vikingsail

Good information provided by Trish but please note - its only advisory along the lines of may cause delays nothing mandatory. Editha's question is answered in the information provided. All seems a bit onerous and insidious to me.

My own experience is I have never been asked nor has my former spouse when we have travelled extensively with children as sole parents throughout the world. Thinking logically perhaps this is because when you obtain a childrens passport in the US both parents have to sign for and consent to the application and all identifying information for both parents ssn, passport number etc is taken at the time in person. Only exception being Form DS3053

Jerseygirl

Birth certificate with no father named.

petitefrancaise

I've only ever heard of one person being stopped boarding a plane and that was when she had a young baby and a toddler and since this woman had retained her maiden name, the kids' surnames in their passports were different to hers. Luckily she was able to call the father to come back to the airport and all was ok. In this case, I think the customs/border people acted correctly. I can't imagine a woman with 2 kids who look like her, have the same name as her will be stopped unless the husband has already made a report.

petitefrancaise

BUT... I'm adding that the OP needs to think about the bigger picture here. Settling a divorce across international borders is difficult and expensive. Enforcing any orders made is not impossible but very difficult and expensive again and also if it goes to a judge in the US, they aren't going to be very impressed with her taking the kids out of the country. Never mind pissing off her husband enough that he won't be in a kind negotiating mood. From what I've seen of US divorce laws, keeping on the good side of the husband and the judge is a good idea.

Tr1boy

Interesting post, something for us to think about ( not the divorce bit). We are all dual Oz/Brit citizens but my wife is originally from Sth Korea and kept her surname. Our daughter has my surname. Looks wise, when she's well behaved she looks like me, when she's acting up and firing a wobbler, she looks like her Mum.

moneypenny20

One parent travelling with children may not be pulled to one side if they have return tickets. Airlines or Border Security would be very remiss, in this day and age, if they don't query a parent travelling with children on a one way ticket. There are more and more stories of a parent 'kidnapping' their own children.

lansbury

I have to say as probably the only person on BE who has dealt with child abductions at a major port. Arrested parents both mums and dads for the offence, and was responsible for maintaining the UK child abduction warning list. While you all have good intentions it would be wise to limit your comment to "you need permission to remove a child from the country, consult a lawyer", because it is clear most of you know little about the subject and even less about what happens at a port.

It amazed me how many solicitors in the UK knew little about the subject and frequently messed up. It is a complex subject, the devil is in the details and depending on those details determines if permission is required and who has to give it.

petitefrancaise

Lansbury - I am sure that you have seen a great deal of this and your advice is excellent as always.
But seriously, haven't you ever known a family where one parent did return home with the child(ren) and nothing more happened apart from an angry divorce?
In my years as an ex-pat I have known women who literally flee the country with not much more than a cabin bag and their children. I have also known a woman who had to leave her child behind whilst she moved just to be able to support herself due to lack of financial assistance from either ex-husband or state. I have known women having to feed themselves from charities just so they could stay in the same country as their children.

Personally, I'd stay put and fight for all the assets I could because being poor isn't nice no matter where you are.

lansbury

No I haven't because those cases wouldn't come to police attention. I have know quite a few cases where one parent has been arrested spent time in a police cell and then once the kids are back the parent making the complaint has declined to proceed.

But that wasn't the point I was trying to make. I know people are giving well meaning advice but as Mr F says about other things one size does not fit all and you have to speak and ask questions to find out the full circumstances. I rarely comment on a thread of this nature because I don't know the full circumstances and I'm not going to ask in a public forum, so might well give bad advice. Secondly unless someone is well versed in US Federal and State laws, which very few are and I am most certainly not one of them, the only safe advice is seek professional advice. The magic words are parental responsibility, who has it and who doesn't.

I would never say to anyone take the children and go because in the US if the other parents makes a criminal complaint it is dealt with by the FBI, and no-one wants to be on the wrong side of that organization. Yes I do understand the plight of the mothers, or fathers, in such a situation and the best course of action is seek professional advice. If you don't and the other parent complains the best that will happen is the child will be sent back to the US, the worse the offending parent gets sent back as well to face the consequences. Either is very traumatic for the child, I know I have seen the results of having to arrest a parent and hand a child to social services to be looked after pending a flight back to the States.

Like I said I know people here are well meaning, but I was just reading so much that wasn't necessarily correct that I decided to say so.

whistlestop01

Well said! The only way for her to get the right advice is to consult with an attorney. I'm going through a divorce myself and taking my children back to England with the permission from their father (with a legal court document). First thing I did was consult with a lawyer. It's the only way to get the correct information.

Shirtback

Parent here, who has children whose other parent (eventually) ended up having his parental rights terminated. Until my sprogs reached age of majority, we travelled with piles of paperwork (his signed authority to move countries, subsequent court orders, etc etc). We were rarely questioned/required to produce the paperwork, but when we were, it was indispensable,

+1 to bolded.

Get it in writing, get it notarized at the very least, if in any doubt of the other parent's good faith, get confirmation via a court order.

holly_1948

I made numerous trips from California to visit family in UK, just me and my son at various ages.
Only once did the airline person check with her supervisor and confirm that no paperwork is needed. "Same as for Canada" was what I heard said by the airport worker. Both before and after I became naturalized (sic) American. My son throughout travelling on his US passport (to ease reentry into USA).
One the other hand when my young son made trips as unaccompanied minor then paperwork was needed - but only from one parent. Unaccompanied minor is recommended as a good way for kids to travel without fuss from busybodies, provided you have family willing to pick them up on arrival.

Someone else raised the issue of "What if the husband later objects". Well, what I'm saying is that you don't need paperwork if there are no objections. Sadly, some (many) dads truly don't give a damn and are happy to see the child gone. Obviously if there are objections then all is set for the lawyers to get rich and the parents poor.

holly_1948

I did it a dozen or more times and never had a problem. Many different airlines - United, American, British, Delta and probably others that don't come to mind.
San Francisco to Manchester or to London.

BritInParis

How long ago was this?

christmasoompa

Interestingly, in March I flew to SF from London with my two children and I was asked about travelling alone with them. Not by the airport staff, but by the immigration officer when we arrived at SFO.

Luckily, I was meeting my husband out there who was studying at Berkeley, and he was waiting for us at the airport, but they did go and find him to double check I was telling the truth!