[manyblessings]

We moved to CA from another state about 15 months ago. We would like to find out the states requirements and the necessary steps to take for a stepparent adoption.

A little background first:
My daughter is now 16. My husband has been raising her since she was 2. The bf had never had anything to do with her until she was 8 when he met her for the first time because the state we lived in was pursuing back CS. He quickly decided she had a better life with my husband than he wanted to provide, and told the judge at the hearing that he wanted to give up his rights so that my husband could adopt her. We then inquired in our previous state about doing an adoption, but never seemed to have the funds.

Now we have an issue that we need to get this done in order for our daughter to get a CA drivers license in here legal name. The hold up is that her birth certificate has her birth name, but when she was 8 her last name was changed to my husband's name with the consent of her bf. We would have loved to have done the adoption then, but as previously stated, the funds just were not available. I never changed the birth certificate for several reasons, but it did not seem to be a problem since our previous state recognized the court papers and allowed her to have her social security card changed to her name, her school accepted the court papers and changed her name on all school records, and she was able to get her drivers license in that state with her now legal name. Yet, the state of CA will not allow her to get her license because her birth certificate was never changed, and the court papers, social security card, drivers license from previous state all with her current name on them are not considered adequate documentation. Therefore, she can go back to her name listed on her birth certificate, or my husband can adopt her and we can use the adoption papers.

So now we are seeking guidance on what we need to do to get the stepparent adoption done on limited funds, so that our daughter can continue to live her constitutional right in the pursuit of happiness.

One last thing:
Can anyone give me a timeframe on how long this may take from beginning to end. Her license from the previous state expires soon, and she cannot renew it there since we live here. Also, if her license expires, she will not be able to get her CA license without doing drivers ed and all that goes with that, or she turns 18, and even then will have to use birth name if we can't get this accomplished now.

Please do not take the whole drivers license thing as our primary objective. It is not. Our desire has always been for my husband to adopt her, and she has always wanted that as well. She only wants him to be her dad, and even without adoption papers, considers my husband as her dad. It's just that now we do have a pressing issue that is encouraging us to move forward with this dream.

I apologize in that this is so long, and I do want to thank you in advance for all the help, and I look forward to hearing all helpful responses.

[mom4tm]

Hi there,
If you have a court order showing that your daughter changed her name to your husbands', then you can go to the office that handles vital records in your area and ask for the paper workd to submit an ammended birth certificate. You will have to send it in with a certified copy of the court order. It usually takes about 7-9 months.

I hope this helps...

[manyblessings]

Originally Posted by mom4tm

Hi there,
If you have a court order showing that your daughter changed her name to your husbands', then you can go to the office that handles vital records in your area and ask for the paper workd to submit an ammended birth certificate. You will have to send it in with a certified copy of the court order. It usually takes about 7-9 months.

I hope this helps...

Mom4tm,

Thank you for your reply. Having the birth certificate changed is not our issue. I am trying to find out about stepparent adoption in the state of CA.

The state of CA does not recognize the court orders from the previous state for her name change. Apparently, the court papers from the previous state are not legit enough, and yet, when I contacted the previous state to get a more "certified" copy than what I already have, that state informed me that what I have is exactly what they would send me. There is nothing else that can be provided. The papers that I have are a certified copy, in that the papers have a seal from the state where the papers where filed with the court, but CA does not want to accept them, even with the seal, because the papers are partially handwritten where blanks had to be filled in to complete the information.

So, we would just like to proceed with the adoption process. I was just wanting to find out information about steps to take, and a possible time frame for how long a non-contested stepparent adoption usually takes.

Again, thank you for your response, and if you can help in any of the other areas that I need answered, I would grately appreciate your input.