How does my fiance go about adopting my four children once we are married?

Question

Scots Law.

The children's bio father has had nothing to do with and seems to want nothing to do with the children.

He's not seen them at all for six years, he pays no child maintenance, (although the CSA are trying to sort that out), he doesn't try to see them, doesn't send them a card on their birthday or phone them etc. In fact, although I'm still in touch with his mum, I'm not even sure where he himself lives any more, as I gave up trying to get him to take an interest in the children a long time ago and the younger two (8 and 10), don't even remember him

My fiance and I have been together for 7 years, and are marrying next year.

My eldest son (15) brought up the subject of him being adopted by my future husband, so we said we would look into it. (It being the weekend though, the solicitors is closed as is CAB)

Does anyone know what the proceedure is? Could the children's father block this, even though he has been absolutely out of the picture for so long?

Answer 1

We have looked into doing this for my son as my partner and i are extecting a baby.

I found my local adoption/fostering office online and contacted them.

They said that although my sons biological father hasn't ever had anything to do with him it would be advisable to get his permission as once adopted all ties with the biological paternal family are severed.

The proceedure is simple enough, a few informal interview and a chat with the kids if they are old enough and hey presto.

You do however have to pay a fee to the court i think it's just over £100 and this is for the legal side of things.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!!!

P.S YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE MARRIED FOR YOUR OTHER HALF TO ADOPT YOU CHILDREN!!!!

Answer 2

i don't think your ex can block this if he's been out of the picture for so long - if he'd been paying regular maintenance and had regular contact it'd be a different story.

you and your partner, and all of your children will be subjected to a social services review which will involve your children's schools.  the decision as to whether the adoption can go ahead will be decided on the basis of the needs of the children; that your son has raised the issue spontaneously and is keen will stand in your favour.

i'd say it's definitely worth doing - my older sister was very disappointed to discover that because she was never formally adopted by him, she wasn't allowed to name our dad on her wedding certificate as her father, even though he's raised her since she was tiny and has been married to our mother since she was about 6.

the government advice for the adoption procedure can be found here:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Adop...

there are a lot of legal details which will need to be gone over; this site links to them but they are quite dense and will take time to read over and digest - i'd recommend you take legal advice as soon as is possible to start the procedure as it can be quite a lengthy process.

Answer 3

Hi, my husband is in the process of adopting my son.

Contact your local High Court and ask to be put through to the Adoption Officer and ask them to send you out 'Step parent Adoption Forms'  Once these forms arrive out contact your local social services department, tell them your husband is adopting your children and you need a social worker sent out.

The social worker will arrange to call out usually within 4 weeks and he/she will help you fill out the forms.  You can go to a solicitor but you will pay an absolute fortune which is not necessary, we aren't using a solictor (we found out roughly how much we would pay) and decided against it, the social worker also told us we didn't need to use a solicitor.

You will have to send of marriage certificates, birth certificates etc to the court with your forms.  Your social worker will contact your ex and explain what is happening and arrange to call out and see him, they will get his side of the story and if he agrees to sign the adoption forms it will be pretty straight forward if he doesn't sign them its up to a judge to decide whether or not to take your ex's rights away from him.

This will all take about 4/5 months to finalise, step parent adoptions do not take as long as they use to.

So first step is to get married, wait a few months and then contact social services.

Good luck, sounds like you have a good man there, keep him, your very lucky just like me

Kate

Answer 4

You will need an attorney.  Your ex will have to sign papers renouncing his parental rights.  It could get messy bu  probably not since he is not in the kids lives.  

then an adoption can be arranged.