If you weren’t married to your child’s mother, Texas law doesn’t automatically give you rights or responsibilities as a father — paternity has to be legally established first.
Two ways to establish paternity in Texas
- Acknowledgment of Paternity (AOP): both parents sign a form, at the hospital or later, with no need for a court case.
- Court order: if you and the mother disagree, a court establishes paternity, often based on genetic testing.
If you’re not certain you’re the biological father, insist on a genetic test before signing anything — it’s the only way to be sure, and if it confirms paternity, you may be ordered to cover the testing cost.
Once an AOP is signed, you can be held responsible for child support, and you also gain the right to seek custody or visitation. If you sign but later have real doubts, you generally have 60 days to file a Petition to Rescind without needing to prove fraud or mistake. After 60 days, undoing an AOP requires filing a lawsuit and proving fraud, duress, or a genuine mistake of fact — and you have four years from the filing date to do it. Completed AOP forms go to the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics in Austin at no charge.