Anyone know the law reguarding adoption of a stepchild.?(MN)

tjscrd

In the future if my boyfriend and I would marry and he chose to adopt my son could he do that or would his biodad still need to agree? I've gone through court with child support through social services and biodad never showed so I recieved sole legal and physical custody with no visitation. I do not have contact with the biodad and he has not attempted contact with my son. I live in Minnesota.

perly

Im not sure, but since the biological father has no rights over your son, i don't see why you would need his approval.
But, since Im not sure.... here goes a bump!

doodles

Most of the time they will attempt contact with bio dad to give him a chance and if he doesn't respond they will allow the adoption. So they will probably try and go from there

candy101

I agree they would at least have to try to contact him inorder to have a legal adoption. Even though he does not have custodial rights now he could still try for them if he decided to in the future.

jules

They have to contact the biological father to get him to sign away rights

ashley_smashley

When my dad was going to do this for my step brother, they had to put a notice if adoption in the paper...since they had no idea how to contact the bio father who was long gone. Once he never responded they were free to go ahead with adoption. That was Va..might be different in your state.

Mrz_Jackson

My dad was adopted by his stepdad an it was the same way as ashley_smashley sed they had to post it in the paper an wait so long before they could do it . But that was sooo many years ago

captivated

Even though you have custody, they did not terminate his parental rights. Your SO cannot adopt unless he signs his rights away or you can prove abandonment and unable to contact. Since you are receiving child support, you can easily have him served, so placing an ad will unlikely work.

Considering if your SO adopts him, that will resolve him of his obligation of child support, so I doubt you would run into any issues of him not agreeing to terminate.

firstTimeMommy0928

I was adopted and my father had never seen me so whenever they came to the decision for my dad to adopt me they served him and had to wait 30 days for him to respond. At the end of the 30 days was a court date and he didnt show up even though he had been in contact with my mom so basically the court said he relinquished his rights and proceeded with the adoption process. This was in tx

tjscrd

Thanks for all the input! That was my understanding, I just wanted to make sure before my family officially starts coming together. Does anyone know how long one has to be married before a stepparent can adopt?

doodles

I was adopted within the year my mom married my step dad.

captivated

I don't think there are any rules regarding marriage for having your husband adopt.