts, as described in subsection (1), may be required by the court to supply the court with information necessary to complete the certificate of adoption. The district court may make the provision of the information for the preparation of a certificate of adoption a prerequisite to the issuance of a final decree.
(3) Whenever an adoption decree is amended or annulled, the clerk of the court shall prepare a report. The report must include the facts that are necessary to identify the original certificate of adoption and the facts amended in the adoption decree that are necessary to properly amend the birth record.
(4) No later than the 16th day of each calendar month or more frequently, as directed by the department, the clerk of the court shall forward to the department certificates of adoption, reports of annulment of adoption, and amendments of decrees of adoption that were entered in the preceding month, together with any related reports required by the department.
(5) When the department receives a certificate of adoption, report of annulment of adoption, or amendment of a decree of adoption for a person born outside this state, the department shall forward the certificate, report, or amendment to the state registrar or the agency charged with registering vital statistics in the state where the person was born.
(6) If the birth of an adopted child occurred in a foreign country and the adopted child was not a citizen of the United States at the time of birth, the department shall prepare a "Certificate of Foreign Birth" as required by 50-15-223. If the adopted child was born in Canada, the department shall send a copy of the certificate of adoption, report of annulment of adoption, or amendment of a decree of adoption to the appropriate registration authority in Canada.
(7) If the adopted child born in a foreign country was a citizen of the United States at the time of birth, the department may not prepare a "Certificate of Foreign Birth" and shall notify the adoptive parents of the procedures for obtaining a revised certificate of birth for their child through the United States department of state.
(8) A deceased person cannot be adopted.
History: En. Sec. 16, Ch. 515, L. 1995.