Stepparent adoption is usually one of the simplest kinds of adoption. Not in every case, though. Sometimes we hear about people who want to have a stepparent adoption — but they’re not stepparents. For example, a mom might want her fiancé or live-in beau to adopt her child. It’s a lot like a stepparent adoption, but is it actually a stepparent adoption?
Legally, no. Arkansas law is clear on this:
“For the purposes of [stepparent adoption], ‘step-parent‘ means an individual who is the spouse or surviving spouse of the biological or adoptive parent of a child but who is not a biological or adoptive parent of the child.”
That is, a stepparent must be married to the parent of the child. He or she may be a spouse or a surviving spouse, but marriage must be involved.
Note that the parent of the child may be either the biological parent or the adoptive parent. In the case of the mom in our example, she may be the biological mother of the child or she may be the adoptive mother of the child. Either way, for stepparent adoption to take place, the person to file for the adoption must be her spouse.
What options does a fiancé have?
The easiest way for a man to adopt his fiancee’s child (she’s the mom in our example, remember?) is to get married. Unmarried couples cannot legally adopt a child together in Arkansas. Fiance adoption is not a thing.
Single people can adopt in Arkansas, so the fiancé in our example could adopt the child as an individual. However, this would not be a stepparent adoption. Both biological parents — that includes his fiancee in our example — would have to agree to give up their parental rights.
This is probably not what our example couple has in mind.
In our example, we’ve set things up so that we have a biological mom with a child and a man she’s planning to marry. They can just wait until they’re married and file for stepparent adoption in the usual way.
What about an unmarried partner?
Let’s take a new example. Let’s say we have a man with two children moving in with a woman who also has a child. They don’t plan to marry but they are in a committed relationship and plan to parent their children together. Can they adopt each other’s children?
No. As an unmarried couple, they are legally not allowed to adopt children together. Their situation is the same as the one in our first example, except that they don’t plan to marry, Stepparent adoption simply is not an option here.
If they later decide to get married, each of them can file for stepparent adoption of their spouse’s kids. They can legally be a single family: two parents and three children. But they must be married for that to happen.
Every adoption journey is different. Some are easier than others. No matter what the details of your situation may be, Heimer Law can help you understand your options. Contact us to discuss your needs.
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