I know this has been asked frequently before, but if anyone can give me a non-conflicting answer I would be so pleased!

We are in the process of applying for our visa and want to take my 11 year old daughter from a previous relationship, her father and I were not married and he has not had contact for 8 years. Previous postings on this website have indicated that as we were not married, we do not need a stat dec from her father as he has no rights to her. However, our migration agents are saying that we need one or a Court Order to say he we are allowed to remove her without his permission.

As permission from him is as likely as us winning the lottery, I wonder if anyone has any knowledge at all on this, and if so, why it is all so conflicting? I would be grateful to hear anyone's experiences.

Don't hire a dog and then bark yourself.

Migration Agent

From other posters experiences on here, not all migration agents get everything right, and this poster is wanting ideas of alternatives to getting permission from the father, as that appears unlikely.

Someone else, having been through it, may actually have other ideas that may help.

Having read a number of posts on here regarding this subject I think you will need his written consent (even though he hasn't seen her for 8 years). If he won't give it you can go to court and get permission from the courts but that I would imagine is a costly process.

I am pretty sure that JAJ (moderator) will be able to answer this one in more detail.

Hi,
I am in a similar situation to yourself. I have 3 children, 2 from a previous relationship. My childrens father had not seen or contacted the girls for 7 years but I still needed to get a statutory declaration from him.

Unfortunately, it makes no difference whether you were married, if there is any contact etc. your agent is correct. He either needs to go to a soliciotor and sign a statutory declaration or you will need to go to court for an order enabling you to remove your daughter from the country.

My ex pays maintenance through he csa (this makes no difference for the need for sat dec). When I asked him about the stat dec he initially agreed. Then he contacted me to say that he would only sign it if I stopped his maintenance payments . Not being one to give in to blackmail I discussed it with my solicitor. She wrote him a letter saying that was fine as I would now be going to court to obtain an order for which he would be liable for court costs amounting to approx. £3000. Needless to say this obviously freaked him out and his greed took over. He signed the document within 2 weeks .

Some men eh? At least they're not all like that.
God luck with everything. If you have any questions feel free to pm me.

Tracey

If you have the right to remove the child under UK law (Children Act 1989) then that meets Australian criteria.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/c...4227/sch4.html


4017 The Minister is satisfied of 1 of the following:

(a) the law of the applicant’s home country permits the removal of the applicant;

(b) each person who can lawfully determine where the applicant is to live consents to the grant of the visa;

(c) the grant of the visa would be consistent with any Australian child order in force in relation to the applicant.

4018 The Minister is satisfied that there is no compelling reason to believe that the grant of the visa would not be in the best interests of the applicant.



Jeremy

Hi there

I have a 12-year old from a previous marriage - my first husband died. I had to supply my first marriage certificate, death certificate, new marriage certificate, adoption papers (my second husband adopted my daughter) and her new birth certifcate - all of which had to be obtained from South Africa. In short, they want all the I's dotted and T's crossed. My advice to you would be to get the court order, that way you know you have covered all the bases.

This exact thing happened to my SIL. She told her ex that she was taking my niece to live in Australia and he would only sign the consent form if she agreed that he no longer pays maintenance. Her partner had been transferred and unfortunately, she did not have the time to fight it. She agreed and once she was there, she wrote him a letter saying that if he ever wanted contact with my niece again, he had better start paying some maintenance (he has hardly ever paid his due!). (I don't think my SIL would ever deny access as she wouldn't do that to her daughter, but nothing ventured nothing gained). He now deposits £50 in her bank account claiming that the rest is to go towards him going to Australia for a holiday with my niece. My SIL has accepted that.

It is a dodgy affair this business of gaining permission though, it really is - and quite unfair, I think.

Hi Wick,

I'm not sure if the same rules apply for moving to OZ as they do to NZ (can't see why they wouldn't though) but as far as I am aware (and after extensive research and consultation with a solicitor regarding my own daughter!!) only parents with parental responsibility need to consent to the removal of children from the country and if your daughter was born before a certain date, 1st Dec 2003, and you and her father weren't married at the time nor subsequently ever married, then the father does not automatically have parental responsibility, even if he is named on the birth certificate, and you therefore do not need to obtain his permission nor consult with him in order to remove your child from the country - I would do a statuatory declaration with a solicitor though stating these facts. If your daughter's father has subsequently applied for and been granted Parental Responsibility, or if you married him at any point since the birth of your daughter, then you will need his permission.

Be aware though that should the absent father get wind of your plans they can apply to the courts for a parental responsibility order to try to prevent you from removing your child from the country. Some of the factors that could determine whether or not such an application were successful are the absent father's degree of commitment to child, the degree of attachment between father and child and the father's reasons for applying for the order. My daughter hasn't seen her father, through his own choice, for the last 10 years and hasn't paid any maintenance for her either and my solicitor felt it EXTREMELY unlikely that any court would approve any application for him to obtain parental responsibility.

Like I say, I don't know the ins and outs or requirements for the OZ system and this is only what I have done for myself but I did check all of the above in person with a member of the NZ immigration service and they confirmed that based on my circumstances - daughter born before Dec 2003, father named on birth certificate but never married to him at any time which means that he does not have automatic parental responsibility nor has he ever applied for it - that they would accept a stat dec stating that as he doesn't have parental responsibility that I didn't need his permission to remove her from the country...hope this helps you...

BTW, I found some useful info on here http://www.fnf.org.uk/ if you want to have a look and check it out for yourself - just type in 'parental responsibility' in the search box...

Caroline

p.s copied this over from the immigration forum coz I didn't want you to miss it!! And Jeremy has since confirmed that if you have the right to remove the child under UK law then you should be ok...

Just to clarify:-

If your daughter was born before 1 December 2003 AND you and her father weren't married at any point during your daughter's lifetime AND he has not applied to the courts for a parental responsibility order then under UK law, you would be the only person with parental responsibility for your daughter and, as far as I can be certain after extensively researching for my own daughter, you would therefore have the right to remove your child from the UK under UK law without requiring the father's permission..You should still do a stat dec yourself though stating all of the relevant facts regarding you having sole parental responsibility.

n.b. For any of you who have a child who was born after 1st December 2003 and you were not married to the father of your child, if the father was present at the registration of the child’s birth and is registered as the child’s father on the birth certificate he will automatically obtain Parental Responsibility for that child and you would then require his permission to remove the child from the country.


If you marry your child's father at any time from the birth/or are married already, then the father automatically has parental responsibility and you would need their permission to remove the child from the country.

We had to get a written consent form from the father or a court order. He had no parental responsibility, no written visiting rights, no nothing basically and doesn't even live in the u.k. We still had to go to court to take him out of the country full stop. Andy.

p.s. this was the the view of several solicitors and the C.A.B.

Yes, same here. I don't know how some people seem to not need one

Tracey

I think a lot of people tend to ignore it and hope for the best, (best of luck to em if they can get away with it) but for me it was better to go the correct way and do it all above board so that we knew later on that we would have no worries. Andy

Why not get your new partner/husband to adopt your daughter? Easy solution and if no contact for 8 years and can't be traced a pretty much open and shut case!
Good luck

Hi,

We went through this last year & at first we were told we needed a stat dec,went through the lengthy process of getting my daughters father to sign the bloody thing,(he messed us about for over 5months)then at the end of the process it was not needed

If you have had no contact for 8 years & you do not know where he is,or having to contact him would make your life & your childs difficult etc..? you will need to write a stat dec explaining these points.

Please try not to stress about it as there is a way around your situation

We tread on broken glass all the way through our process with this situation,we thought we had no chance but we are now here

Goodluck,
Donna.

Every case is different but it usually boils down to:

1. They don't need permission from the other parent under UK law; and
2. Their case is presented so as to make this fact very clear to DIMIA.



Jeremy