Hi,
My fiancé is a convicted felon. He has now been going to a technical school, made the president's list, he works and he is wonderful to my kids. Their biological father is nothing to them and has not been since they were born. Over the course of about 10 years, he was maybe around for 4 of those total (AND NOT CONSECUTIVELY). My fiancé wants to adopt my children after we are married. Will his felony prevent him from doing so?

You must be married first before anyone can go about adopting anybody. You and your fiancé are not married so no Judge in his right mind will grant an adoption in those circumstances. And they are not his "step" children until you are married.

We can't answer. We have no idea what the legal requirements for adoption are where you live (since you gave no indication of where that is). Nor can we advise on the climate of Family Courts in your area.

So what you NEED to do is consult a Family Law attorney in your area who can better advise on local laws and judicial temperament. You need to have an attorney prepare the adoption petition anyway so you might as well start shopping around.

What was he convicted of and where is this happening at ?

First of course the bio father will have to be willing to sign over his rights to allow the adoption. You failed to mention if he is willing to do that.

Next so much will be local laws, some places require married for a year, others will merely require a long term relationship.

As for the felonies, it will depend on how long ago, what they were for and more.

It was for robbery. He has been out for 2 years. Their father will probably sign because he will be free of child support (which he doesn't pay anyway because he doesn't work).

Robbery in Washington

Thank you for your help. We are not getting married until September of 2011 but I just wanted to know if anyone knew about this since I will be pursuing this after we are married. That is of course unless there is a specified time of marriage requird

I realize that. I just wanted to get a head start on all of the details first. I intend to look further into it myself just wanted to get some knowledge from others if possible first! Thank you!

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Originally Posted by chelsearose3

Will his felony prevent him from doing so??

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Hello c:

If there was violence, it could.

excon

Please don't use the Comments feature for follow-up. Use the Answer options instead.

So you have plenty of time to shop around for an attorney and find one to advise you.