Are You Adopting a Child in Georgia? Read This to Know the Type

Adoption is a legal and social process whereby an individual joins as the child of an adult or becomes a part of another family. For children present in Georgia's foster care system, this adoption system provides an opportunity to live a normal and healthy life under the care of foster parents. DFCS conducts the child adoption program in Georgia. There are some basic requirements for adopting a child in Georgia which include age limit, home studies, parental guidance, among others. In any adoption, the role of an adoption lawyer is a must at one stage or another.

Georgia Adoption Laws

Georgian prospective adoptive parents must meet the following requirements of Georgian adoption laws to adopt any child:

•          If the adoptive guardian is single, then he must be at least 25 years old
•          The adoptive parent must be ten years older than the child to be adopted
•          Adoption guardians must be living a happily married life together.
•          The guardians must be the residents of Georgia for over six months
•          The parental adoption guardians must file a petition form before adopting any child from any adoption attorney.

Types of Georgia Adoption

There are many types of adoptions and each one can be assisted by the legal services offered by the law office of Thomas Tebeau. Some of the adoption types are:

•          Independent adoption Georgia
•          Third-party adoption Georgia
•          Stepparent adoption Georgia
•          Relative adoption Georgia
•          Foreign adoption Georgia

All of these adoptions require the assistance of licensed adoption attorneys and adoption state agencies, following the authenticated procedure or protocol for adoption.

Independent Adoption Georgia

Independent Adoption Georgia is also referred to as "Open adoption", "Private adoption", or "Third-party adoption". This type of adoption involves one or two adoptive parents that are not directly linked to the child being adopted. Rather, they are most commonly arranged through networking and family friends like private channels. They also do not involve any state adoption agency.

In this type of adoption, a person may adopt a child in his extended family or from a family with whom they are not related. The child is taken from their biological parents with their parent's consent. The biological parent's hand over their child to a family mainly because of two reasons, either any of the biological parents are deceased, or they are unable to give proper parental care and the necessities of life to their child.

Stepparent adoption Georgia

A Stepparent adoption Georgia is where a stepparent takes on the child of their spouse. As compared to traditional adoption, the method of Stepparent adoption, Georgia is rather simple. However, if any of the parents do not give their consent, or is not found, then an adoption attorney will need to be involved. In that case, the process of adoption might take longer and will require additional paperwork. The stepparents can still pursue the procedure of adoption by asking the Court and adoption agency to finish the parental rights of the parents.