How much can I expect to pay (relative adoption)?
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at
10:36 am
How much can I expect to pay an attorney to adopt my 18-month-old niece if her mother voluntarily signs away her rights to the child’s custody?
What steps will we need to go through?
Can I apply for an Adoption Grant to help cover the costs?
About how long will the process be from beginning Buy Drugs to end?
If it matters, I live in Iowa.
I adopted my step daughter with her mother’s consent. It cost $750 for the lawyer and $140 court filing fees.
You need to call a family law attorney and ask how much they charge to do an uncontested adoption. They will tell you what the court filing fees are as well.
What happened with us was, my husband, my daughter’s first mother, and myself went to the lawyer to discuss what we wanted and to have the lawyer inform her first mother EXACTLY what adoption meant. ( I wanted to make sure she knew what she was doing and was 100% sure she wanted to)
The papers were drawn up and we went back to the lawyer. Her first mom signed a "Voluntary termination of Parental Rights and Consent to Adop" paper. I signed a "Petition to Adopt"
It was then filed and we were give a court date. My husband and I went to court and the judge asked me a few questions such as did I understand that the adoption was permanent and if my husband and I ever divorced, I could be held liable for child support should he get custody. I was asked did I realize that I had every responsibility to her that I had to the children that had been born to me. ANd then we were asked how stable our marriage was.
It took maybe 5 inutes in court, then the judge signed the papers and that was that.
I am not sure about adoption grants. Because this was a decision that myhusband, her first mom and I came to together we split the cost 50/50.
I can’t really say how much it cost but they usually try and make the tax break equal to the cost for cases like this. So I would say not to much and you will get most back.
You will have classes and a home study to go through, there is no way around this.
I can not tell everyone enough to get a lawyer with experience in this kind of adoption. We’ve payed our way over what it is supposed to cost just because she doesn’t know what she is doing. Step parent adoption is not the same and will not help them to know what they are doing. EXPERIENCE!!!!!!
Basically, you have to pay the attorneys fees-All total, ours were around $8000 and worth every penny. Good luck