Below you will find a link to North Carolina’s downloadable court forms. These forms are in a .pdf format, which can be read by Adobe Reader. For those who do not yet have the Adobe Reader program, it can be downloaded for free, from adobe.com. The stepparent adoption form is towards the middle of the page, and can be found in both English, as well as Spanish. The form number for the English version is dss-5162-ia; the Spanish version is form number dss-5163sp. While there are forms for the adoption of a minor child at the top of the page, these forms are NOT for a stepparent adoption, and filling them out will only be a waste of time. It is important to scroll down and find the correct form for a stepparent adoption, as the two types of forms are not interchangeable.

North Carolina also has the consent for adoption forms available for download, which are needed for the parent whom is giving up his or her parental rights in order for the adoption to occur. There are several types of consent forms (such as contested, vs.non contested), so it would be best to go through the forms, and find the consent form that suits your particular stepparent adoption.

The stepparent adoption forms are found in the Division of Social Services section of forms on the Department of Health and Human Services Website. The link for the main page of the Department of Health and Human Services site is as follows, http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/ those who are looking to search through the different divisions of forms can go to http://info.dhhs.state.nc.us/olm/forms/default.aspx and those who are looking for the list of downloadable social service forms themselves can click on this link http://info.dhhs.state.nc.us/olm/forms/forms.aspx?dc=dss.

If you already have the Adobe Reader program, and would like to go directly to the petition to adopt a minor child, the stepparent adoption version, please click on the following link, http://info.dhhs.state.nc.us/olm/forms/dss/dss-5162-ia.pdf.

If you still have questions about stepparent adoptions in the state of North Carolina there are several different ways for you to contact the Department of Health and Human Services, they are as follows:

Office of Citizen Services
1-919-855-4401

CARE-LINE
919-855-4400
(Raleigh Area)

1-800-662-7030
(Voice, Spanish)

1-877-452-2514
1-919-7336-4851
(TTY Dedicated)