I need help adopting my stepson

[TVC 244]

My wife and stepson are now living with me in the state of Florida. They have IR1 and IR2 visa and greencards. My wife and I were married in the Philippines. My stepsons biological father is deceased and he was never married to my wife.

 

In the state of Florida stepchild adoption is relatively simple. You file some papers with supporting documents and it's as simple as that. However our case is different because they're from the Philippines.

 

My stepsons birth certificate, our marriage certificate and the biological fathers death certificate are all from the Philippines. How do we get these authenticated so they will be accepted by Florida court?

 

We do not have the biological fathers death certificate yet. Who has the right to request this? My stepson is only 7 years old but should we make the request in his name. My wife was never married to the bio dad so she thinks she cant get the death certificate.

 

Lastly, as my wife and stepson are still Filipino citizens and not yet US citizens will this be considered an international adoption? Will we need to get the Filipino government involved?

[seekingthetruth 1,246]

 

My stepsons birth certificate, our marriage certificate and the biological fathers death certificate are all from the Philippines. How do we get these authenticated so they will be accepted by Florida court?

Has someone actually told you they will not accept them?  Philippines joined the Apostille Convention last year and the U.S. should accept the original Philippines document, I believe.  You probably need an original from PSA.  They accepted these documents for immigration, correctf?

https://www.rappler.com/nation/dfa-replaces-red-ribbons-authenticate-documents

We do not have the biological fathers death certificate yet. Who has the right to request this? My stepson is only 7 years old but should we make the request in his name. My wife was never married to the bio dad so she thinks she cant get the death certificate.

I don't know for sure by I think you can get it online.  It asks for reason for request and if the bio father is listed on your step-sons birth certificate, should not be an issue.

https://www.psaserbilis.com.ph/Secure/OnlineApplication.aspx

 

Lastly, as my wife and stepson are still Filipino citizens and not yet US citizens will this be considered an international adoption? Will we need to get the Filipino government involved?

 

My opinion is, I doubt it.  She immigrated and her son is in her custody.  In a few years she could become a citizen and I believe he is automatic then.  If there are issues now, you could wait.

 

I'm not an expert.  I'm bringing my step-daughter over but she will be almost 18 so I don't think there is a compelling reason to adopt her at that time. 

 

[Pinkrlion 2,722]

4 hours ago, TVC said:

My wife and stepson are now living with me in the state of Florida. They have IR1 and IR2 visa and greencards. My wife and I were married in the Philippines. My stepsons biological father is deceased and he was never married to my wife.

 

In the state of Florida stepchild adoption is relatively simple. You file some papers with supporting documents and it's as simple as that. However our case is different because they're from the Philippines.

 

My stepsons birth certificate, our marriage certificate and the biological fathers death certificate are all from the Philippines. How do we get these authenticated so they will be accepted by Florida court?

 

We do not have the biological fathers death certificate yet. Who has the right to request this? My stepson is only 7 years old but should we make the request in his name. My wife was never married to the bio dad so she thinks she cant get the death certificate.

 

Lastly, as my wife and stepson are still Filipino citizens and not yet US citizens will this be considered an international adoption? Will we need to get the Filipino government involved?

Your adoption attorney can answer these questions.  

[TVC 244]

7 hours ago, Pinkrlion said:

Your adoption attorney can answer these questions.  

They really cant. American lawyers are clueless on international adoption. I've called about 30 of them and none of them had heard of the hauge convention on adoption.

[aaron2020 11,651]

13 minutes ago, TVC said:

They really cant. American lawyers are clueless on international adoption. I've called about 30 of them and none of them had heard of the hauge convention on adoption.

You're not doing a Hague Convention adoption.  That's when a person adopts a child from a foreign country from unrelated parents.  This is not an international adoption.

 

You're doing a stepparent adoption where your spouse is a related party.  

Contact a lawyer in the Philippines to arrange for your son to get access to his father's certified death certificate.  

Contact a Florida lawyer who is versed in stepparent adoptions.  

Edited November 29, 2020 by aaron2020

[Allovertheworld 355]

11 hours ago, TVC said:

They really cant. American lawyers are clueless on international adoption. I've called about 30 of them and none of them had heard of the hauge convention on adoption.

exactly

[Allovertheworld 355]

11 hours ago, TVC said:

They really cant. American lawyers are clueless on international adoption. I've called about 30 of them and none of them had heard of the hauge convention on adoption.

Another reason you Phillippines will not allow US citizens to get any type of professional degree certification in Philippines.

 

Example : We have way too many RN's from Philippines in the USA, but US Citizens are not allowed to even sit for the Philippines Board Exam to become a RN in PHilippines, even if they went to college in PI and got a BSN.

 

Same thing for lawyers and I am sure for most other licenses.

[seekingthetruth 1,246]

13 hours ago, aaron2020 said:

You're not doing a Hague Convention adoption.  That's when a person adopts a child from a foreign country from unrelated parents.  This is not an international adoption.

 

You're doing a stepparent adoption where your spouse is a related party.  

Contact a lawyer in the Philippines to arrange for your son to get access to his father's certified death certificate.  

Contact a Florida lawyer who is versed in stepparent adoptions.  

If I were in the OPs shoes I would give it a shot without lawyers first.  I suspect that is why he asking questions here.

[JonSeattle 202]

On 11/28/2020 at 3:23 AM, TVC said:

My wife and stepson are now living with me in the state of Florida. They have IR1 and IR2 visa and greencards. My wife and I were married in the Philippines. My stepsons biological father is deceased and he was never married to my wife.

 

In the state of Florida stepchild adoption is relatively simple. You file some papers with supporting documents and it's as simple as that. However our case is different because they're from the Philippines.

 

My stepsons birth certificate, our marriage certificate and the biological fathers death certificate are all from the Philippines. How do we get these authenticated so they will be accepted by Florida court?

 

We do not have the biological fathers death certificate yet. Who has the right to request this? My stepson is only 7 years old but should we make the request in his name. My wife was never married to the bio dad so she thinks she cant get the death certificate.

 

Lastly, as my wife and stepson are still Filipino citizens and not yet US citizens will this be considered an international adoption? Will we need to get the Filipino government involved?

Here in Washington it is more involved, with a visit from social services and so on, so we just went with a name change and will make provision in our wills. The judge for the name change accepted the daughter's Philippine birth certificate with no fuss. If they don't like what you have, they will have you come back with what they want, so it's no big deal. Our first judge told us to come back with more evidence of attempts to contact the absentee father. The second judge asked a few standard questions and then approved the petition.

[jskibo 588]

Just finished our adoption last week in Kentucky.  Similar circumstances, my wife never married to daughter's father and he was deceased in 2015.  We did have the death Certificate already from a trip in 2016.

 

I paid a lawyer $1000 but my employer reimburses for adoption fees to $10k so I wasn't concerned.

 

All PSA originals were no issue and nothing more required (of course depends on state)

 

Filed in March, Adoption complete in November. 

I was petitioner, wife was respondent.  They served her the same papers via certified mail a week after we signed them in the lawyers office

 

They required a background check on me which took longer than expected as I had lived in 3 states in the last 5 years and the Health and Human services lady didn't notice that and kept asking for a new state record release one at a time so she really lengthened her report by over 90 days in doing so.

 

Final hurdle was the judge requested we post to the US National Paternity Registry and wait 30 days to see if anyone claimed paternity which seemed idiotic as she clearly had both a Philippines birth record (so unlikely a US claim to paternity) and a death certificate of the listed father so that added 30 days.

 

Once report was in we had a Zoom court hearing two weeks later and final decree in hand 10 days later.  Waiting on the Kentucky Birth Certificate now so we can get her US passport and then file her as derivative on her mom's Dual national request to re-acquire Philippines citizenship