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The following web pages address various topics and specific situations related to establishing paternity.

• Legal fathers
• The Recognition of Parentage process
  • Advantages and disadvantages of signing the Recognition of Parentage
  • Undoing a Recognition of Parentage
  • The Establishing Parentage - What Every Mother and Father Need to Know video explains your rights and responsibilities before signing the Recognition of Parentage form.
• Court orders to establish parentage
   
• When a mother is married to someone other than the biological father
  • Spouse's Non-parentage Statement
  • Undoing a Spouse's Non-parentage Statement
     
• Genetic testing to determine the biological father
   
• Your rights as a parent
  • Naming your child
  • Living arrangements for your child
  • Parenting time
  • Decisions about how your child is raised
  • What to do if your child may be adopted
     
• The brochure Being a Legal Father: Parentage information for mothers and fathers (PDF) also answers questions about establishing paternity for unmarried parents.

Parents who are not married to each other use the Minnesota Voluntary Recognition of Parentage DHS-3159 (PDF), a legal form to voluntarily establish paternity for a child born to them. When both parents agree the man is the biological father, they sign this form to make him the legal father.

Signing and filing this form establishes a legal relationship between a father and child when the biological father is not married to the child's mother. It provides a basis for establishing child support, but it does not establish custody or parenting time.

This form is also available in:

• Hmong - Minnesota Voluntary Recognition of Parentage DHS-3159-HMN (PDF)
• Somali - Minnesota Voluntary Recognition of Parentage DHS-3159-SOM (PDF)
• Spanish - Minnesota Voluntary Recognition of Parentage DHS-3159-SPA (PDF)

General information about establishing parentage and the Recognition of Parentage process is described in Being a Legal Father: Parentage information for mothers and fathers DHS-3159A (PDF). This same information is also available in Hmong, Somali and Spanish. 

When a married couple has a child, Minnesota law automatically recognizes the mother's spouse as the child's legal parent. If the mother is married to someone other than her child's biological father, the mother, her spouse and the biological father can establish parentage to make the biological father the legal father of the child. Any of the parties involved can initiate this process.

The state requires two forms to establish parentage for the biological father without having to go to court.

• The mother and biological father must sign the Minnesota Voluntary Recognition of Parentage DHS-3159 (PDF).
• The mother's spouse must acknowledge that he is not the biological father by signing the Spouse's Non-parentage Statement DHS-3159C (PDF) within one year after the child's birth.

Parties must file the completed forms with the Office of Vital Records at the Minnesota Department of Health to be considered valid. The Office of Vital Records will then put the biological father's name on the child's birth record.

A court must determine the legal father of the child in the following cases:

• The mother, her spouse or the biological father do not agree to sign the required forms within one year of the child's birth
• It has been more than one year since the child was born.

Parents can undo a Recognition of Parentage or a Spouse's Non-parentage Statement within 60 days of signing either document.

To revoke the Recognition of Parentage, use the Voluntary Recognition of Parentage Revocation Form DHS-3159B (PDF) . This form is also available in Hmong, Somali and Spanish. Alternatively, parents may revoke the recognition with a written statement that includes the child's name and date of birth, and the name of the person identified on the voluntary recognition form that is being revoked. The revocation must be signed in front of a notary public and filed with the Office of Vital Records.

To revoke a Spouse's Non-parentage Statement, use the Spouse's Non-parentage Statement Revocation Form DHS-3159E (PDF). This form is also available in Hmong, Somali and Spanish.

After 60 days, neither the Recognition of Parentage nor the Spouse's Non-parentage Statement can be revoked using these forms. Instead, a legal action must be filed asking the court to undo either or both of them. Parents have one year after the Recognition of Parentage was signed and filed to ask the court to undo it and the Spouse's Non-parentage Statement. However, if blood or genetic tests show that the man who signed the Recognition of Parentage is not the father of the child, this information must be brought to a court within six months in order to undo the Recognition of Parentage and the Spouse's Non-parentage Statement.