BOOK YOUR CALL

In the stepparent adoption process, everyone that is a part of the family has a role to play. This includes the biological parent the child is living with, the child themselves if fourteen years or older, the judge who ordered the child support, the absent parent, and the stepparent. Everyone’s involvement is necessary for the upcoming adoption to be successful.

As the custodial biological parent, it is your responsibility to complete two important documents that will help continue your adoption process: a consent to adoption and an affidavit of identification.

The Consent to Adoption

By signing this legal document, the biological parent consents to his/her spouse adopting their child. Nebraska Law requires that the biological parent that the child lives with agree to the stepparent adoption in writing.

The Affidavit of Identification

This document is important for identifying the absent biological parent of the minor child. Due to the sensitivity of this legal document, providing false information is perjury, which is a punishable crime.

To illustrate how important this document is, I will provide a real-life scenario I have encountered in my law office:

In this scenario, the biological mother had separated from her husband, but never legally divorced him. She then became pregnant and gave birth to her current boyfriend’s child, and put her boyfriend’s name on the birth certificate, recognizing him as the legal father.

However, because she was not divorced from her husband when the child was born, he is considered the legal father in the eyes of the law. In this situation, Nebraska law recognizes the rights of the separated husband and those of the boyfriend.

The purpose of the Affidavit of Identification is for the mother to identify both men as the possible fathers of her child, and this is the case no matter how many potential fathers there are. All legal fathers must be notified about your adoption. If a legal father is not properly notified of the adoption and finds out about it after the fact, he has the right to nullify the entire stepparent adoption.

To prevent obstacles before they occur, your adoption attorney must properly notify all legal fathers of your adoption plans using the correct legal procedures.

Our team is just as eager as you are to get the ball rolling. If you’d like some help on this rewarding journey, contact Bundy Law. Click here to book your call!