Shoan and Rich

Hi everyone,

I have been thinking lately about the implications of moving to Oz in relation to my eldest child (10yrs). His dad and I split up 9/10 yrs ago, we were never married, but his name is on the birth certificate.

MOH and I have been together now for over 5yrs and we had a baby girl in 2004, Im worried what would happen to my eldest if anything happened to me over there.... i.e. if I kicked the bucket.

Could his dad demand that he goes back to UK, I would hate him to be separated from his little sister and Richie (MOH). I suppose this is something I should seek advice from a solicitor from, but I thought I would ask. Has anyone else got these worries, is there something I can do to stop this from happening?

Any help would be fab

Take care

Here comes the sun

Hi Shona
My mum is in a similar situation. I have a six year old sister my mum and partner split up they werent married but his name is on the birth certificate. He applied for parental responsibility through the courts which means he can be involved in decisions and consenting for medical treatment. My mum has always said that if anything happened to her she would want me to bring up my sister (Im 18 years older) however because he applied for parental responsibility it makes it more difficult and it would end up in a custody battle. Unfortunately theres not a lot you can do, you can express your wishes in your will and your partner and daughter would probally be able to have access. This is probally worst case scenario. My mum wanted to get some kind of agreement from her ex partner but shes worried if she brings it up with him he would go out of his way to make sure this never happened but thats the type of guy he is. If you have a good relationship with your ex maybe you could agree a plan with him relating to arangements in aus.

Shoan and Rich

[/QUOTE]

I think I will wait until we are there, he still has to sign the consent for us to go. Don't want to start winding him up.
Thanks for your reply though, its good to know we are not the only ones stressing about stuff like this.

Cheers

kevinbloomfield

I think I will wait until we are there, he still has to sign the consent for us to go. Don't want to start winding him up.
Thanks for your reply though, its good to know we are not the only ones stressing about stuff like this.

Cheers[/QUOTE]
Consult a solicitor. It all depends on the date of birth of the child. In our case our son's natural father had absolutely no rights over him. He could not stop us bringing him here nor did we need to tell him.

smoggieswilltravel

Consult a solicitor. It all depends on the date of birth of the child. In our case our son's natural father had absolutely no rights over him. He could not stop us bringing him here nor did we need to tell him.[/QUOTE]
Hi

A question to Kevin Bloomfield. Could you clarify your comment on the birth father not having a say in you bring the child to oz. I have a 13yr old and we were under the impression that I would have to seek permision from the birth father to take her to Oz. The birth father has never had any contact of any kind with my daughter and also lives in another country, in the past we have tried to get a letter off him giving permissin but he just ignores us. We are now going through the adoption process anyway. Could you advise me what this (special date is that would mean we don't require his permission) with a birth year of 1993 would we also be able to do that.

Any info much appreciated

JAJ

The law changed on different dates in England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but it was all around 2002/03.

JAJ

A number of issues to bear in mind:

- Father has no rights under UK child custody laws unless he applies for and is granted parental responsibility.

- Once child is resident in Australia, the Australian family courts will have jurisdiction instead. Australian family law is not the same as in the UK.

- It may be possible to specify in your (Australian) will what guardianship arrangements you would like.

- You may want to investigate the option of adoption in the UK before you make the move proper. You would need professional assistance (eg from Ian Harrop - http://www.ianharrop.co.uk) as adoption and visa issues don't mix well. A further concern is that it might provoke a reaction from the other parent and an application for parental responsibility.

Get professional legal advice on these issues (avoid any lawyer who doesn't do family law every day).

kevinbloomfield

Our son was born in 1989, I don't know anymore about when the laws changed.
We were unsure, got the advice of a solicitor and they provided us with a letter that went along with our visa application to our agents

Amazulu

Further to this Jeremy, we are looking into our Australian wills at the moment. The person we want as legal guardian for our son in the case of us both dying lives in Switzerland. If we were to both die and our son was an Australian citizen would our legal guardian be granted residency in Australia to raise our son?

smoggieswilltravel

Hi

Thanks for replying. So just to clarify, when applying for your visa you did not request a letter from the birth father giving permission for the child to leave the UK. Could I ask what the format of the letter from your solicitor was.

We hope that the adoption will be through soon and so far it looks like it will be uncontested, but we are going on a 457 visa and if the court dates for the adoption don't fall in with the right time scales it will slow or halt the process. If we could forward a similar letter as yourself then at the visa proccess could continue.

Cheers

kevinbloomfield

Hi
We didn't get a letter from the birth father, nor did he have any say on whether our son came or not. The letter from the solicitor was a standard type letter full of mumbo jumbo legal speak

smoggieswilltravel

Hi

Thanks for that, I'll definatly look into that. Its been quite a concern that this maybe a problem with immigration.

Cheers

JAJ

There's no specific visa to allow this. However, especially if the child was an Australian citizen, it might be possible in the circumstances to arrange through ministerial intervention (not a simple process).

It would definitely be important to have your wishes (and the reasons for this wish) well documented and stored in a secure place.

Would guardian be willing to move from Switzerland to Australia? Is he/she British, Swiss or another nationality?

You should appreciate how critical it is to secure Australian citizenship to protect your child's interests in circumstances like this.