emigrating to australia with children
 

Hi everybody

We are new to this site and are just about to get our emigration to australia under way. I have a strange question to ask so please be patient while I explain.

Has anybody any stories that they know of regarding taking children of a previous marriage out of the country and all the hastle that goes with it. I would be grateful of any help or advice anybody could give me

Many thanks Sue and Mick

Re: emigrating to australia with children
 

Hi Sue and Mick
My friend emigrated with her two children from a previous marriage. The father wasn't around to give permission for them to be taken out of the country so she had to make a statutory declaration that she had sole custody and the father had no role in their upbringing. Hope this is of use, good luck with the application.
Sue

Re: emigrating to australia with children
 

Sue & Mick
We are in the same boat but further on than you, as its personal we can give you a rundown if you contact us pesonaly.

Re: emigrating to australia with children
 

Hiya Sue and Mick

I have just had to go through the court proceedure myself regarding my son. I have sole custody but to satisfy Aussie law, any DEPENDANT child under 18 needs to have any other interested party ie: guardian or parents permission to leave the country permanently. It is always a grey area, and as a par for course, it is highly recommended that you apply for an order that specifically states that you have this permission.

This can be done at your local county court, no need for a solicitor, with a C1 form (which can be downloaded from the internet) and a lovely £80.00 cheque.

If you are in contact with your child/childrens father, and he has no problems with you immigrating with the child/children, then he can write a letter stating this (with EVERYONES full names and dates of birth) having it witnessed by a solicitor and that would also suffice.

It could cause a delay further down the line if you do not have all your paper work to the letter, alas just a court order proving sole custody for the child/children *might* suffice. We are not to and sometimes will never, know.

Good luck :-)

Yvonne

Re: emigrating to australia with children
 

If your child(ren) still see their father / mother, even if it is only for the odd day and they won't give you permission to leave the country then you will have a tough battle on your hands.
You will have to show a court that the children will be better off with you in Oz, rather than staying here wih their other parent. This may mean that you have to attend various court appearences, with welfare officers etc. You will also have to provide a sound case with details of where you will live, schools and how you will support yourself. This can be very hard to do when you are in the initial stages of trying to emigrate.
As there is no such thing as a court order for custody in the UK anymore, you have to do this to get the permission to apply for the visa.
It is a real grey area and your case can vary depending on the court/ judges experience of migration cases. They generally don't like to stop the parental access, moving to Oz would obviously have a vast effect on this !!
Afte seeking legal advice, my solicitor said generally you would get permission to go, but expect a difficult ride getting there!
Good Luck!!

Tinaj

Re: emigrating to australia with children
 

First of all, best of luck to Sue and Mick. The following may not apply in their case.

But a word in favour of the father (ie genetic father, now no longer caring for the child on a day for day basis since the relationship with mother has ended and she has custody.)

It must be terrible for fathers who still love and care for their kids, and obviously for the kids too, to see that situation where kids and mum will emigrate to the other side of the world. No more weekend visits etc. Almost worse (for the father) than seeing the kids die in a car accident, (which is final), because the kids are still alive and well, you just can't afford to see them very often. A lingering death?

Just empathising with the dads who haven't had a say on this subject...I could fully understand why some dads would object to the full extent of the law to the removal abroad of their kids.

Re: emigrating to australia with children
 

There's no easy answer in cases like this. I think you're right to post the other
side of the story, when by definition we generally get the other impression here,
that of bloody-minded non-custodial parents doing everything they can to sabotage
their kids future. There are always two sides to a story.

I would point out that it's almost as bad when children move *within* a country (and
hence generally no legal requirements to be fulfilled)
- if for example they move from Southampton to Newcastle (in the UK) that's a big
separation too.

It's something families have to look upon with a degree of common sense. If children
have a close relationship with their non-custodial parent, then the custodial parent
should factor that into the decision on whether to migrate or not.

Ideally people should be able to come to an agreement between themselves without the
need for any recourse to the courts, and I guess we don't hear about many of the
cases where this does happen.

If the children are keen to go to Australia (and depending on their age and the
jurisdiction this might be taken into account by a court) and their non-custodial
parent takes legal action to object, he or she might be sacrificing the relationship
with the kids anyhow.

Jeremy

    >On 19 Jul 2002 14:21:46 GMT, newstartnz <[email protected]> wrote: First of
    >all, best of luck to Sue and Mick. The following may not apply in their case.
    >
    >But a word in favour of the father (ie genetic father, now no longer caring for the
    >child on a day for day basis since the relationship with mother has ended and she
    >has custody.)
    >
    >It must be terrible for fathers who still love and care for their kids, and
    >obviously for the kids too, to see that situation where kids and mum will emigrate
    >to the other side of the world. No more weekend visits etc. Almost worse (for the
    >father) than seeing the kids die in a car accident, (which is final), because the
    >kids are still alive and well, you just can't afford to see them very often. A
    >lingering death?
    >
    >Just empathising with the dads who haven't had a say on this subject...I could fully
    >understand why some dads would object to the full extent of the law to the removal
    >abroad of their kids.
    >
    >
    >
    >--