Adoption Lawyer Serving Leesburg, Loudoun, Fairfax, Ashburn, Manassas, Winchester and Northern Virginia
Practice limited to Adoption and Immigration Expert, efficient, compassionate legal services for adoptive and birth parents. |
Step Parent
Our office is experienced in step parent adoptions, which saves you time and money. Let us help guide you through this process. There are really practical reasons to pursue a step parent adoption, such as everyone in the family having the same name. Or allowing the new parent to authorize medical care, help a teen obtain a driver's license, or to interact with the child's school. In some instances, the child's biological parent is not available and it just makes sense to have both parents in the home have legal recognition as the child's parent. Step Parent Adoption is the most common form of adoption. Often times, when a parent remarries, the new spouse will become more of a parent to the child than the child’s birth parent. If the child’s birth parent has had little to no contact with the child or is willing to sign a consent, then the process for the step parent adoption is relatively easy. Other scenarios which are fairly straightforward are when the identity of the biological parent is unknown or that parent is deceased.
The steps you will need to take when going through a step parent adoption:
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Contact UsIf you would like an information packet or have specific questions about Virginia adoption law or international adoption law, please contact: KLaw@lawadoption.com (e-mail) 43330 Junction Plaza 703.723.4385 (phone) Video Conferencing Consultation available upon request. |
However, not all step parent adoptions are uncomplicated. The biological parent's rights must be taken into account. If a biological parent is involved in the child's life and refuses to consent to the adoption, the step parent adoption may be a highly litigated proceeding. To avoid this outcome, the parties could agree to visitation by the biological parent and this agreement could be incorporated into the adoption decree. Often, an objecting biological parent is most concerned about maintaining contact with the child and the post adoption contact agreement satisfies the concern. A step parent adoption can provide legal recognition for the new family in a way that still honors the biological parent. 
