You want to adopt your stepson and his mother has had no contact for over a year how long does she not have to have contact so you can file for adoption?

Answer 1

Regardless of how long she has been absent from his life you will have to have her parental rights legally terminated prior to being able to adopt. There are laws in most states governing the time period before the state will consider the child to have been fully abandoned and will grant a petition to terminate rights. I believe that in IL for example that term is 1 full year. Contact is defined as no visits, phone calls, corrospondence, child support payments or attempts at any of the above; so in your case you would need for her to have not made any attempt to have seen him, spoken to him, sent a card, or paid a child support payment. Another option is to ask the mother to voluntarily sign away parental rights and allow you to adopt him, although if she is unwilling to do so you may risk restarting the clock by getting in touch with her and making your wishes known.