Is it possible to go through adoption without a lawyer? If so, how long will the process take? My son's biological father never acknowledged him and he lives in Europe. He was never added to the birth certificate, never paid child support and never had contact since my son was 6 months (that's when he told me he doesn't think he's the father and that he is getting married). No more contact after that. I was never married to him. My husband took the responsibility of taking care of my son since he was 1 year old and now that he is 5 and started school, we wanted to go through adoption to make it official and so we can also change his last name. Do we still need to find ways to contact the biological father and ask him to relinquish his rights even though his name was never on the birth certificate? I made the mistake of using a hyphenated name for my son. What's the fastest and most economical way of going through the process? Thank you.

You need to at least make the attempt to contact the birthfather so that he can sign away his rights.

Unfortunately, because this involves going internationally, you may NEED a lawyer to do this.

Hi there. Thanks for your quick response. Granting I find a contact information for my son's biological father, would there be a special form that I need to use for him to relinquish his rights, can I create that form or is that just a letter from him stating that he doesn't want to have anything to do with my child?

The forms vary from state to state. It's very seldom (if ever) just a letter--it's something VERY legal, and VERY binding. Relinquishment generally needs to be done in court, because the judge generally wants a person to be VERY sure that they know what they are giving up.

Is the father an American citizen abroad? Or the citizen of another country who has returned home? If it is an American citizen, it may be much easier for you, though you would still have issues with the fact that he's not in the US at the moment. If it is a citizen from another country, I wouldn't even TRY to do this without lawyers. You're getting into international law, then, and I believe the child would technically have dual citizenship.

Some lawyers offer a free initial consultation--I would check with one to find out what your local laws are on relinquishment/adoption and whether the fact that the birthfather is not in the country is going to make things more complicated.