After little one comes to live with you, now long before you actually adopt them legally?

[Italiangreyhound]

After little one comes to live with you, now long before you actually adopt them legally? I mean on average etc.

[twinmummy24]

Our time line was, girls placed with us 26th october, they had to be with us 12 weeks before we could start the paperwork so i think we started in feb the next year and we went to court on the 16 July for the adoption to be finalised, Best Day Ever

[cedar12]

It was 8 months for us

[cedar12]

Our social worker said once the paper work is complete it really depends how busy the court is.

[misspollysdolly]

DD arrived May 10th and we went to court on 17th December the FOLLOWING year. So quite a while though I can't quite remember why.... For balance our initial process took an incredibly short 6 months start-to-finish so there we are. Adoptions - never straightforward and no two are the same MPD

[Happiestinwellybobs]

It took us 9 months. We did the paperwork about 12 weeks after she came to us. It should have taken less, but DD's utterly useless SW hadn't being able to confirm that her birth parents had received the paperwork, so as we had got out the celebration cake my DM had made, we received a phone call to say the judge wouldn't let it happen. But a month or so later it did. And we had more cake then

[Lilka]

Totally depends on the child and family and how it's going. If you live in England then there's a 10 week waiting period before you are legally allowed to apply to adopt, and as has been said, once you put the forms into court it really depends on how busy the court is, expect to wait a few months. But 10 weeks is only the minimum time before you can apply, some people either choose to delay or their agency has a policy of waiting until there have been several review meetings before applying.

For my DD's I didn't even apply for adoption orders in the first year. DD1 was legally adopted in under 2 years, DD2 just over 2 years. With DS I applied less than a year after he arrived but because of the few months between applying and going to court he had been home over a year before it was all legal.

I took unusually long though IME. I did what was right for us but the vast majority of people seem to get it done in under a year or just over.

[Middlesexmummy]

Hi , dd was placed in Oct 12 with us but technically from the placement order we were able to apply in January 13 and it just came through yesterday ( :

[KristinaM]

It depends on the children legal status , circumstances, age, relationship with birth family , how good your SW is, whether birth family contest it etc

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

For DS it took 4 months from placement and for DD 5 months.

[Italiangreyhound]

Wow, thanks, very varied amounts of time!

[irishe]

It took 9 months exactly from 1st day of placement to becoming legally ours.

[TulipsfromAmsterdam]

Lo was officially matched and placed with us in May and we counted down the 10 weeks, then 11, 12 now 13 and still waiting to find out if the application papers have been sent to court.
Unfortunate things like lo's sw going sick and not completing paperwork and holidays are causing hold ups in what should have been a 'straightforward' adoption but we will get there :)

[Italiangreyhound]

Hope it goes well Tulips.

[HappySunflower]

8 months for us.....it would've been sooner had it not been for my child's sw being off sick and us being without one for several months.

[Hayleyh34]

About 8 months for us

[FamiliesShareGerms]

We did it in about 5 months, but we know of cases that took much longer (either where the adoption is contested or where there are complications with the paperwork, such ad a birth parent going AWOL).

You legally can't apply (in England) before 10 weeks from placement, then it just depends on court scheduling. A good SW will know which courts are processing applications quickly and where a delay is more likely.