What Steps Are Necessary to Adopt My Partner’s Child?

To start a procedure of this type, the first thing we must know is that neither a lawyer nor a solicitor is necessary, but as you will see, it is extremely advisable, because the procedure can be long and complicated without the help of a professional.

The procedure must be carried out through the An Open Door Adoption Agency with the steps that we analyze later, and once the adoption is accepted, it will be registered in the corresponding records with full legal effects.

Real situations in which this case can occur

There are many cases in which we may be faced with the assumption of adoption of the son or daughter of our partner, husband, or wife. 

We are going to list the most common ones or at least the ones that we have been seeing in our office:

• Single father or mother (partner of the adopter), that is, the other biological father or mother of the adoptee is unknown or has not been recognized.
• That the stepson or stepdaughter was conceived through surrogacy or in vitro fertilization, and the biological father or mother has never been recognized.
• That the biological father or mother of the adoptee (who is not our partner) has disengaged from the upbringing of the minor. He may or may not have been deprived of parental rights. In the latter case, it is advisable to first request that deprivation and then request adoption.
• That the biological father or mother who is not our partner has died.
• The adoptee has already been adopted by our partner previously, and the identity of her biological parents is unknown or they do not have parental authority.

Legal Requirements To Adopt Your Partner’s Son Or Daughter

In this article we will explain some of the main legal requirements so that our request is not withdrawn from the first moment, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office may find social or psychological reasons to refuse and that will depend on each specific case.

Adopter Requirements

• The adopter must always be over 25 years old and be at least 14 years older than the adoptee.
• Likewise, your criminal record will be taken into account when reviewing your suitability for adoption, as will your incapacitations, deprivations, or suspensions to be able to adopt decisions following a court ruling.
• Nor will anyone who may have any type of conflict of interest with the adoptee regarding economic issues or judicial procedures be eligible to adopt.

Adoptee Requirements

The adoptee does not have to be a minor; he or she can be of legal age as long as cohabitation between the adopter and adoptee for at least one year is proven.

They cannot be a descendant of the adopter or a second-degree relative of the collateral line by consanguinity or affinity. That is, neither a brother nor a brother-in-law or sister-in-law can be adopted.

Procedures And Documents Necessary To Adopt My Partner’s Son Or Daughter

The first thing we must do is collect a series of documentation:

• Certificate of marriage or registration as a de facto couple.
• Documentation that proves the coexistence with the adopted person and with the latter’s biological father/mother.
• Documents that prove the economic situation. To understand each other, we will have to “prove” that we have sufficient solvency to care for the minor.
• Birth certificate of the minor.

If there is (which does not usually occur) express consent from the biological father or mother of the minor who is not our partner (and from whom we are going to separate the minor), it will have to be provided.

Documentation that proves that the minor has been in our care for some time, and that we have been taking charge of his education and support.

Once we have all the documentation, we will have to write an adoption request indicating all our data and that of the adopted person to the An Open Door Adoption Agency.

Depending on the situations that we will explain in the next point, two things can happen:

• That the adopted person does not have another known biological father/mother and that only that adoption is subject to the external control of the Prosecutor’s Office. In this case, it would be the person who will examine the situation and approve the adoption.
• That the adoptee has a known and present biological father/mother, to whom the application must be sent to respond to it, requesting the need (or not) to give their consent to the adoption. This person will accept or refuse it with the arguments that he or she deems necessary.

Therefore, it is advisable when the question arises as to whether we can adopt our partner’s son or daughter to see if we broadly meet the requirements mentioned in this article. 

If so, the most effective thing will be to speak with a lawyer to help us in every one of the necessary steps and compilation of documentation. Thus, in a period of between 1 and 3 months, our adoption will be effective.