Thread: Birth Father?
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Old 06-25-2006, 09:44 AM
Seraphic Queen Seraphic Queen is offline
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Proceed with some caution on this. I happen to live in one county in Massachusetts where the Guatemalan adoption decree is not recognized by any of the judges precisely because in Guatemala fathers' rights are not terminated legally before the adoption. And Massachusetts requires "re-adoption." There is another county where some of the judges do not recognize Guatemalan adoption decrees. And I know from this board that there is at least one county in Texas where this is the case. There may be other counties in the country which I just don't know about. And I didn't know about it until after we had our child home.

This means that we are being required by the Probate Court to conduct a search at our expense via newspaper in Guatemala for the "unknown unnamed birthfather." We have found an attorney who is going to attempt to argue for a waiver of this requirement, but she is not confident she will win. Find out from your agency or your Probate Court what will be required on this end if you have to "re-adopt." It doesn't mean you can't adopt from Guatemala if your county wants an attempt made to find the birthfather. It just means you will incur more expense and more aggravation just when you thought the paperwork hassle was all over. And, as one attorney told me, if you live in a state requiring re-adoption, you really have no parental rights until you comply with the "re-adoption" process and all it requires, even if your child came home on an IR3 and has citizenship automatically.

I would guess that if Guatemalan adoptions ever come under the Hague Convention, termination of fathers' rights will be part of the process. This means the adoptions will probably take longer and be more costly if Guatemala remains a country open to international adoption. To attempt to search for the unknown unnamed birth father in such a poor country without the techonology and wealth some countries have will be very difficult.
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