julie hilton

My stepson who lives with us will be 17 in December this year. I have since been told that in Australia any one under the age of 18 years old will have to have a letter by the residing parent. We are hoping to be in Australia next September, but If we don't get a letter of consent, we will wait until he turns 18 in December next year.

My question is this.

When we fill out our application form, our stepson will be 16 years old. Do we need to attach a consent letter with the application form, even though we won't go to Australia until he turns 18. I don't want to fail the application on this reason.

Has anyone out there gone through this process?

Thanks
Julie

JAJ

Depends on what United Kingdom law says about 16-17 year olds. Talk with a family law solicitor.

Australia is obliged to respect United Kingdom laws on child custody - and DIMA's laws reflect this - however there is a separate problem that many immigration officers do not understand this.

sparks124

I would hope that you have a good relationship with the missing parent as I would look on the situation as though you need there consent, or a court order stating that you have the courts permission to take the child out of the country permanently and stating that it is to migrate to Australia.
The far easier route is to get the absent parent to give there consent, easier said than done I know. You will need to get them to sign a statutory declaration that states that they are the parent to your child and they give there permission of them to migrate with you to Australia.
as I see it as the child is under 18 and still dependent on you that is what you will have to do irrelevant of when you plan on emigrating.
The down side to waiting until there 18 is that they may well not be seen as being a dependant to you and as such will not be covered on your visa; thus needing there own and needing to qualify on there own merits.

As JAJ says the CO's often don't understand the legal side of things in this country so you have to over kill on what you have to do. In our case the father to my step daughter has no parental responsibilities what so ever, but they don't understand this means that he has no control over her and we don’t need his permission; but they don't understand this. I would also advise that if the missing parent does agree to do the statutory declaration for you, also get a certified copy of there passport page as proof of there signature. They don't ask you to provide this in there information they send out, but we were asked for it. Maybe it was just because we were unlucky as we were also checked up for my work history. as I see it if you provide it at the begging it's one less thing for them to pick you up on when your waiting for the "YES" from them, and cutting that time as much as you can will keep the stress down.

JAJ

In cases like that it has got to be raised at a more senior level with DIMA. You can get a copy of your case file under Freedom of Information, and the Commonwealth Ombudsman may be interested if there is obvious maladminstration (ie not applying their own rules correctly).

There may also be merits review options if sponsored, or judicial review if an error of law is made.

A good professional advisor should understand all these options.

sparks124

At the end of the day it was easier just to get the idiot just to provide a copy of his passport and DIMIA have now granted our visas. the biggest problem as I see our case all of my work history was provided by my dad, as work for him and always have done in the line of work that I applied under. This I’m sure would throw up a few concerns at DIMIA, hence the check up on me. I suppose if they have doubts about the legitimacy of my work clams then they could well have doubts about the solicitor used for the statutory declaration. But hay all that’s behind us, all we need now is for the Pratt at the beginning of the chain to sign and exchange contracts on the house so we can get out there.

julie hilton

Hello Sparks

Thank you so much for your reply.

Do you have a copy of a consent letter that the Australian authorities would agree to.

I don't think we will have a problem her signing it. We just want to make sure we have the correct details stated on the consent letter.

Many thanks for your help.

Julie

sparks124

I'll email it to you tonight as i'm just off to work.

julie hilton

Hello Sparks

Thank you so much

Julie
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