Bringing a child born through surrogacy to Taiwan: parentage and a spouse’s adoption

For an American parent bringing a child born through surrogacy to live with a Taiwanese spouse, the Taiwan paperwork raises a question that a birth certificate may not resolve on its own: what legal relationship will each adult have with the child here? Documents recording an overseas arrangement need to be read alongside any parentage judgments and the family’s nationalities. Adoption may be one route. It is not an automatic requirement for every family.

A ruling about an existing family

On September 12, 2025, New Taipei District Court approved a biological father’s spouse adopting a child born through surrogacy abroad. Its ruling, 114年度司養聲字第151號, records that the father had already acknowledged the child and the spouse had participated in raising the child. A social-welfare organization’s home assessment formed part of the court’s review. The court considered the child’s best interests, including the stability of the care the family could provide.

Consent received its own analysis. On the facts of that case, the court applied a statutory exception because it found that the birth mother had not fulfilled her duties of protection and upbringing. That finding does not make consent unnecessary in every surrogacy case. This was a district-court ruling with a stated appeal route; its finality has not been verified.

For a couple preparing an application, the useful point is the sequence: an acknowledged biological relationship already existed, and the spouse sought a further legal relationship through adoption. The ruling does not establish that a surrogacy contract alone gives every intended parent parental status in Taiwan.

Which law governs the relationship?

Nationality matters before a Taiwan Civil Code provision is chosen. Article 51 of Taiwan’s choice-of-law statute identifies nationality connections and relevant dates for status as a child born in wedlock. Article 53 does so for acknowledgment of a child born outside marriage. Adoption formation is governed by the respective national laws of adopter and adoptee under Article 54. A U.S. connection therefore calls for a specific applicable-law inquiry, not an assumption about all U.S. families.

Where Taiwan’s Civil Code applies, Article 1063 presumes a child conceived by a wife during marriage to be a child of that marriage. Any existing presumption needs to be addressed. Article 1065 provides for a biological father’s acknowledgment of a nonmarital child, including acknowledgment deemed through upbringing, and establishes the relationship with the birth mother without acknowledgment. Those provisions do not describe a general acknowledgment procedure available to any intended parent.

Assisted reproduction has a narrower statutory definition

Taiwan’s current Assisted Reproduction Act, Article 2, defines the treated couple as a husband and wife, with the wife capable of gestating and delivering the child in her own uterus. An arrangement involving a third person carrying the pregnancy cannot simply be placed within that definition.

Article 23 treats a child born to the wife following conception during marriage using donated sperm with her husband’s consent as born in wedlock. Article 24 covers a child born to the wife following conception during marriage with her consent, using her husband’s sperm and a donated egg. The conditions matter. Neither provision supports treating every overseas assisted-reproduction arrangement identically.

Adoption and household registration each require their own basis

In a Taiwan-law adoption, Civil Code Article 1079 requires a written adoption and court approval. The child’s best interests govern approval of a minor’s adoption under Article 1079-1. Parental consent and its exceptions are addressed in Article 1076-1. For same-sex spouses, Article 20 of the Act for Implementation of J.Y. Interpretation No. 748 applies the Civil Code’s adoption provisions to adoption of the other spouse’s child.

Which registration follows a birth abroad? Household Registration Act Article 6 concerns ROC nationals born in Taiwan who are under twelve. A national never previously registered in Taiwan who enters and receives settlement approval falls within the initial-registration route in Article 15. Parentage alone does not establish that nationality and settlement requirements have been met. The broader registration framework appears in our column on a child in a U.S.–Taiwan family.

A Taiwan lawyer can assess the effect of birth and parentage documents, identify the applicable law, prepare an appropriate acknowledgment or adoption application, and address the legal basis requested by the household registration office. Consultations with an English-speaking lawyer in Taipei are available through Hovering International Law Firm at wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw. Taipei: 7F-2, No. 35, Sec. 1, Chengde Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103. Taichung: 6F-1, No. 19, Guanqian Rd., North Dist., Taichung City 40453 (臺中市北區館前路19號6樓之1).

The starting file should include any parentage judgment already obtained abroad, together with its procedural records; a new application needs to account for relationships already established.

Sources

Checked: October 23, 2026.

• ruling, 114年度司養聲字第151號
• Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements (涉外民事法律適用法) — Article 51
• Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements (涉外民事法律適用法) — Article 53
• Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements (涉外民事法律適用法) — Article 54
• Civil Code (民法) — Article 1063
• Civil Code (民法) — Article 1065
• Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) — Article 2
• Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) — Article 23
• Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) — Article 24
• Civil Code (民法) — Article 1079
• Civil Code (民法) — Article 1079-1
• Civil Code (民法) — Article 1076-1
• Act for Implementation of J.Y. Interpretation No. 748 — Article 20
• Household Registration Act (戶籍法) — Article 6
• Household Registration Act (戶籍法) — Article 15