Can a non-citizen adopt a stepchild in New Hampshire?

The New Hampshire rules on who may adopt are built around age, not citizenship: adopters must be adults, meaning 18 or older (RSA 170-B:4; RSA 170-B:2, I and XI). How your immigration status fits into a stepparent adoption is something to confirm with the Circuit Court clerk in your county or an immigration attorney before you file.

Here is what we can tell you about the parts of a New Hampshire stepparent adoption that apply to any adopting stepparent.

Who may adopt:

• Adopters must be adults, which means 18 or older (RSA 170-B:4; RSA 170-B:2, I and XI).
• Whether your specific immigration status affects your petition depends on your facts, so ask the clerk or an attorney.

Residency:

• New Hampshire has no minimum residency period before you can file (RSA 170-B:15, I).
• The clerk can tell you what documents the court may want to see about where you and the child live.

Consent:

• A child who is 14 or older must consent to the adoption (RSA 170-B:3, I).
• Consent from the child's other legal parent is a separate issue.
• If that parent will not consent, abandonment can come into play. The abandonment period is 6 months (RSA § 170-C:5).
• Termination of parental rights is handled as a separate step in New Hampshire.
• If the other parent is unknown, missing, or opposed, the facts matter a great deal. Talk to the clerk or an attorney about that situation.

Home study:

• In a stepparent adoption, the home study is waived (RSA § 170-B:18).
• The court may still ask for additional paperwork, so check with the clerk about anything specific to your situation.

Court and timeline:

• Your petition is filed in the Circuit Court in your county. New Hampshire has 10 counties.
• Stepparent adoptions in New Hampshire typically take 3-6 months.
• The filing fee amount is set by the court, so the Circuit Court clerk can confirm the current fee.

Questions to ask before filing:

• Does my immigration status require any extra documents with the petition?
• Does the court want identification or background paperwork in a particular form?
• Is there anything about my situation, such as time spent living abroad, that the court will want to see?

An immigration attorney can speak to how your status interacts with the adoption. The clerk can tell you what the court requires on its side.

How we help: StepParent Adoption 360 is a document preparation service, not a law firm. You answer questions online, and we prepare the complete court document package for your county. You then file it yourself without an attorney. Court-ready documents are delivered within 24-48 hours after you finish the questions.