How do i go about adopting my girlfriends son?

Question

hi, i want to adopt my Girlfriends son (age 7) and i want to know how i do this?

Answer 1

OH MY GOD all these answers ARE TOTAL c**p!!!!!!!!

I am a mother of 2 children am now married but when i first got with my hubby he immediately wanted to adopt my son who was 4 at the time, you had to be married THEN so we waited til we were in 2006. We got in touch with our local adoption agency through the county council and they set up a date to come and visit, she told us that the law had changed and you no longer need to be married!! Anyway we had loads of meetings with this social worker she went through all my hubby's history my history and obviously had to speak to our son, he had never met his bio dad, our son was 6yrs old now anyway she still had to trace him and ask him, she said even if he said no it wouldn't mean much as he hadn't seen him in so long! It took just under a year for all of this to go through but it was and is so worth it for you,your girlfriend but most of all the child.

You DONT need a solicitor we never had one its just a pointless waste of money unless you intend on getting into a big fight with the natural father and its all messy with him and your girlfriend?? If not then don't bother.

Make the first step and contact your local council and get the number for the local adoption agency and then you can explain it all to them and they will also advise you, good luck and i hope everything works out for you all xx

Answer 2

First, marry your girlfriend, so the court knows you are going to be serious and committed to her.

Next, she needs to find out whether the child's father will allow this to happen.

So basically, you need to get this information, get a lawyer practicing family law, and get the ball rolling after the marriage.

Answer 3

Does the biological father object?  If not, it's fairly simple.  You need to hire an adoption lawyer to draw up the paperwork, which will include a release of parental rights for the biological father to sign.  Once you have that signed, it's just a matter of her signing the papers and them being registered with the courts.  Then you sit back and wait for the judge to sign them.  You do realize that if you adopt this child and you and your girlfriend break up, you will be responsible for child support, right?

Answer 4

YOU CANT

You must be married to her before you can do this.  Once you are married, phone your local High Court and ask to be put through to the Adoption Officer, ask them to send you out 'step parent' adoption forms.

Once the forms arrive out phone social services and tell them your plans, they will send a social worker out who will help you with the forms.  The forms must be sent off with your marriage cert, birth certs etc and a £70 cheque.  YOU DO NOT NEED A SOLICITOR, WE DIDN'T

The adoption will take about 12-16 weeks to complete.  In this time social services will contact his biological 'sperm donor', whether he gives consent or not is up to him, if he doesn't the Judge will decide whether to take the rights off him or not, if he has been a decent parent the judge probably wont but if he has been a bad git it makes the decision easier for the judge

I could go on but there's not much point until you are married

Answer 5

First, you have to marry your girlfriend.  Come on...it's only a piece of paper!  Then you'll have to hire an attorney and s/he can help you with the process. Some judges will not allow an adoption to take place unless the 'spouse' has been around a certain amount of time and others require that you be married for a year.