[mnicoll]

The biological father is not on the birth certificate.. Can I put my boyfriend on the birth certificate or doeshe need to adopt her?

[Wondergirl]

There's a sticky on the Family Law board that tells all about this.

In most states you must be married for a year before your boyfriend can adopt your child. (In other words, why would the legal system allow someone to adopt your child when you aren't even married to him? Future custody situations would be horrendously confused.)

Also, the biological father would have to be willing to give up his rights to the child.

Here's the Family Law sticky --

Signing Over rights-** READ FIRST **
This is a very frequently asked question here. And frequently answered. The following is a summary of the facts and covers most jurisidctions.

1) A bio parent cannot be forced to relinquish their rights, it has to be voluntary.
A) The only exceptions to this are where the bio parent cannot be found after a good faith effort to contact them or in cases where the bio parent represents a danger to the child.

2) Most areas make it difficult for a bio parent to relinquish their parental rights. Usually its allowed only to clear the way for adoption of the child.

3) Relinquishment of rights refers only to the right to have a say in how a child is raised.

4) Relinquishment of parental rights may or may not affect parental responsibility depending on local laws. The parent can still be held responsible for child support or it will be even harder to get a Termination of Parental Rights. A TPR is NOT going to be granted just to let the parent off the hook for support.

5) The only thing that allows ending responsibility is if the child is adopted, in which case the adoptive parents assume that responsibility.

Those are the facts and apply to almost all circumstances in almost all areas. There are several threads here that discuss this issue in greater depth. I would suggest reading them before posting a question.

On a personal note, I do not recommend relinquishing rights unless its to clear the way for adoption. A child deserves to know his parents, not matter how bad the person may have been. People can change.

[Synnen]

Putting anyone EXCEPT the biological father on the birth certificate is FRAUD, unless you go through the adoption process.

Changing any aspect of the birth certificate must also go through the courts, as it is a legal document and cannot just be arbitrarily changed just because you want it to be.