Legitimation

I gave birth in January (Conyers) and was told baby couldn’t have fathers last name and that he couldn’t sign the birth certificate bc we weren’t married and he didn’t have a photo ID (moved states and got a paper license while waiting for hard copy). We didn’t have to do any of this when I had our first in Florida. Can anyone tell me about the process for legitimation so we can get him on the birth certificate and change her last name? I was told we had a year to get this done, life has been happening and I’d like to finally do this now that we can before it’s too late.

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Never had this problem, had all three of my kids here in Ga and not married

@Shantiba i was very confused… it just didn’t make sense to me. She was STRESSING that if we didn’t have his license he couldn’t sign and when I filled out the paperwork for social security card I put his last name for baby’s name and when i received it it had my last name on it.

That's crazy, I've never heard that

Where did you give birth? Why i feel like she changed your paperwork

@Shantiba piedmont rockdale. I said the same thing. it was an older black lady that was telling me this, but an older white lady took the paperwork from me.

You have a year to complete the paternity acknowledgement form to get the father added to the birth certificate and petition for name change. Read this webpage: https://dph.georgia.gov/ways-request-vital-record/paternity-acknowledgment

The form is the first one linked on there. I would complete it asap since January is in just a few weeks. I think you will have to go to court if not done before a year

Hey I just did this a few months ago. You need to call the vital records for your county and get an appointment for name change and go from there. It’s not that hard but it is a bit of waiting. We ended up having to pay bc they didn’t have an appointment until a week after the first bday

@Shani thank you! I went to looking and didn’t really know what to type lol

You’re welcome! Good luck

@Roxanne thank you!! did you have to a dna test or anything? i’m not worried, we know she’s his I just would like to know a little of what it’s like before we go in. I liked to be informed beforehand.

No we didn’t have to do anything but fill out a form and wait to be called back to the office. We only did the name change and paternity acknowledgement so legally my bf still doesn’t have rights, if we went further I think they might’ve asked for dna? I’m not sure

@Roxanne tysm!! I’ll be giving them a call on Monday.

They lied to you. Dad signed a paternity acknowledgment and my kids have his last name. And that was done the day after birth in the hospital

It could have been because your partner didn’t have proper ID (actual ID card vs the paper ones that can’t be verified by hospital staff). I mean think about it- if hospitals allowed any man present at the birth to acknowledge paternity without proper ID, some people could abuse that and have the man pretend to be anyone they want for the birth certificate. You can see how this could lead to issues. I’m sure it would have been different had your partner had proper ID. Please take care of the legitimation issue. After 1 year, the process is much harder, more expensive and you’ll likely have to go before a judge to make it happen. Good luck!