Process of Adopting Stepchild

[ilove-t 0]

Hi, I just recently married a US citizen in the US (under a K1 visa). I have a toddler son (K2) and my husband is planning to adopt him and change his last name. My son does not have a father listed on his birth certificate.

Anyone here who undergone the same process? I would appreciate if you can share some insights.

Thank you in advance.

[Hypnos 6,576]

I'm doing this right now, also in Texas.

It's costing around $2,000, and that's with the natural father voluntarily agreeing to terminate his parental rights. If the father refuses to do so in your situation, or you cannot locate him, it will cost you more since you will have to file for a judge to terminate his rights involuntarily.

You will also need to have a home study performed, at a cost of a few hundred dollars, to show that the prospective adoptive parent is financially stable, has a residence appropriate for a child, and has no communicable diseases that would threaten the child. I've not had this done yet but it sounds like an absolute barrel of laughs.

Your husband will also have to be fingerprinted and have a criminal background check performed.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Hypnos

[island_princess 2]

Check with your county's Clerk of Court to see if you can file a self-representation (meaning no lawyer involved) adoption case. If you can handle the immigration process by yourself, I am sure it will be easy for you to follow the adoption process too, especially there is no father listed in your kid's BC.

Here in our county (FL), it will only cost $400 to file, no lawyer.

Edited April 27, 2014 by island_princess

[NickD 203]

If another biological parent is involved, would more than likely be happy to turn over the child and even pay for the adoption just to get out of child support payments. Speaking on experience on this issue.

A friend recently adopted a four month old baby girl and they made him put up fire exit signs in his home, but only for a year. Since this is your child, shouldn't run into this.

Agree in going to visit your country court clerk to get information, you, your child, and spouse. Every state has different laws on the subject. I adopted two, a brother at two years old with a nine month old sister. Forms were easy enough and had permission from the biological father that was more than happy to get out of child support payments. We had to go in front of a judge, just asked the two year old if he wanted me for a daddy. He shook his head yes. Nine month old was too young to answer, but he could see, she was happy, Took all but five minutes, a couple of weeks later received new birth certificates listing us as parents.

With my friend with that for month old baby from a different country, he and his wife had to go through the immigration process. Seems dumb to me, child was from Ethiopia, and her place of birth will stick with her forever.

When you adopt a child, you are accepting the full burden of raising that child and saving the state huge amounts of money in case workers and foster homes. Financially, you are only about a buck a day in reduced income taxes for each kid. Would think the state should pay you or even do this for free, plus you have to pay outrageous cost for just health insurance.

But it doesn't work this way, namely, because we have idiots running this country that make the laws.