Can I apply for my adopted child to join me in the UK?

Yes, you have to re-adopt the child in the UK in order for the relationship to gain legal recognition in the UK by establishing “de facto adoptions”. The is where the child has been in the care of the parent(s) overseas for an 18-month period, even where there has been no formal legal transfer of parental responsibility. We can consider de facto adoption provided the adoptive parents have been living together abroad for at least a minimum period of 18 months, of which the 12 months immediately preceding the application for entry clearance must have been spent living together with the child; and the adoptive parents have cared for the child for the full eighteen month period, so that there has been a genuine transfer of parental responsibility.