Without a court order outlining visitation, support and custody based on established paternity, the rights of a single father are limited and possibly non-existent. Children born to a married couple are automatically presumed to be the husband's children. A single father must establish paternity before he can claim any rights to the child, even if he is listed as the father on the birth certificate.
Paternity
Different states have different requirements for establishing paternity. A single father may have the right to voluntarily sign a declaration stating that he is the biological father, or he may establish paternity through court ordered DNA testing. In California, the single father has no parental rights to a child until paternity has been established.
Visitation/Custody Rights
Once a single father has established paternity, he can petition the court for visitation and custody rights. Visitation rights may be agreed upon by both parents, or dictated by a family court judge or similar entity, depending on the state of residence. A single father may also file for joint or sole custody of his children after establishing paternity. Child custody laws break down into two categories: legal and physical. Each form of custody may be given to one parent or shared by both parents. Legal custody refers to the major decisions regarding a child's upbringing; physical custody refers to the children's primary residence.
Single fathers also have an obligation to pay child support. Guidelines for calculating child support are based on both parent's incomes as well as on the amount of time the non-custodial parent, or single father, spends with the child. Generally, the court will not consider the time a single father spends with his child unless the father has court-ordered visitation rights. Without these rights, the time share factor of the child support calculation is set to zero percent, meaning that the single father will pay the maximum level of child support.
Notification Rights
A single father who is not married to the mother by the time the child is born and who has not established paternity through a legal proceeding is considered a putative father. Each state has a father's registry and general requirements regarding the time frame for a single father to register as the father or to legally establish paternity. If the father fails to register or establish paternity within the state-dictated time frame, his notification rights involving termination of his legal rights as a father or pending adoption of his child are void.
