adoption

my indonesian wife has a 4 year old son from her previous marriage. we are all living together in england (she has a 2 year spouse visa). i would like to formally adopt her child as my son. can anyone give me any advice please?

thanks

Find a good family law practitioner as a start point, for advice on the adoption.

Bear in mind that a child adopted in the U.K. by a British citizen automatically becomes a British citizen if not one already.

Contact the local council in your area, explaining you want to adopt. They will then put you through to Social Services, who will assign a caseworker to you. You will then be a sent a simple form, basically just confirminig your names (including wife's), date of births, and that of the child.

After a couple of weeks, the "Referral Team" will send you a letter, letting you know when A social worker will come to visit you at your home to 'assess' your living arrangements, and whether it is in the child's best interest to be adopted.

You will also need to provide names and addresses of a few family members, and at least two referees, who can vouch for you. You also need to prove that the biological father of the child is happy for the adoption to go ahead, or that the mother has sole responsibility!

All this takes (at least) a couple of months. So you need to be patient. You can also search on www.baaf.org.uk for more info.

Good Luck!

rogerq, seriously consider, don't adopt! The bureaucracy involved in an international adoption is hideous. The Local Authority will charge a fee for their work, and you might be horrified by the level of the charge. Last time I enquired here in Birmingham the fee was £3500, but admittedly each Local Authority sets its own fees, so that is no guarantee of the amount charged in your area.

Is there an alternative? Yes, consider entering into a Step-Parent Parental Responsibility Agreement. That is what we have done in respect of my step-daughter. That agreement has been registered with the Court and I effectively have all the same rights I would have if an adoption had taken place. In particular I can be involved in educational matters .... help choosing school ... and if ever necessary (hopefully not) I can consent to emergency medical treatment.

To download the form ... click here.

John wrote:rogerq, seriously consider, don't adopt! The bureaucracy involved in an international adoption is hideous.

John - but is it an "international adoption" if the child is already resident in the U.K.?

Is the child's father still alive? If so, the answer must be yes, in the sense that someone has to establish what his views are.

thanks to everyone for their advice, its much appreciated...

the biological father is still alive and gave his permission for his son and ex-wife to come to the uk to live with me, which was very good of him...

my initial inquiry resulted from our desire to visit spain this year for a holiday. i read on the internet that if a child under 18 was travelling to spain with only 1 natural parent then permission would be required from their other natural parent.

hopefully the fact that his natural father gave permission for his sons stay in the uk will prove sufficient (under the 2 year spouse visa that my wife obtained).

Having visited Spain, with my wife and step-daughter, when they were still just travelling on their Thai passports (they are both now British) we had no problem at all entering Spain, or indeed leaving. Absolutely no questions asked about my step-daughter's biological father.

Also, if you are thinking about this summer's holiday, well an adoption would take many months, and certainly would not be in place for this year's summer.

Don't forget to obtain Schengen visas!

John wrote:Is there an alternative? Yes, consider entering into a Step-Parent Parental Responsibility Agreement. That is what we have done in respect of my step-daughter. That agreement has been registered with the Court and I effectively have all the same rights I would have if an adoption had taken place. In particular I can be involved in educational matters .... help choosing school ... and if ever necessary (hopefully not) I can consent to emergency medical treatment.

John - what does this not do that adoption does?

Adoption severs the legal ties with natural parent, which means that natural parent can't then become involved in child's life later on (this is important in some cases).

Adoption confers British citizenship on the child (if adoption is in the U.K. and one adoptive parent is a British citizen) while the alternative does not.

What about inheritance rights? (although this is less of an issue if a will is made).

JAJ, all you say is correct, and maybe I was looking at this too narrowly, given my step-daughter's biological father died when she was less than one year old, so many of the issues go away, and also she has been registered as a British Citizen anyway.

Just presenting an alternative to the OP, and at the very least hope he contacts his local council to establish the amount of fee regarding their involvement in the adoption. Cost-wise this is a no-brainer, given that the Step-Parent Parental Responsibility Agreement is effectively a cost-free option, except for a small amount of postage, whereas an adoption could cost a considerable sum.

John wrote: Just presenting an alternative to the OP, and at the very least hope he contacts his local council to establish the amount of fee regarding their involvement in the adoption. Cost-wise this is a no-brainer, given that the Step-Parent Parental Responsibility Agreement is effectively a cost-free option, except for a small amount of postage, whereas an adoption could cost a considerable sum.

Are they mutually exclusive? In other words, is it possible to go for a Step-parent parental responsibilty agreement now, and then look at adoption further down the line?

A key question here is who would look after the child if something happened to the mother. Would the child be shipped back to Indonesia?

Are they mutually exclusive? In other words, is it possible to go for a Step-parent parental responsibilty agreement now, and then look at adoption further down the line?

No they are not, so no reason not to proceed with the Step-parent parental responsibility agreement now.