Virgin Islands

Order of adoption; change of name

The original birth record of the adopted child, and all records or
files in the custody of any governmental agency or of the court
relating to any proceedings under this chapter shall be sealed and
thereafter shall not be open to inspection by any person other than
the adopted person (if he has attained majority and is not
incompetant), except upon the order of the court for good cause shown.

(Added June 12, 1961, No. 735, Sess. L. 1961, p.84)

V.I. STAT. ANN. tit. 16, sec. 145 (c)


Puerto Rico

Adoptions; change in registration; confidential
If the birth of an adoptee had previously been registered in the Vital
Statistics Registry, the registration certififcate of such birth shall be
substituted for another showing the new juridic status of the registered
child, as if he were a legitimate child of the adopters; Provided, That
the original registration certificate of the birth of the adoptee, the
decision of the court, and other documents shall be kept in the Registry
in a sealed envelope and shall be confidential documents.  In no
registration certificate issued by the Registry shall the fact of the
original certificate be set forth, unless the petitioner of said
certificate has expressly required the showing of such facts and a
competant court has so ordered for justified causes; Provided, that such
authorization shall not be required when the applicant be the adopter or
the adoptee.

(Apr. 22, 1931, No. 24, p. 228 sec. 21A, added June 15, 1953, No. 84, p.
296 sec. 2, eff. 90 days after June 15, 1953.)

P.R. STAT. ANN. tit. 87, sec. 1136

Privacy of hearings and documents
Allhearings with regard to cases of adoption and waiver of patria
potestas, and of transference of custody, shall be held at the office of
the judge with the intervention of the prosecuting attorney.  The presence
of any persons other than the Court officials, the adopting parties, the
adopted, the parents, when their presene be indispensable, witnesses,
counsellors, and representative of the Public Welfare dependency in the
discharge of their official functions with regard to the adoption, is
hereby forbidden.  All documents relating to the adoption and filed with
the corresponding Court, as well as the judgment and orders of the Court,
shall not be subject to inspection by any person whatsoever, with the
excepttion of the parties to the action and their counsel, and the Public
Welfare Division.  The Court may, through a written order issued for just
cause, permit other persons to inspect the said documents.

(Code Civil Proc., 1933 sec. 613D, added June 15, 1953, No. 85, p.
298, sec. 2, eff. 90 days after June 15, 1953.)