Step parent adoption Florida

[sytanek]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am looking to adopt my stepdaughter in Florida. My Wife was never married to biological father. He is not on the birth certificate. He never registered on the Florida putative registry. He refused to provide support for / acknowledge my stepdaughter. Due to his bad choices in life, we were ok with this and never pushed for any sort of support / contact. I have been her dad since she was born. Biological father recently deceased in Texas. Need to know if we need to get a copy of the death certificate somehow, or if we can just do the registry search since from we can tell he did not meet any criteria that says his consent was required. Looks like to get a copy of the death certificate you have to prove you are immediate family, not sure what we would do then...

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am looking to adopt my stepdaughter in Florida. My Wife was never married to biological father. He is not on the birth certificate. He never registered on the Florida putative registry. He refused to provide support for / acknowledge my stepdaughter. Due to his bad choices in life, we were ok with this and never pushed for any sort of support / contact. I have been her dad since she was born. Biological father recently deceased in Texas. Need to know if we need to get a copy of the death certificate somehow, or if we can just do the registry search since from we can tell he did not meet any criteria that says his consent was required. Looks like to get a copy of the death certificate you have to prove you are immediate family, not sure what we would do then...

Your WIFE will need a VERY GOOD ADOPTION Attorney to do this adoption.

 

[CaCO3Girl]

I am not a lawyer, not even close, and I could be way off here but can you go through the bio-dad's mother or father? Perhaps they would want some sort of relationship with their grandaughter?

If not, could you get guardianship of the child through probate court, it is a LOT easier and less costly.

 

[CSO286]

I am not a lawyer, not even close, and I could be way off here but can you go through the bio-dad's mother or father? Perhaps they would want some sort of relationship with their grandaughter?

If not, could you get guardianship of the child through probate court, it is a LOT easier and less costly.

Sweetie, if you don't know the answer, don't post.

 

[anearthw]

An attorney should always be used for an adoption. Retain a good adoption attorney and they should be able to assist you with the proper steps to obtain the information required to complete the adoption.

CaCO3Girl- If this guy wanted nothing to do with the child, then there's a decent chance these grandparents don't even know this child exists. This will likely be a big can of worms, especially with the biological father being deceased, so the OP should ensure all steps are done appropriately when guided by an attorney.

 

[sytanek]

I appreciate all of the replies. We were able to get a free consult with an attorney, the consult was really just a sales pitch letting us know they would be more than glad to handle the issue for us, more than actually answering any questions. They did let us know the price would be on the low end of adoptions as this situation is nothing unusual. Albeit, the price is still a bit higher than what we can afford short term, it wasn't as high as I was expecting. In the end we will most likely go with an attorney.

Side Note, the grandparents were aware, and my step daughter is 9.5 years old now, the bio father passed away very recently, not a single phone call, letter, anything, ever.