Intercountry Step-parent adoption (daughter born abroad-Southeast Asia)

[married_i_am]

Hi! I'm new here and glad to found this forum. I knew this will be a very helpful site for my family.

My husband and I were married already for 7 months now. My husband, who is a U.S. citizen filed/petition a visa for me and my 3-yr-old daughter(born out of wedlock) and we are still on the immigration proceeding just exactly waiting for the interview date.

My husband wanted to adopt my daughter so she could use his family name. Daughter used to recites her full name using my husband's family name(in preparation for our togetherness). But all her documents specially in her birthcertificate she uses my maiden name(family name before i got married to my now husband) as her family name. I was not been married to her "biological father" (also a U.S. citizen), his name is not in my daughter's BC too, he is not giving support to my daughter and doesn't recognize her as his own flesh (thanks to his sperm anyway cuz i have a daughter that lead me to be more closer to my husband and my in-laws). He gave me money as a help or should i say donation(?) for a very small amount but it was only ONCE when daughter was still 2-month-old. We don't have any communication, i don't know where he is and he has no intention of recognizing my daughter anymore(THANK GOD!).

My daughter loves my husband as her own-real father. She calls him "Daddy" even prior to our marriage since my husband and I knew each other long years ago. We are all looking forward to be all together soon and our happiness will be more complete if we are done going thru the adoption process. We will be living with my husband in Michigan.

My question then are; 1.) What should my husband do in order to adopt my daughter? 2.)What is the specific procedure and corresponding forms? 3.) Can we just change daughter's family name without going thru adoption? 4.) Will the court still ask for biological father consent? 5.) For the worst case scenario, does the bio-father has still the right to recognize my daughter and maybe denies the consent for his mean and selfish interest in case he will be located for the notification of adoption? (thought this is silly since i dont know his address nor his family)

Please help us!!! Thank you so much!

[aaron]

You're not yet in the United States? You can look into the adoption laws of your country, but until the child is domiciled in the United States you won't be able to initiate adoption proceedings in the U.S.

[married_i_am]

You're not yet in the United States? You can look into the adoption laws of your country, but until the child is domiciled in the United States you won't be able to initiate adoption proceedings in the U.S.

Yes we are not yet in the US, we are preparing for the adoption cuz my husband want to do it as soon as possible when we get there. Yes i wouldn't have problem looking for adoption law here in my country but we don't want to do it here since it will be more costly specially if they learned that the adoptive parent is a foreigner and worst it takes years to get done. So best option is doing it in U.S and we are on K3 route for our immigration and interview will be any day on June so, adoption here in my country is not the best way or option this time. And if we already have our documents prepared for adoption we can use it also as our evidence of our bonafide and strong marriage relationship.

I hope you could help us.

[aaron]

Will the biological father consent to step-parent adoption? If so, it should be relatively uncomplicated in Michigan, once you have lived in the state long enough for the court to have jurisdiction.