Family Law

• Adoption
  Our office is experienced in step parent adoptions, which saves you time and money. Let us help guide you through this process. There are really practical reasons to pursue a step parent adoption, such as everyone in the family having the same name. Or allowing the new parent to authorize medical care, help a teen obtain a driver's license, or to interact with the child's school. In some instances, the child's biological parent is not available and it just makes sense to have both parents in the home have legal recognition as the child's parent.
• Guardianship
  However, if both spouses did not travel or if you were appointed as the child's guardians, you are required to re-adopt in order for your child to qualify for U.S. citizenship. If you adopted from a Hague Convention partner country, such as the People’s Republic of China, and you have a final order of adoption, there is no requirement for both parents to travel in order for your child to qualify for citizenship. Instead, you will automatically receive your child's Certificate of Citizenship thirty to forty-five days after you and your child enter the United States. However, if you adopted from a Hague Convention partner country where you received a guardianship decree, such as India, you are required to re-adopt in order for your child to become a U.S. citizen.