Families going through the immigration process understand that it takes time. A lot of time. Once clients call us to complete DNA tests, they are usually very close to being reunited with family members. Recently, many U.S. Embassies overseas have been changing guidelines and creating a delay in the DNA test.

In order to make sure your DNA test is being handled quickly and properly, please visit www.usembassy.gov. Click on the embassy that you are going through. Then type “DNA” into the search box.

Once you do that you should see specific instructions for completing DNA testing in your country. Your Boston Paternity case manager will work with you to make sure everything moves along as smoothly as possible.

If your DNA test is being requested by USCIS there may be different rules, such as where the beneficiary’s sample will be collected. Again, your case manager will work with you to follow the USCIS guidelines so Immigration will accept your results.

You can trust Boston Paternity to be up to date on the newest Embassy and USCIS rules and regulations regarding immigration DNA testing.

Our case managers speak with fathers from all over the U.S. on a day to day basis. Many of these fathers have been taking care of their children financially and emotionally since the children were born. For many different reasons, they suspect they may not be the biological father of the child, so they ask the mother for a paternity test.

Most mothers in this situation refuse, either because they know the real truth, or because they are comfortable with the existing situation. In any case, the mother is not cooperative. The father has two options:

1) Get a DNA test without the mother knowing

2) Get a court order for a DNA test by filing a paternity action

Follow the link above for more information about option 1. Today’s entry focuses on the paternity action.

I am not an attorney, and I suggest obtaining a qualified family lawyer whenever you pursue a paternity action. This is largely due to the fact that paternity test laws very greatly from state to state. There are a lot of factors that go into the process of determining whether you, the father, will be authorized to get a DNA paternity test.

Factors include:

• Are you on the birth certificate?
• How old is the child?
• Were you married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth?
• Did you sign a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity?
• Are you paying child support?

You should speak with an attorney about all these issues and more. Be sure to obtain an attorney who practices in the state where the child resides, because that is where the paternity action must take place.

Oftentimes, option 1 is the easiest way to gain peace of mind. If that option is not available, get an attorney and do it right.

Good luck.

If you and someone you know believe you share a father, but you know you do not share a mother, then there are DNA tests that can help prove your theory. Here are your two options:

1. If you are both males, then a Y-chromosome DNA test can prove if you share a common male lineage. The Y-Chrome test does not prove if you have the same father, because all males from the same family share the exact same Y profile. Therefore, you share the same Y-Chrome profile as your father, your brother, your uncle, your grandfather, your son, and so on. With a Y-Chrome test you need to be certain that other family members are not potential fathers.

2. If your half sibling is a female and you are a male, or vice versa then a half vs. unrelated siblingship test may be right for you. Depending on your genetic makeup, the half sibling test can be extremely conclusive. There is also a chance that the results are fairly inconclusive. A situation where results would be very conclusive is when you and  your half sibling share very rare genetic markers. Since this is unlikely to happen, the probability of you being related is much higher.

One way to improve the conclusiveness of a half sibling DNA test is by including one or both mothers. This allows the DNA technicians to exclude the half of your DNA that is contributed from your mom, and isolate the half that was contributed by your father. Once it is isolated, it is easier to get a more conclusive result.

Our laboratory guarantees DNA test  results that are greater than 99.9% accurate for all paternity tests. Although we do not make the same guarantee for half sibling tests, there are many things we can do to improve the conclusiveness of your results.