DNA Testing Steps

Please follow these steps to get reliable DNA test results

	Buy your DNA test The test set contains 2 cotton swaps and a sample envelope for each participant. Also, all relevant documentation for a witnessed sampling is enclosed.
	Witnessed Sampling Your sampler will take 2 mouth swaps per participant and  fill in all documents.
	Sign all documents All participants consent and sign the respective documents
	Return the complete test kit Your sampler sends the completed documentation and samples back to us. You will find a pre-paid envelope in your test kit.
	Your paternity test results 3 - 4 working days until you get your results. Each participant will receive a DNA report for free by postal mail.

How does a paternity test work?

1. You buy a DNA test
2. Take your DNA samples with a mounth swab. We will send you cotton swabs for taking of each participant’s samples. Of course, a paternity test can be based on other samples. But saliva samples are the most commonly submitted samples
3. The forms must now be filled out and signed. The consent of all participants is legally mandatory
4. The processing of your paternity test takes 3 - 4 working days, depending on the analysis you bought
5. All participants receive their own copy of the DNA result

What will the test results tell you?

A paternity test proves biological paternity between a man and a child. Not more but also not less. 

You can use the result report as evidence in court or at the youth welfare office. Be aware that the judge still decides about the recognition of the result. 

Biological paternity is not to be equated with legal paternity. A man who is married to the child's mother at the time of birth is considered the legal father by law. The rights of a biological father can be subordinate to this. 

A paternity test that proves your paternity can help clarify your rights.

What a paternity test cannot do

On the basis of the submitted DNA samples, we examine and compare various genetic characteristics of the possible father and child and the mother, if she participates in the test. However, this "genetic fingerprint" that we create does not contain any information about possible diseases.

How we use your samples

You give us a swab from the oral mucosa for your DNA test. Each test participant sends us 2 cotton swabs with their samples. A swap contains a very small amount of DNA but it is sufficient for a DNA test. We duplicate the DNA in the laboratory before we do the analysis. By default, we examine 24 gene locations that we compare with one another. It is legally stipulated which method is to be used and how the results are to be evaluated. The probability of kinship or paternity is calculated with a special computer program.

A family relationship is excluded with 100% if there are too few or no matches. If there is a family relationship or paternity, then (by law) there must be at least a match of 99.9% or more. We destroy your samples after the analysis. According to the Genetic Diagnostics Act, we have to keep your test results for ten years.

Please read more on how reliable the test results are