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Frequently Asked Adoption Questions:
Types of Adoptions We can Do
There are many types of Child Adoption: International, Open, Closed, ect… But, we help people who have already found the child they want to adopt and then we do the adoption paperwork for that family. Everyone in the adoption process must be in agreement for the adoption to take place and all parties must be United States citizens. See also Residency Requirements.
A step parent adoption usually occurs when a man and a woman come together and marry and one party or both have children they are bringing into the marriage. This is the typical “Brady Bunch” scenario. With a step parent adoption the father (for example) can adopt all the children that the mother brought into the marriage. Thus creating one big happy family. The parents must be married to have a Step Parent Adoption.
This simply means that the parties in the adoption are related to each other. The closer the relationship the better. The most frequent cases involve grand parents and grand children.
An adult adoption simply means that the person being adopted is 18+ years old. These types of adoption typically happen for the purpose of inheritance.
Single parent adoptions often occur because the father has left and the mother doesn’t want the father to have any rights that pertain to the children. The father also has to agree with this process. There are other ways to use the single parent adoption as well.
With a missing biological father adoption, the birth mother doesn’t know where the father is and sometimes doesn’t know who the father is. Therefore, all rights to the child will be solely hers.
We help with Missing Biological Parent Adoptions. See more details on the Ordering Page.
If one or both of the Spouses is in the Military when doing an adoption, one of the spouses, must be present in the US to file the adoption paperwork at the local county courthouse. They must qualify for residency in the State they are filing the adoption and must both undergo the criminal background check and the Home Study must also be done.
The Process
How long the adoption process takes depends on which State the adoption takes place in. But, for the most part, it takes between 4 and 6 months.
The court or in the county where the parents and child reside if there is no prior court of continuing jurisdiction.
The parties involved in the adoption formally request that the parental rights of the biological parent be terminated allowing the adoption to be granted. The Judge may ask some simple questions and then makes a decision to either grant or deny the adoption.
The Adoption Home Study is the way the State determines if you are a good candidate to take a child into your home. An adoption case worker from a State accredited company, will evaluate your situation and perform a Home Study. The case worker has you fill out information about your finances, does a criminal background check, and often comes into your home and asks questions about the home environment.
Our Service
The cost of our Rapid Adoption Service is seen on our Prices page. We accept Major Credit Cards and Paypal. The court costs are paid when you walk in your Adoption paperwork to the courthouse.
The forms take 2-3 business days or sooner to process, excluding weekends and holidays. Then they will be emailed to you. Faxing is not available, because they have to be original documents.
We feel that our product is of the highest quality. Therefore we offer our 101% Guarantee. If the Judge fails to grant your Adoption due to a paperwork typographical error, then we will correct the problem. If we cannot correct the problem, then your money will be refunded 101%.
1. Order the Rapid Adoption Service – Click Here
2. Fill in our Adoption Questionnaire after the ordering process
3. We process your adoption forms in 2-3 business days; that is our goal.
4. You Sign the forms and file them at your local county courthouse.
5. You “Serve” all parties involved in the adoption. (more instructions are provided in the adoption directions that you receive.)
6. You have contact your State Adoption Case Worker and do the Adoption Home Study.
7. You attend your final hearing and the child is now legally part of your family. You’re Finished !!!
When you go to a lawyer, they represent you in court. When you use our Rapid Adoption Service, you represent yourself. When a lawyer does your adoption case, you would meet with him or his paralegal and fill out an Adoption Questionnaire. That info. is given to a paralegal to type up your adoption forms. Then the lawyer would go to court with you and read off a pre-prepared statement that was prepared ahead of time. When you use our Rapid Adoption Service, you also fill in our Adoption Questionnaire. It is given to our paralegals to complete the information on the adoption forms exactly as it appears on the Adoption Questionnaire. Then you simply go to court for 10-12 minutes and read off the same pre-prepared stamen. You represent yourself and you don’t have to pay $1500 or more for a lawyer to go to court for 10-12 minutes for you.
No we do not represent you or give any kind of legal advice. We are a non-lawyer service. The case is in your hands.
Yes, we complete adoption paperwork in all 50 States. Remember, all the parties must live in the same State for us to be able to process the adoption. Call your local county courthouse to find out the exact residency requirements. Call us if you have any questions about this.
Step Parent Adoption Specific Questions
Usually step parent adoptions when the couple are NOT YET married, are not doable in the State court systems. Typically judges don’t like to create a shared custody type of arraignment. It’s farily similar to a divorcing couple situation.
Yes and No.
1. If the Bio-Father is active in the child’s life and doesn’t want the step-parent adoption to go thru to the new Step-Dad then it would be a court battle. And that would get really expensive in lawyer fees. (Contact us if this is the situation. We can help you save 25% in your lawyer fees.)
2. Sometimes the Bio-Father is not active in the child’s life. You may suspect that he may not like the idea, but since he is inactive (see also completely missing Bio-Father), then it may be possible to persuade him to allow it to be done. Especially in lieu of child support payments. Ironically many of the Bio-Father’s that are active or semi-inactive will allow a step parent adoption to make the child support payments stop. But, it depends upon your situation.
NOTE: We have even seen that some of the decision making ability of the Bio-Father can remain intact even after a Step Parent Adoption. This is done by contractual agreement between the Bio-Father, Bio-Mom, and new Step-Dad. This usually takes place where religeon is concerned. Or any major decision that is important to you. Also, even a visitation schedule can be done thru contractual agreement so the Bio-Father can see the kids on a regular basis. It has been done.
There are a couple scenarios where this happens….and sometimes it depends upon the scenario you find yourself in….
1. The bio-father was missing at the time of the birth and has never been seen again. —-In this scenario, most likely he doesn’t have any custody rights, but may have child support responsibilities. So, generally a Step Parent Adoption can go thru with just the mother’s consent
2. The bio-father is not on the birth certificate, but there is significant contact with the child…and sometimes there is child support being paid. In this case, if the bio-father is around and active, and hist location is known it would usually be best to consult with him about the step parent adoption.
3. Sometimes the bio-father is newly missing. In which case, you can do a Missing Biological Parent Adoption. We have a special package just for that purpose.
Yes, generally a same sex legally married couple can do a step parent adoption. This is a new proceedure in the United States as of 2015 so there may be some local state or county rules that come into play. But generally, if the same sex couple is legally married in the State and one already has a legal child, then the other can adopt as a step parent.
RapidAdoption.com can help with same sex step parent adoption. Contact us today.
General Questions
We can do it. If the children have the same biological father, then it comes under the same case. But, if the children have separate biological fathers, it would be 2 cases (for 2 children). This is because the parental rights must be severed for 2 different fathers. Which are totally separate court cases. There will also be 2 separate court fees and form sets. So be prepared for this.
We can do it. If the children have the same biological father, then it comes under the same case. But, if the children have separate biological fathers, it would be 2 cases (for 2 children). This is because the parental rights must be severed for 2 different fathers. Which are totally separate court cases. There will also be 2 separate court fees and form sets. So be prepared for this.
One family. No two families can hold the Custody Rights to a child at the same time.
1. Waiver of service & Surrender of Parental Rights: allows an agreeable biological father to sign a waiver of the formalities of service of citation notifying him of your suit and voluntarily surrendering their parental rights.
2. County Sheriff or Process Server: A County Sheriff or Process Server actually go out to where the biological father lives or works and hands him the papers. The process server then completes a ‘return of citation’ showing that the biological father was personally handed the papers.
3. Certified mail: You would send a Certified letter through the mail, allowing the biological father to be notified (served) through the mail. You would send the Certified letter with delivery restricted to the biological father only. Once he has signed for the certified mail, the green card with his signature is returned to you as proof that he was served. You then send a copy to the Court to verify that “service of process” has been completed.
4. Service by Publication: allows cases to proceed even when the biological father cannot be found to be notified or even if his identity is unknown. A legal notice is run for a few weeks in the newspaper in the county where the adoption suit is filed as “service of process”. The case then proceeds just as if he had been personally notified.
We can still do your adoption…it will require a 2 step process.
Step 1: The biological parents relinquish rights to the child in the State in which they live
Step 2: The adoptive parents take up the rights in the State in which they live.
However, if the person being adopted is over 18 (legal adult)… all this is unnecessary because the biological parents don’t have any say in with the parental rights. If you need help understanding the law on this topic, please consult an attorney first. We also have a fantastic attorney question/answer network at an affordable price. Contact us if you need help with this.
Most states now require a criminal history check to be completed on any person adopting a child. The adopting party simply goes by the county sheriff’s office and has a fingerprint card completed to be mailed to a state agency for a criminal history check. Some sheriff’s offices charge a nominal fee of $5-$10 for doing the fingerprint card, but most makes no charge for taking the fingerprints.
In an adoption the last name of the person being adopted is often changed to match the adoptive parents. We include this name change as part of our service. No problem.
The age of consent for most states is 10 years of age and over, therefore requiring children 10 years of age and over to sign and file a Consent Form with their adoption.
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