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! Has anyone else had any experience getting a letter of consent witnessed and have any problems been thrown up?

Cheers very much,
Di

AOR Dec '06

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 . . .