What Does an Adoptive Child's Birth Certificate Look Like?

Congratulations, you have adopted a child. Once finalization of your child’s adoption takes place you become the child’s legal parent in every way, just as if you had given birth to the child. The court will give you a document finalizing the adoption. Then, after several weeks, your child’s new birth certificate will arrive one day in your mailbox. Your name, and your spouse’s name if applicable, will be on the birth certificate just as if you were the birth parent/s. In fact, nobody who looks at the birth certificate, without looking at the adoptive parent/s, would be able to tell whether you are the birth parent/s or not.

 

There are a few little clues on the adoptive birth certificate to give the secret away to the very observant person who actually cares, or is just plain nosey. One clue would be the date filed, although that is not conclusive evidence. If the child is older, two or more, and the date filed is the current year, then you might suspect that the child is adopted, because birth certificates are filed within days of a child’s birth.

If the person looking at the birth certificate, is also looking at the adoptive parent/s, and is actually paying attention to the information, there may be some other clues to give the secret away. Some states still list the race of the parents and of the child on birth certificates. If the parents are listed on the child’s birth certificate as black and the child as Caucasian, or vise versa, then that would be a clue that the child might be adopted.

 

A relatively new clue might give your secret away if you happen to live in a state that allows same sex marriage. If both parents listed on the birth certificate have typical masculine names or typical feminine names then the observer might wonder if the child is adopted. If a person is looking at both parents, while looking at the birth certificate with the parents’ names, and can see an obvious gender discrepancy, then adoption is probably considered.

 

Otherwise, if you have a birth certificate from the state you adopting from, then your child’s will probably look about the same. However, I have noticed that some states have stopped listing race. Eventually, states may also stop listing mother and father, and instead list parent one and parent two, or some version thereof.

 

 

 

Photo Credit FM

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