If you recently married, then you may want your spouse to become the legal parent of your children from previous relationships or marriages. Without a legal adoption process, your spouse will only be a stepparent to the children, and will not have the legal obligation to provide for them and care for them. Also, stepparents typically don't give their children the benefits of estate planning rights for the future, and they cannot make healthcare decisions for the child should he or she become incapacitated.
There are a host of benefits to claiming a child as your own if you are his or stepparent. For one, stepparents are not granted the tax benefits of parenthood unless they adopt the children. As well, for children the adoption process may be emotionally bonding, and allow children to see a stepparent who has entered their life as truly a father figure or mother figure. Filing for a private adoption like this one without an attorney can be very tricky, so you should locate a local family lawyer to help you with the process right away.
Stepparent adoptions normally go without too many complications, as the courts don't normally need to dispute whether or not the stepparent will be a good parent for the child. Your first step to kick start the process will be to check with local family lawyers and learn what rates they charge. You will then want to partner with your attorney to research the adoption laws in your state. Most adoption laws are evaluated on a state, and not a federal level. This means that an adoption permissible in California may not be allowed in Virginia, for example. Because of this, you will want to learn about how our state specifically handles adoption cases.
Once you have discovered the adoption laws for your state, you will want to read these statutes with a lawyer there to help you understand. The more information that you know about stepparent adoptions the smoother your process should go. In almost every adoption petition, the stepparent will need to provide a name, residence, and marital status and the name and date of birth of the child that you would like to adopt. You will also need to gather the names and residences of both the birth father and the birth mother. Some states may also require you to disclose if the child owns any property and how this would influence your adoption, or may want to know what the name of the child will be after adoption.
In almost all states, you will need to obtain the consent of the biological parents in order to get the case settled. If your spouse is one of the biological parents of a child, then you will simply need to get a written consent form from the other parent. This could prove to be difficult if the biological parent opposes the adoption for any particular reason. Most states have very particular laws on obtaining consent, so you will want to learn what these are and will want your attorney to assist you in gathering the signatures and consent needed.
Whenever you run into difficulties, an attorney can be there to assist you. For example, you may want more information about the consent verification laws in your state, or may need someone to act as your mediator between the court. An attorney can also accompany you to your court hearing, second hearing, and help you to secure a new birth certificate for your adopted son or daughter. If you want more information, then hire a local family attorney. This directory can assist you in locating someone near you!