Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

I've just got back from 3 weeks hols travelling from Calgary to Vancouver, and whilst over there had 2 job interviews. I'm waiting to be told whether there's a job waiting for me but in the meantime I'm trying to get as much paperwork sorted as possible.

I'll be moving with my current partner and my two children from a previous marriage. The kids' dad has known about the move for a while and said he's fine with it, so i drafted a letter of consent for him saying it was ok for me to relocate with the kids which he's had for a couple of months.

He's now dragging his heels!!! :curse: Today he tells me that he's been to 3 seperate solicitors offices to get his signature witnessed and all 3 have refused to do it.

He can't really offer me any explanation why and I'm left wondering what he's playing at! :frown::mad::frown:Has anyone else had any experience getting a letter of consent witnessed and have any problems been thrown up?
:thumbdown:
Cheers very much,
Di

AOR Dec '06

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

I am not a lawyer, but I find it odd that a lawyer would refuse to Witness a signature, they are merely a witness to the signature not offering advice.

I also was under the impression that any person over 18 years of age and of sound mind can witness a signature, it does not require any special qualifications.

But I may be wrong.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Search on the Immigration forum and you will find most of your answers. Taking children to Canada when one parent remains in the UK is actually not that simple (the problem occurs at the Canadian end 9/10). I am not surprised that solicitors refused to sign the letter of consent you drew up, as they would not be acting in your ex's best interests to do so. Your ex is their client; without providing further legal advice and input as to his rights and obligations in his particular circumstances, they would be remiss in their duty to him. This is an important legal document you will need in Canada, it would be best to get it done formally.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Sorry but this is wrong. To witness the signature, they are not providing legal advice, simply signing to say it was signed in front of them (just like when a lawyer has an affidavit sworn in front of them, they are not interested in what the affidavit says).

In any event, I cannot imagine any solicitor advising a client to withhold consent, if the client provides his/her consent and accepts that it is in the best interest of the child to leave the jurisdiction.

My two penneth :thumbsup:

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

In your opinion, even though I think you are a UK solicitor. I had a similar problem - no solicitor would sign a document I had drawn up in similar circumstances and consent was absolutely withheld, on a solicitors advice. Moving kids to another jurisdiction is not as black and white as UK solicitors seem to think. Self styled documentation can be refused on the basis of validity at the Canadian end if the documents have not been properly drawn up and signed. I received and paid for what turned out to be utterly crap advice from badly informed UK solicitors with no Canadian family law training in any province. Their expensive but ultimately crap advice cost me dearly, more than I care to elaborate here. I stand by what I said - get such paperwork done formally, so that no one (i.e. a court of competent jurisdiction) can reject it at a later date.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

My experience of this was when I had to ask my ex wife to give her permission for our daughters to move to Canada with me. We arranged to go together to a solicitor to have a letter from her notarised and the solicitor made it clear to me that as she was notarising a letter from my ex she'd be acting on her behalf. Therefore she took her to a private room in order to be satisfied that she wasn't being coerced in any way and that she was doing it of her own free will. I don't know about the rights or wrongs but that's what happened.

As an aside I have to say that it horrifies me three years on that I did it. The move was with my ex wife's approval but if I could decide all over again I wouldn't have done it. At the time I was so keen to get here but now I regret taking the girls (mid to late teens) so far from their mum.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

You're absolutely right, I went through this many years ago with my ex. Unless requirements have drastically changed, he has to consent to you taking the minor child out of the country. As for a solicitor not witnessing his signature, I'm not surprised. You should actually have a solicitor draw up the document first. No solicitor is going to witness a signature of a document that's not legally drawn up or binding. Even a notary won't do that.

Bite the bullet, see a solicitor/lawyer, get your documents in order first, then ask the ex to sign and his or your solicitor can witness his signature. I did all that, and once the documents were ready, my ex signed without any complaint. He just wanted to posture, and really he had the best interests of our daughter at heart. I'm sure it's the same with your ex.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Thanks for all the input - the wisdom of others' experiences really helps!

I searched the forum for advice on this a while ago when we first submitted our application. From others experiences it seemed a relatively simple process, quite a few people had recorded comments about notarised letters and all said more or less the same thing, draft a letter, take it to a solicitor and hey ho £5 later you're sorted.

I went to a local solicitor for advice before drawing up the letter and was told that there was no set format, she advised me to word a letter myself with the relevant details on it and then pass it to him to get his signature witnessed.

Maybe i should try getting advice from a different solicitor?

Cheers Di x

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

I think some of the posters above are getting things confused. There are two issues here: notarising or witnessing a document; providing someone with advice as to whether it is in their interest to sign it.

If the first is being asked of the lawyer, then the lawyer shouldn't care what the content of the document is as all they are doing is confirming that they witnessed the document being singed and that, if any formalities were required, they were adhered to.

If the second is being asked of the lawyer, then, obviously, if the document is adverse to the interests of the client, the lawyer will not recommend that the client signs it.

I accept that the formalities required are very different in each jurisdiction but the OP said that the spouse couldn't get the document "witnessed" by a lawyer, not that the lawyers were advising the spouse not to sign it. IF this is the case, the spouse is stringing her along as there should be no reason why any Notary, solicitor or commissioner for oaths should refuse to witness it.

HTH

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Hi. I done exactly what you did, sent my ex a letter. I asked him to sign it in front of a notary public and gave him a cheque for the amount it would cost. He signed it in front of one it was sent back to me. NO problems other than he took his goddam time to do it :curse: CIC accepted it and all they asked me for was the oriiginal as i had sent a photo copy as i thought i would need the original for immigration.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

I done that just that. Set out a letter drafted by myself. Ex took it to a notary public and it was no problem.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

I was so happy to see this topic today - as it was a question i was coming on to post tonight.

Firstly - does anybody know up to what age consent is needed - is it 16 or 18?

And regarding the documents required at the Canadian end - we are just about to ask my ex for his permission ( children aged 12 and 16 ) however 16 does not see his father by choice.

My husband and i have already decided that we are going to file for a court order giving permission to take the children to Canada ( i just know that my ex will not provide permission ) so we are going to need a court to say yes.

Where can we find out exactly what Canadian authorities will require as we dont want any hicups.

Finally - has anybody else had to go to court to get an order and how was it and did they take the children wishes into account - ours are desperate to be allowed to go.

Many thanks

Dawn

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

I'm not confused. I just told of our experience where we went to get my ex-wife's letter of consent notarised. It was quite a surprise to me when she was taken away to a private room so that the solicitor could decide whether she was being coerced to sign the document.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

As far as the UK is concerned - 16 usually is where children have the right to make up their own minds independently of parents.

But don't be surprised by the Canadians asking for something you cannot obtain.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

So the father has suddenly realized his children may be moving thousands of miles away, and how much he will miss them. He is 'dragging his heels'. Well what a heartless pig he is. Any decent father would have waved them goodbye without a second thought. I'm sorry his emotions are holding up your move . . .

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Far be it from me to defend someone I don't know anything about but for goodness sake how could you possibly ever know the circumstances of someone else's situation to make such a judgement?

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Any decent father would want what is best for his children - how can you know that he is not defending his right to do just that? Ever consider that Canada might not be the best place for these children to go? I am no fan of the laws regarding children, ex's and consent to move, believe me, but you cannot possibly berate this man in such a way without knowing all the facts! :blink:

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

It may seem a little heartless but as with all relationships the whole story can't be told in a few lines of text. Until the start of this year he didn't see or keep in touch with his kids for 2 years (through choice as no restrictions have ever been placed upon his contact with them), he's now in a new relationship and his partner is pregnant and i expect wants all his baggage sorting out and loose ends tied up, so he rang up saying he wanted to see them again! The kids relationship with their dad mostly exists on MSN though and for that distance doesn't matter.

He's known for 4/5 months now that we're planning to move, and has said from day 1 that he's okay with it, he's had the letter for almost 2 months promising to get it sorted out. A month back he even told me it had been done, then when i rang him and said i'd call to pick it up his story changed!!

The kids are up for the move, there's not much more to be said really!

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

:confused:
If you actually read my post then it may become obvious I was being ironic.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Then I apologise unreservedly - however it did not read that way. The :rolleyes: emoticon might have helped. :cool:

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

It's true that once your original comment is read with a little sarcasm that the whole meaning changes. That's the tough thing about this forum lark in being able to always convey the true meaning of what we're saying.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Must be my mind then. I read it as sarcastic (complete with rolling eyes ++) and couldn't see why you were all jumping up and down at all. :huh:

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Me neither... and, being Canadian, I have a genetic inability to understand irony!

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Actually I did read it that way and thought it was well put. Then was surprised when people read it so literally, and questioned myself, maybe I was wrong! Glad I wasn't, because I thought your posting summed up exactly what I was thinking.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Hmmm. Well I'm not sure that sarcasm works that well in this format and I certainly didn't pick up on it but I can see it now. Still, they do say that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit!

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

I didn't say I thought it was clever or particularly witty. shrug.

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Sarcasm can also be used to convey contempt.

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit" usually heard from those incapable of its proper application and as such suffer a lot from it. I hope I'll retain 'low wit' as apposed to 'no wit'....

:p

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

Hi everybody

we had this dilemma, had much comms with CHC and other people on forums. We needed to know how I could immigrate with my wife and her 9yr old son, Alex. His father has not wanted anything to do with Alex at all and my wife was never married to the father. There is nothing specific on the immigration pages but CHC gave me this link for visitors and also stated we must have a letter of declaration and any doc's appertaining to sole custody, when we finally try to immigrate. So, if you visit Canada and your'e a sole parent you need proof, a very good read, so use it.

http://www.canada.org.uk/visa-info/visitor/e_visit.htm

We eventually traced the father to Guatamala, Sth America. He'd been told we were looking for him, had a decent phone conversation and he agreed to send us a letter confirming he was ok with us taking Alex to Canada and a copy of his passport photo page with signature. It finally arrived just before the Sandown emigrate show in March.
We went to Sandown specifically to show it to CHC officials. They were quite happy with it, but insisted it should be notarized, we then asked 'how do we do this when the father is in Guatamala and we are in Uk, also the father was going to Mexico then the States and unobtainable and not going to return to th Uk?' The officer then said it was good enough but get a doc which states sole custody.

So, we have a letter of consent and copy of passport photo with signature to confirm his letter signature, from absent father of 9yrs. All we need now is to visit our local solicitor and draw up a letter to state my wife is sole parent at whatever it will cost.

I was also provided with a letter of declaration via another forum member who is a solicitor and had the same probs, he used the following format and you will have to alter slightly for your own use:-

I, 'your name' of 'your full address'

DO SOLEMNLY AND SINCERELY DECLARE as follows:-

1. I am the 'Father or Mother??' of 'child’s name and DOB'.
2. I confirm that I have no objection to 'child’s name' leaving the United Kingdom with his 'Mother or Father??' 'Their name and DOB' to live in Canada.
3. AND I make this solemn Declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835.

SIGNED AND DECLARED at )
in the County of )
)
this day, the of 2006 )
)
Before me )
)
Solicitor/Commissioner for Oaths )


As regards ages of children. When you are filling in the Imm forms dependant children are to age 22 yrs. So, if still at Uni etc they need to be included whether going with you or not. If they are not dependant then you need a letter from them and/or other parent to say they will not be going and can only apply in the future after cut off age. If you are unsure, the message we are getting from various info outlets is include them, land with you, they then go back to Uk straight away and have up to 3 yrs then to come back to Canada. They will get their Perm res card along with yours.
If you have children that are staying in UK and still dependant (court orders/CSA)you have to show Imm that you are leaving enough in financial provisions for them.
Solicitors shouldn't refuse to write a letter or witness either, end of the day they get their small fee. Its best if you can do it with both parents there obviously. Solicitors are probably not up with the correct info for Immigration matters either, so you need to tell them what you are doing is correct.
On the matter of going to court in another of the posts, I would of thought Immigration would not agree to this decision, it HAS got to be between the parents and if one doesn't want their kids to Immigrate then so be it. As far as I know from when I divorced I had to ask fo permission from my exwife to take the kids abroad, also she was not allowed to take the kids out of the country without my permission. Canadian Imm take very strong views on this.

HTH
David

Re: Letter of consent from the ex!!!!!!
 

In that case father never had any parental rights to begin with.


Canada is obliged under its international treaty obligations to respect United Kingdom child custody law.

So if a UK court says a child may go to Canada, Canada must accept that.