Adoption before marriage

[gefyn]

What is the name of your state? AZ

My son is 3 yrs old. My fiancée wants to adopt my son.
We were planning on waiting until after our marriage, but the birth father is pushing to have something done soon because he doesn’t and can’t pay support.
Does anyone know if my fiancée can start the adoption process before we are legally married?
Or if we have to wait until we are married, how long do we need to be married before we can start the process?
Thanks,
Diana

[nextwife]

In order to complete a Stepparent adoption, there needs to first be a STEP parent. Thus marriage. Many states want a year or two of marriage BEFORE adoption.

It is really unfair to your fiancee to push him to LEGALLY take over the forever financial responsibilty for your ex's child without first having a at least a couple or more years of marraige together.

[gefyn]

Is there any other type of adoption we can do other than “Stepparent” adoption?

My fiancée is actually the one suggesting to push this on if we have to. He and I have already been living together for over a year and he is the only father my son has ever know.

The birth father has never seen or had anything to do with my son. He left when I was 3 months pregnant and already signed his rights over when I was originally considering adoption before my son was born.

[stealth2]

Nope. The two of you need to be married, for some period of time, before an adoption would be approved.

[haiku]

slow down...seriously......adoption is for a lifetime. there is NO need to rush, At All.

As stated before you would need to be married first, (again DON'T rush) some states require a waiting period, hoops to jump, others do not require any waiting at all.

Due to the fact that each state has such different regulations for step parent adoption, unless there is someone here who knows your states guidelines, we really could not tell you.

You can use google to find your states guidelines.

most importantly if your fiance is that serious, he and you, need to sit down with a lawyer, after the mariage, to discuss the ramifications of adoption. (something tells me, he may not be aware of them....)

Adoptions can be done without lawyer, but no one should attempt one without seeing a lawyer for a consult first. only a lawyer well versed in your states laws can tell you if it is doable or not. Not doing it correctly can void the whole adoption process and worse.

[gefyn]

Thank you everyone...
We will most definitely be having a consult with an attorney!
I appreciate all the feed-back.