 |
| Illustrative image__Photo: Internet |
I am an American citizen and have been married to Vietnamese for two years. My wife has an eight-year-old daughter from her previous marriage. Am I allowed to adopt my stepdaughter?
Under Article 8 of the 2010 Law on Adoption (the Law), you may adopt your wife’s own daughter if the following conditions are fully satisfied:
Firstly, your wife’s daughter satisfies the conditions for being adopted.
The Law stipulates:
· Only children aged under 16 years may be adopted.
· A person aged between full 16 years and under 18 years may be adopted by either his/her step father or step mother or natural aunt or uncle.
· A person may only be adopted by one single person or one married couple.
Secondly, to guarantee rights and interests of the to-be-adopted child, you have to fully satisfy the conditions specified in Article 14 of the Law, such as being aged full 18 years or more and having full civil act capacity and good ethical qualities.
In addition, you must not fall into the following cases:
- Having some of the parental rights over a minor child restricted;
- Currently executing an administrative handling decision at an educational institution or medical treatment establishment;
- Currently serving an imprisonment penalty;
- Having a criminal record for any of the crimes of intentionally infringing upon another’s life, health, dignity or honor not yet expunged;
- Maltreating or persecuting your grandparents, parents, spouse, children, grandchildren or caretaker;
- Enticing or compelling a minor to act against the law or harboring a minor violator; trafficking in, fraudulently swapping or appropriating children.
As soon as all the above-mentioned conditions are fully satisfied, you may adopt your stepdaughter.-(VLLF)
