Hello everyone,
I'm new to the forum here and had a few questions. I want to adopt my fiance's daughter and I am pretty sure he will contest which means I'm looking at having his parental rights taken away, or rather fighting to have his rights taken away so I can adopt.
The bio-father currently lives in a different state than I do, I live in California. The child(don't like using names) is 5 yrs old, and the mother(my fiance) has full parental custody, while the bio-father has limited visitation rights. Even though he has visitation rights, he has not exercised those rights in over a year, and he until just recently had not even attempted to contact my fiances daughter in over 6 months.
1. What is the California state law concerning termination of parental rights?
2. How long do we have to be married before I can file for stepparent adoption?
3. Can my fiance place my name on the Birth Certificate after we are married, or even before?
4. Can I start the paperwork/court filings now(or after we get married) and have a lawyer step in later if I get bogged down with the process?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. If I left out any vital information please let me know and I will give you what I can.

