How does termination of parental rights work in Wyoming?

In Wyoming, termination of parental rights is not a separate court case in a stepparent adoption. It is addressed within the adoption itself, which you file in the District Court in your county. Because the details depend on your family's situation, here is how it fits together.

Where it happens: Adoption proceedings in Wyoming are filed in District Court. Wyoming treats termination as part of the adoption process rather than as its own filing. The statutes are in Wyoming Statutes Title 1, Chapter 22.

Abandonment: Wyoming sets no fixed number of months for abandonment. Under Wyo. Stat. § 1-22-110, abandonment depends on the other parent's overall conduct, not a countdown. A parent who has been out of the picture for a while is not automatically treated as having abandoned the child, and a shorter gap is not automatically ruled out either. How a court would view your facts is a question for the District Court clerk in your county or an attorney.

Other situations: Whether the other parent agrees, objects, cannot be found, or has never been identified can change how your case proceeds. We do not describe those paths here because they turn on specific facts. If your case involves a contested or unknown parent, talk to an attorney or the District Court clerk about that issue.

Related requirements to plan for:

• Residency: The person filing must have lived in Wyoming for 60 days immediately before filing (Wyo. Stat. § 1-22-103).
• Child's consent: Wyoming sets the child's consent age at 14 (Wyo. Stat. § 1-22-109).
• Home study: The investigation step is waived in a stepparent adoption (Wyo. Stat. § 1-22-111(a)(ii)).
• Timeline: Stepparent adoptions in Wyoming typically take 3-6 months.
• Filing fees: The District Court clerk in your county can confirm the current filing fee.

What termination means: It is permanent. Once the adoption is final, the other parent no longer has a legal relationship with the child, and the stepparent becomes the child's legal parent. That is why it is worth understanding each piece before you file, and why a question about your own facts is best settled with the clerk or an attorney first.

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 arrive within 24-48 hours after you finish the questions. The price is $349 for the first child and $99 for each additional child, and we back it with a 100% court acceptance guarantee. We have helped 191 Wyoming families, and 34,000+ families nationally since 2001.