What do I need to do to get my son's father's rights terminated?

Question

We live in Washington State. The dude pays a whopping 68 dollars a month, but has never seen his son. I'm getting married in September and my fiance wants to adopt my son, who calls my fiance daddy and has only known him as a father. I know the biological father would sign away his rights, but can we do this before we actually file for adoption or is it one big process? I've asked several similar questions, without great results, but...here's hoping. Thanks.

Answer 1

First you need to get the bio father to sign away his rights. Then you can go from there all the rest of the legal matters. There is alot of paper work to be done. You have to get the paper from the bio-father before they can do anything else.

We done all of that this morning. My hubby is adopting my 2 children. My lawyer sent out the paper work today to my children bio-father and he said if he signs and get them back within the next few weeks. Then by the middle of Aug my children will be adopted by my hubby!

Cost here in Fl. is right at $2000.00

Answer 2

My sister went through the same thing. You have to get the "father" to sign away his rights. The laws may be diffrent we live in Ga.  I hope everything works out for you.

Answer 3

sue him and get his rights taken away. I hope you have a good reason to ruin your kid's lives.

Answer 4

the best advice i can give you is to call legal aide and or your county agency that handels adoption and get some free advice.

Answer 5

My husband wants to adopt my daughter and like you the sperm donor doesn't see the child.  I was told that the bio dad needs to sign his rights over and then you have to go through the process of adoption.  I heard it costs alot so that is why we havn't done anything so far.  Good luck and see if there are atty's around that give free service consultations.

Answer 6

You have to get an attorney and have him served with papers to sign first.  If he does, great.  Then yo go ahead and have his rights terminated in court.  Then you can go ahead with the adoption.  Some courts will let you do both of these hearings at the same time, but with the child removed (for obvious reasons) from the court during the termination hearing.

If he won't sign, you have to serve him and then wait for him to respond.  If he does not, then his rights can be terminated if it is a good serve (the right person, etc.)

This may total a few thousand dollars to do the termination hearing and final adoption hearing.

Good luck!

Answer 7

you have to be smart about a thing like this and take it one step at a time. first of all you ask for complete custody of your son and that will mean giving up the 68.00 per month but tell the father you got a raise and you can handle the expenses. after you have total custody, they you get married and then make application for adoption but keep a record of all transactions with the father. when you  get called for the hearing for the adoption, you prove where he never sees the child, he doesn't know the child. Keep all receipts for clothing, shoes, etc that is purchased for the child by your b/f and this proves he is supporting the child where the father isn't. keep a record of school activities he atends with the childl the games he plays with the child, the ball games he takes the child to. take pictures of them sleeping side by side on the couch watching t.v.  keep a record and pictures of everything.

Answer 8

dont do it, if u think he'll become your son's dad he won't, not to sound like a bitc* but if he pays any amnt of $ it means he cares, wats wrong with him calling the step parent 'daddy' but having his real dad somewhere else?

Answer 9

If his natural father has paid you anything in the past two years you cannot get his parental rights terminated unless he is willing to let you terminate his rights.  You go through two processes. You terminate his parental rights and then you go through an adoption process. It's expensive.  I don't know the laws in your state, but in most states in order to terminate a parents' rights, that parent has to have not seen the child in a year AND not sent any support money. But, you CAN ask him if he'd let your husband adopt the boy and send him legal papers to sign away. He might do it because he will no longer have to send you $68 a month.

Answer 10

We live in Cali, but....

My husband has a son with another woman. His name was on the birth-certificate. When this woman decied to marry another man who wanted to adopt the son, we got paperwork from a lawyer requesting my hubby's signature, releasing all rights to his son.

Answer 11

You can do any thing. He has to want to give them up. Why do you get settled then talk about it with the father of your child.You never know he might know that he's not right for the situation and give it the go ahead. You should really be talking to him about it.......

Answer 12

you do have to do this before you adopt and it sounds like he will be more than willing to do so.  You also need to check and see if there is a grace period for him to change his mind if so you cant start the adoption until that time has expired.  Each state has their own rules on that.  

The purpose of the termination of rights is so that he cant come back later and say he never gave permission and try to reverse the adoption.

Good luck, I have a stepparent adoption and I love my daughter so very much I hope your fiance feels the same about your son.