how do you adopt a step child?

[Goodsoulette]

I have 4 yr old son, his father (biological) has had no contact with him ever and is not named on the birth certificate. Does anyone know how my husband can adopt him?

[Octavius]

The first thing you should do is to contact your local social services. They are able to provide you with information and will encourage you to consider all the legal options that can be an alternative to an adoption order. If, after considering this advice you wish to proceed you should give them three months notice of your intention to adopt.

You should give this notice in writing stating the child/ren's full names and dates of birth, stating that it is your intention to apply to adopt them. The letter should be signed by the parent AND their spouse.

In England and Wales the next stage is to obtain 3 copies of an application form (A6) from either your local Magistrates Court or County Court. (or here )

[Octavius]

more....

Irrespective of the birth parents legal status the court will require a report (Schedule 2) to be compiled and wherever possible the wishes of both birth parents will be ascertained and what role they might intend to play in the future in respect of the child. Your current relationship with him or her, or the amount of contact they have with the child will not remove the responsibility for finding out their views, and reporting them back to the court.

The court will ask a social worker to provide a Schedule 2 report which will involve them in interviewing all the adults involved as well as the child or children.

A court date will be set and the court will consider the application. They can then decide if they should make an Adoption Order having fully considered the schedule 2 report.

This entire process usually takes between 6 and 12 months.

[mimififi]

A good thing to do first would be for your husband to apply for a residence order to get the court to say that he is legally allowed to have residency of your son in your absence. It also gives him leave to sign anaesthetic permissions etc etc and all the other legal rights of a biological father. I know this as this is what my husband and I were advised to do by our solicitor when we asked the same question.

O's response seems fairly straight forward, however, our solicitor told us that generally courts do not like giving adoption orders to step parents, not because they don't want step parents to have full responsibility as this is solved with a residency order, it is to do with the fact that you are removing from the child the right to his biological father. An adoption order legally implies that the bio father has never existed and courts feel a bit funny over this. the bio father also needs to be involved and interviewed by both the social and the court. It is very expensive (not that that is a consideration with a child as we would sell our own body parts for them), long winded and can be very depressing.

more

[mimififi]

You should also apply for parental responsibility as this recognises the step father as the legal guardian also. My solicitor told me that it would be very unlikely we would be able to adopt my daughter (bear in mind also that it is not just him that has to adopt her it is you also, I believe, though I am going back 9 years, you both become adoptive parents as the birth cert is replaced with a cert of adoption.) and her bio father had never seen her, and lived in the states and was never going to see her either. he had popped back now and again to make trouble, but never saw us or anything. We were told that it would even have to go as far as international social services, even though there isn't much more you can do than move abroad and ignore the child you have to say you are not interested.

I would certainly go and see a very good solicitor who deals only with this type of case. he/she will be able to advise you whether or not a residency order and parental responsibility order (it is best to have both) or adoption would be best.

You also run the risk of the social interviewing your previous partner explaining what you want and that if it is a successful application, he can never contact your son again, and him reacting like, "oh, well I don't know how I feel about that...."blah blah blah. I'm not saying this would happen, but you never know what people are like.

Bottom line: You need a solicitor, and you need a good one.

[mimififi]

I know that this is not what you wanted to hear, I know how you feel as I've been there too. But if you really want it, you can apply.

meanwhile, a good book to read would be "Making sense of the children's act" it's published by Wiley and its ISBN is 0-471-97831-0 this book covers adoption and all the relevent orders you can apply to.

The other orders I mentioned (residency and parental responsibility) I may have slightly muddled in the rights they give you, but I know that the parental responsibility is definately the one you want to have. You husband currently will not have parental responsibility in the eyes of the law. In the event of your sudden death etc etc, he would have to apply for it and it would be very messy. These orders are relatively quick and easy to apply for because you are not changing anything in the son's life, you are simply putting in legal terms that which is already happening. It makes things very tidy and legally water tight in case the previous partner should pop his head distastefully up in the future. It does give your husband alot of security. Similarly, your previous partner does not have parental responsibility either, he would have to apply for it ( and it is unlikely he would get it!). Parental responsibility and residency orders would give your husband the full rights of a parent and thus in effect all the rights he would have as an adoptive father at the fraction of the cost and the potential heartache...

Good luck.

[Goodsoulette]

thanks soo much, at least we know solicitor is the way.

[louise_l]

my civil-partner gave me PR, her child was born in 1999 and she never married the farther, but he's on the birth certificate, do i have to adopt him? and how do we go about it