In the work I’ve been doing on behalf of Panonne, a UK based divorce solicitor I’ve been interested to hear that they are taking on a rapidly increasing number of cases that involve parents wanting to emigrate with their children after a divorce.

Society is truly globalizing, and with corporations starting to operate transnationally, the internet bringing the world closer and air fair prices dropping I guess it’s not that surprising that after a messy divorce many people may now see getting a fresh start in a brand new country as the way to go. However if you have children you want to take with you things not surprisingly get a lot more complicated.

So if you started you family in the UK and now want to emigrate can you take your children with you?

Well, current UK law says that you cannot take your children overseas whether it’s to emigrate or for a short holiday without the permission of both parents.  If you do take your children without the other parents’ consent you can face charges of child abduction.  So you either need to get your child’s other parent to agree or be prepared to go to court.

Seeking permission

Panonne advice that the best course of action in the first instance is to try and seek the other parents’ consent.  The best way to do this is to sit down and have a conversation with them.  Research in advance the answers to any questions they are likely to have.

Questions that are likely to arise:

• Accommodation - Where will their children be living, what is the standard of accommodation likely to be like? 
• School - What are the schools like where your children will be attending? Will your children be able to get a place at the school? How easy will it be for your children to change to a different curriculum?
• Finance - Will you be able to support your children abroad, will you be eligible for any child care support?
• Contact - How easy will it be for the other parent to stay in contact? Will it be expensive to do this? Will it be practical to do this?
  

Bring along as much evidence as you can to the conversation that you think might help persuade your ex-partner that this will be a good life for your children and that they will be able to maintain a strong bond with your child if they wish too.  This could be photographs, flight timetable and cost information, school prospectuses tourist information.  Anything that you think might help your child’s other parent to agree to a move.

Taking the decision to court

Despite reduced air fares and the rise of the internet the reality is that taking your children to live in foreign country could lead to a significant weakening of their relationship with the other parent, and it may prove difficult to persuade them to agree to it.

If you are unable to gain the consent of all parents involved and you are adamant that you want to emigrate with your children the other parents objections can be over turned in England at a family court if the court feels emigration would be in the child’s best interest.

The factors considered by the court are:

• Is your motivation to emigrate to find a better life for your children, or is it just a selfish ploy to reduce the other parent’s impact on your child’s life.
• Have you sufficiently planned and researched the proposal, is it likely to work out
• What effect will it have on the relationship with your child’ other parent
• Will any new relationship being established make up for the loss of relationship with the children’s other parent.
• What are the consequences for the parents and children if the right to leave the country is denied?

The family court’s primary concern will be the move does not negatively affect your children.  The greater involvement your children have with the other parent the harder it will be to convince the courts that a foreign move would be a good idea.

The emotions involved in these cases make them extremely hard ones and with people living more global life styles the number of people finding themselves in this situation seems only likely to increase.