I've been married now for three years and want to know how I can adopt my step daughter , considering the bio father has not made contact in four years nor has contributed a dime.How do I go about this process?

I've been married now for three years and want to know how i can adopt my step daughter , considering the bio father has not made contact in four years nor has contributed a dime.How do i go about this process?



You get a signed consent to the adoption from the birth father and then you file the adoption papers with the Court. Unfortunately the fact that he hasn't made contact doesn't mean he doesn't have to be notified or that he doesn't have to consent.

Actually, a signed consent is not always good enough.

He needs to actually terminate his parental rights with the court before an adoption can go through, in most states.

If you look up the laws in your state it should tell you. Most states say after 6 months of no contact, support, etc. from one parent they automatically give up their rights. Either way if it is a minor you will have to go through a home visit even though it is the child's other parents house. They talk to the child, meet the adopting parent and rest of household. Once that is done, you will go in front of a judge and he will talk to the child and adopting parent (if child is old enough to answer) then he will sign paperwork if he approves and you will get a new birth certificate with your name as the child's birth parent. We went through it with my son and his step-dad. In our case the birth father signed over his rights because he had a new family. But, in your case if it is a minor it goes the same. But, most states do have a law that if the bio parent has not had contact or support, etc in a 6 mth period you can start adoption proceedings. Hope this helped.
Donna

You really want a family law lawyer in your area to help you. You CAN do the paperwork yourself, but it's such a pain in the butt, I wouldn't suggest it. We're in the middle of the process of step parent adoption right now. If bio is out of the picture, you could petition the court to terminate his rights, but they may decide not to. You'll probably be looking at posting a notice in the local papers if you can't find bio to ask him to sign the paper work. Only a lawyer familiar with the judges in your area will be able to tell you what to expect them to ask you to do. Either way you're looking at 2-3 thousand dollars as a starting point to get this adoption done. I wish you luck, it's TOTALLY worth it!